Get ready to experience the best of what Tori Forsyth has to offer as she cements her place in country music with the release of her third studio album All We Have Is Who We Are. Fresh from her triumphant win at the 2024 QMusic Awards, where she took home the Best Country award for her lead single ‘Sometimes feat Shane Nicholson’, this alt-country sensation is now gearing up to bring her incredible live show to the East Coast for her upcoming album tour starting this month.
Tori’s last six months have been crammed with touring highlights. She locked down a coveted tour slot with American superstar Jackson Dean, performed to packed audiences at the Gympie Muster, BIGSOUND and Groundwater Country Music Festival. In addition to her win at the 2024 QMusic Awards for Best Country, the Sunshine Coast local also earned critical acclaim with ‘Sometimes’ nominated for Vocal Collaboration of the Year at 2024 Toyota Golden Guitar Awards and announced today, ABC Country Radio crowning the album Feature Album.
When asked to describe her third album All We Have Is Who We Are, Tori Forsyth says just one word: “exhale”.
It’s been a long road to All We Have Is Who We Are, an album that travels from the darkness into the light, ready to embrace the future.
It’s been a swift rise to fame for the singer-songwriter, who broke out with the Golden Guitar-nominated debut album Dawn of the Dark in 2018. Gritty and powerful, it introduced Tori as one of the country’s finest vocalists and songwriters. Not one to follow a predictable path, Tori’s second album Provlépseis (2021) was a stunning swerve away from traditional country – a bold and bruising rock record that pushed her out of her comfort zone and became a fan favourite.
But two years ago, Tori found herself at a crossroads. It was a time marked by chaos and uncertainty, and Tori began to think she didn’t have anything to give anymore; she wasn’t sure who she was as an artist, what her musical future looked like. The songs weren’t coming, and for the first time in a long time Tori wasn’t putting pen to paper, sifting through her feelings and distilling them into song. It was, in Tori’s words, a “big old identity crisis”.
After months of pushing through the fog, Tori settled on a new vision. If she didn’t enjoy it, if she didn’t love the process with everything she had, she would simply walk away. “As soon as I said that, I started to laugh again,” Tori says. Suddenly, with no pressure or urgency resting on her shoulders, the songs began flowing out of her. “I felt like I was holding my breath for years,” Tori reflects. “And then I could finally breathe.”
Just like that, All We Have Is Who We Are began to take form. The album was sculpted by nature, with Tori spending months living in a treehouse in Queensland listening to country music and working on her parents’ horse stud. The musical touchstones were varied: Ashley McBryde, Carly Pearce, Miranda Lambert, Nashville bluegrass outfit The SteelDrivers, with some ’90s Jewel thrown in for good measure.
As a result, All We Have Is Who We Are feels like it was created from the earth. Its 10 tracks are earthy and strong, whether it’s the tender and acoustic songs like closer ‘Good Enough’ or the driving and propulsive opener ‘All We Are’.
The low-slung ‘Made Your Bed’ is another highlight, with curls of pedal steel falling over Tori’s vocals as she ponders the space between the high road and the low road. ‘The Alchemist’ rocks and rolls back and forth, featuring one of Tori’s finest vocal performances on the record, while the rumbling ‘Not In Control’ is a plea to higher powers for safety within a storm. Later on the album, on the blistering ‘Aces and Eights’, Tori admits over a hurricane of guitars that she’s just trying to figure shit out, trying to find the person she knows she can be.
One of the album’s strengths is its versatility, and just as there are moments of rushing power and drive, there are moments of stillness. The striking ‘Didn’t Mean A Thing’ sees Tori accepting ownership for hurting someone, and the resolute ‘Past and Present’ attempts to shake off the quicksand trappings of the past.
‘Good Enough’ is the album’s most delicate and introspective moment. It’s a spinning wheel, Tori says, of feeling like you’re not getting anywhere. Of feeling completely inadequate. “I chip away at diamonds through the rubble and the rough / I’m wondering when good will be good enough,” Tori asks, underscored by a ringing guitar and lilting harmonies. Fittingly, the closing song on the album is the open-hearted and hopeful ‘Happy’. The only dream now, Tori admits as piano sways into the distance behind her, is to be happy. After years of turbulence and uncertainty, Tori’s dream has become much more simple.
All We Have Is Who We Are was crafted with love. Tori once again enlisted the services of her longtime touring bandmates Reece Baines on drums, Matthew Newton on guitars and Zachary Miller on bass. Together with guitarist Thom Mak and Andy Mak on keys in the studio, the musicians bring stunning richness and depth to Tori’s full-hearted songs. In-demand producer Scott Horscroft (Paul Kelly, Silverchair) led the recording at the renowned Grove Studios on the Central Coast.
“I have never felt so good in putting together an album before in my life,” Tori says with a smile. “I really wanted to leave that darkness behind and go forward lighter and happier.”
Recently announced, All We Have Is Who We Are Album Tour is set to hit the road in May. Don’t miss the opportunity to see Tori and her band at the following upcoming album shows