Lake Forest

Lake Forest is the solo project of Will Whitwham, singer and songwriter for the Wilderness of Manitoba. He always prefers listening to a whole album by his favourite artists because he feels that you get a wider perspective or series of moments rather than just one of them. “I'm always moved the most by music that is really emotive above all else because that's the only way I find it can really stay with and sometimes haunt you.”

The Lake Forest name came from a number of places that felt synchronistic, both internally and externally. One is the place in Illinois that Whitwham read about in a book that moved him, Dave Egger's "A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius". Another is the name of a road in northern Ontario near where his family has had a cottage since 1979. It is the only place throughout his life that has inspired recurring dreams. The last was an image in his mind of a frozen ground surrounded by evergreens. “This came to me in the form of a beautiful photograph a good friend of mine took which immediately became the cover for my first album. It was very cold, surreal and moving all at once”.

While remaining a member of the Wilderness of Manitoba, Lake Forest will always be an ongoing creative outlet for Whitwham whenever the mood and ideas come around. “I feel like there is more room to experiment in playing with what exactly that 'sound' is when I'm on my own. It ultimately delves much further into the introspective songwriter territory rather than the collaborative band dynamic. I started making music alone and always find myself returning to it and creating that way again. I'm writing all the time and can never really fit it all into one project because I feel like there is so much music out there.” Lake Forest has recorded an electric album, For Whatever That Was, for release in 2018.