INTERVIEW: Forever In Your Mind on Their Evolution, New Music & More

Emery Kelly, Ricky Garcia and Liam Attridge, otherwise known as Forever In Your Mind, have come a long way over the last few years. Starting out their career together as a band while in their teens, the guys are now on the brink of leaving their teenage years behind for the land of young adulthood -- and so is their music.

This year, the band released two songs, "Smooth" and "Missing," which followed up their 2016 self-titled EP. And just recently, the trio released their newest single called "Rabbit Hole" with their sights set on another EP to be released soon.

On the Meaning Behind "Rabbit Hole"

Forever In Your Mind worked with producer Mike Hart and songwriter Chris Bloom on their latest single "Rabbit Hole," a song that holds many meanings. In fact, they tell iHeartRadio, "One of the most fun things about this song, besides just how catchy it is, would be what you can pull from it, what you think it is -- it depends on who you ask. We three have different views on what the song means. And it's just really cool to have a song that can be taken a million ways."

But personally, for the band, "Rabbit Hole" is about their experiences in the music industry, and where they're at now. They explain, "The song is a representation of where we've gone down this rabbit hole, and now that we've gone through it, and now that we have control of who we are." They elaborate:

"In the music industry, how on the business side, there are some people in the business that want you to act a certain way, or want you to portray yourself in a certain way for a certain look. And there was a period of time where we were told what to do, and we had to do what they wanted us to do. And we did it. But, now we have control of ourselves, so we're just gonna show our vibrant selves and just be beautiful colors."

To sum it up: "The generality of this song, from listening to the three of our responses, it's kind of obvious that this is a song about like, we're done with the past. It's time to just go up."

On Personal & Professional Growth

And up they've gone. The guys have certainly matured not only musically, but personally as well. As teens experiencing life in the entertainment industry over the last few years, they've had to grow up a lot faster than normal, but are focused on what they want to do most, which is music. The band explains: 

"Especially in LA, in the music industry, in that world, I think you mature faster, because you have to learn to do things a normal kid wouldn't do, until they're out of college. You have to budget money, do your taxes. You have to do everything right away. So, you mature a lot faster. And being thrown all this stuff at a prepubescent, hormonal level makes you definitely feel like there's just so many emotions while you go through it. We've gotten past that stage of feeling all the emotions, and feeling up and down, and we're just here because we are following our dream and our passion to do music. And we're past all of the, I guess, the B.S. of the industry, and just looking to do what we want with our music."

Being in LA has certainly fueled FIYM's creativity, being exposed to a wide variety of people. They tell us, "LA gives you the opportunity to experience the entire emotional spectrum, only because you can literally do anything there. The place is so diverse and so ethnic, and it has everything that you need. It has the angry people, it has the most loving people, it has those people who don't know what to do and they're clueless. I've met a whole bunch of people that just have different kinds of vibes, but that all live super close. It's pretty interesting. And these past four years, personally, I would say, it's like, euphorically detrimental -- it's so great and so bad at the same time. It's like a perfect little balance."

On Their Upcoming EP

For fans who have enjoyed "Smooth," "Missing," and "Rabbit Hole" this year, a new Forever In Your Mind EP is on the horizon, and the band has already picked out the four to five songs that will appear on it. They explain that they worked on a few songs with Mike Hart (who they worked with "Rabbit Hole" on), and that they believe their fans will appreciate their evolved sound. The guys hope to have the EP out by Christmas time. What to expect from the new EP is a more mature sound from the trio, a little different from their previous releases over the years. The band says:

"Our genre has grown up a little bit ... or it's evolved. It just sounds a little older. It sounds a little more electronic, like where music's going today. It's like R&B, it's still got the guitar, but the production level is just a lot more where it needs to be. 'Smooth' was our first test at that. When we did 'Smooth' and 'Missing,' that was like our test at seeing how people would respond. And it was a great response, because our fans are also growing up with us. So to give them credit, you can't put out the same thing, because obviously you're going to have new fans that may be younger, but your hardcore fan base that's grown with you is getting older also. They're also maturing with the curve of music."

They add of the songs from their forthcoming EP, "All the songs have a different flavor. They're all in the same genre, but 'Rabbit Hole' is very endemic, almost. And also catchy, in that sense. But in that spectrum of ... guitar with that element of EDM, but very light. All the songs sort of follow that, but they all have their own feel that is different from one another. So they easily could be singles in their own right and be separate, and you wouldn't be able to put them together. But when you put them together, it still works."

With the release of a new EP, Forever In Your Mind is hoping to get out on the road in 2018 on their first headlining tour, and hopefully record a full-length album. They explain that they're "really excited because [they've] never had [their] own headline tour. So, in the next year [they're] hoping to do that, and have been looking towards that. It will be really exciting."

Aside from music, you can also catch a little of Forever In Your Mind on Netflix. The band's Emery Kelly is slated to appear in the upcoming Netflix series Alexa & Katie, which will hit the TV streaming platform in 2018. Emery tells us, "I have a Netflix TV show coming out in March. It is the first original produced show, all by Netflix, so there are no side producers, 100% Netflix. It's called Alexa & Katie. It's about two best friends in high school, and they go through some pretty tough struggles. And I am the brother of the main lead, which is Paris Berelc [who plays Alexa]."

He explains of what it was like to film the show, "Filming that show was euphorically detrimental. I went through a lot on that show. Good stuff and bad stuff, so that's why I was saying it was both sides of the spectrum."