Forrest Robinson profile picture

Forrest Robinson

I am a lover and appreciator of good music, good art, and good people with good energy and good inte

About Me

Music has been in my life literally since birth. I experience closeness to God through music. It is my creative passion and inspires the passion I have for all the things I love in life. Music is in my blood, and it makes up who I am as an individual. I have been blessed to meet the absolute most beautiful people in my life through music. I believe in its immense power to unite and heal. I am a drummer, professionally. I began drumming when I was 4 years old. I am probably known mostly for my work with India.Arie, Utada Hikaru, Jiva, and OViD. Though I grew up playing Gospel, Blues, Rhythm & Blues, and Country in Memphis, TN., Metal has been my major love musically, since I was age 10. When radio pushed my true Rhythm & Blues musical influences to the back of the bus for rap music, Metal and World Music became my muses of inspiration, in music and life. I began playing Jazz at age 15 and remain eternally thankful to my high school band director Mr. Wendell Brooks for encouraging me to explore that direction (that Clifford Brown record is STILL the most ferocious recording yet, bro!!). I began searching for my voice on piano at age 12. The music of Will Ackerman's label Windham Hill (between 1974-1992) was as a revelation to me at the same time I began drumming. I began playing piano by ear because I deeply desired to know what it felt like to create music the way so many of my musical heroes have done. I hope to one day become as great and confident at what I do as my heroes exemplify to me. I lift up Windham Hill artists Will Ackerman, Liz Story, Mark Isham and Alex DeGrassi, as well as Kate Bush, Steve Reich, Pat Metheny, and Suzanne Ciani as only a few of my inspirations in music. I have MANY angels in music to look up to - enough for 10 lifetimes!! I am forever a student of music and feel truly blessed by God and humbled to do what I do. I DO NOT believe that God and religion are of the same entity in the least. Therefore, I do not consider myself a religious person IN THE LEAST. I have an emotionally and spiritually allergic reaction to manipulators, liars, and phonies (this especially includes Religious hypocrites). If YOU willingly choose to drink the poisoned Kool-Aid, that's YOUR BAD. People who spread the true love of God with their Gifts are a true Blessing to me, and a true Blessing to this world!! PEACE.

My Interests

Creating and finding inspiring new music. Checking out interesting Independent films, documentaries, and Foreign films. Insightful books and art. Dance performances created by Garth Fagan, Alvin Ailey, and Martha Graham (as well as some contemporary choreographers who's names I haven't caught yet and desperately need to!), Cirque Du Soleil Ansel Adams photos, Yosemite Valley, charming coffee shops with cool ambience and music, I dunno... lots of things! I am ANTI-anything that is demographically or intellectually diminishing in character and content no matter how packaged and hyped up it is in the news or in Hollywood!!

I'd like to meet:

Cool, intelligent, and creative people who think for themselves and don't settle for believing everything the media may say about people who may be "different" in some way. It really is much more fulfilling to get to know people through substantial interaction! Yes, this takes time. Real friendships and relationships take time to cultivate. But it is worth taking the time to do so!!

Music:

waaaay too much music to type here. Any and all Windham Hill between 1974-1992 to start with. Will Ackerman, Liz Story, Alex DeGrassi, Suzanne Ciani, Jim Chappell, Hildegard Von Bingen, Steve Reich, Cocteau Twins, Lush, This Mortal Coil, Blonde Redhead, Rachel's, Love Spirals Downward, Dead Can Dance, Electric Phoenix, Jonatha Brooke, Suzanne Vega, TYPE O NEGATIVE, Lacuna Coil, Killswitch Engage, Dimmu Borgir, Psychroptic, Meshuggah, Shadows Fall, The Bays, Nerve, 2 Unlimited (Ray & Anita - the original), Future Sound Of London, Promised Land (series), The Bird and the Bee, Paco De Lucia, Camaron de la Isla, Rick James, The Whispers, Shalamar, Slave, The Brothers Johnson, Israel, Pat Metheny, Joe Sample, The Crusaders. This is very little, rushed, and a bit scattered, but I think you get the general idea.

Movies:

Ridicule, Flamenco, Africans In America, Reconstruction, Shine, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Steve Reich: Rosa's Fase, The Ring, Ringu, The Ring 2, Ringu 2, Ring-O, The Grudge, Ju-on, The Grudge 2, Ju-on 2, The Uncanny, Dark Water, Lord Of The Rings (all), Harry Potter (all).

Television:

PBS Britcoms: Are You Being Served?, Keeping Up Appearances, Monty Python and the Flying Circus, Mr. Bean, Absolutely Fabulous, French & Saunders, The Vicar of Dibley (depending on the PBS stations in different cities); The Twilight Zone, The X-Files, Law & Order, Law & Order SVU, Law & Order Criminal Intent, WWE RAW. That's about it.

Books:

Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring, The Two Towers, The Return Of The King; Harry Potter: (all); anything written by Joyce Meyer, AFRICANS IN AMERICA, People Get Ready: A New History Of Black Gospel Music, It Came From Memphis, anything written by Elaine Pagels.

Heroes:

Anyone who has faced or does face any sort of oppression and still has a will to not only survive in this world, but to achieve. I look up to anyone who has decided to stop being a victim and become a VICTOR. Those who were and are willing to stand, be criticized and judged, or die for love, peace, and the TRUTH to be known in this world. Those who truly care about and help the poor and the oppressed without feeling the need to tell the world how "fabulous" you are for doing it (Matthew 6). You are the true works of God and you humble me without measure.