Lorde-cosigned New Jersey teens Forth Wanders redefine the slacker anthem on "Slop"

For Forth Wanderers, that link was forged at high school in the small Essex County, NJ town of Montclair. "Duke, Zach, and Noah were all this band The Pokemen...my first time meeting those guys was actually Montclair High School’s battle of the bands in freshman year," guitarist and chief songwriter Ben Guterl tells me.

Singer Ava Trilling was also freshman at Monclair High and Guterl - driven by a crush - decided to send her a song he was working on: "I knew she sung because I had heard Garageband acoustic guitar songs she had done in middle school. I really liked her voice and thought it might be fun to work with her but I didn’t really have any expectation that she would be down to write with me much less start a whole band thingy."

"Then she actually got back to me with the demo and it was really good and a couple months later we recorded 'Mahogany'.

The band's shared history has helped develop a strong live dynamic although Guterl admits bringin Trilling into the tightly-kit group was was somewhat intimidating for the four friends."It important for me to make Ava feel comfortable and included," he explains to me. "She adapted really well and I think we all play really naturally with each other at this point."

Their aspirations have been bolstered by a healthy Montclair scene - Guterl cites locals Pinegrove, Tawny Peaks, Stolen Jars and Toasted Plastic as early inspirations. “The lead guy of Cold Foamers, who is from Montclair, had a band called Baby Pilot,” he adds. “[They’re] still one of my favorite bands."

While Lorde has already come out as a fan (crediting photographer friend Evan Tetreault for tipping her off to the band), Guterl remained happily grounded: "I'm just grateful that people have found some sort of connection with our music," he says. "People have hit us up with some very touching stories about how our songs have helped them through some stuff. That’s the most exciting thing to me -- that something that I have such a deep connection with can translate to something meaningful in a total stranger’s life."

He cities Alvaays, Deerhunter and Alex G as visible influences in Forth Wanderers' developing sound: “I guess we’re like a sad indie soft pop rock band,” he quips, “but usually when people ask me I just throw up the sign of horns and tell em we play rock n roll!”