Robert Forster

Robert Forster, born in Brisbane, Australia in 1957, is an accomplished singer-songwriter, guitarist, and music critic. Forster began writing poetry and playing the guitar at a young age, and in 1977, he co-founded the indie rock band The Go-Betweens with fellow musician Grant McLennan, achieving their highest-charting hit in both Australia and the United Kingdom in 1988 with "Streets of Your Town". The follow-up single, "Was There Anything I Could Do?", reached number 16 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in the United States. After recording six albums, After the Go-Betweens disbanded in December 1989, Forster began his solo music career. He moved to Germany in 1990, where he recorded his debut solo album, Danger in the Past. Forster's knack for crafting pop songs and sombre ballads continued to shine through in his solo work. He returned to Brisbane in 1993 to record his second solo album, Calling from a Country Phone, following this with 1994 cover album I Had a New York Girlfriend. In 2000, The Go-Betweens reunited, releasing three more studio albums before McLennan's untimely death in 2006. Forster resumed his solo music career in 2007 with live performances at the Queensland Music Festival. His first solo album in 11 years, The Evangelist, was released in 2008 and was nominated for Best Adult Contemporary Album at the 2008 ARIA Awards. Continuing to record solo albums over the years, Songs to Play was released in 2015 earning him a nomination for Best Adult Contemporary Album at the 2016 ARIA Awards. He followed this with Inferno (2019) which charted in Germany, Scotland, and Portugal. In 2023, Forster returned with his eighth studio album, The Candle and the Flame, which features instrumentals and vocals from his two children and partner, former backing vocalist Karin Bäumler. With a career spanning over four decades, Forster’s musical legacy made a lasting impression on the Australian indie rock scene.

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