Memphis and Little Rock, mid-1990s. Jonathan and cartoonist Nate Powell were both teenagers in the South’s DIY punk circuit β playing in bands that played each other’s shows, contributing to HeartattaCk, crossing paths constantly.
Powell was even there for Jonathan’s last performance as a vocalist in 2004. Then their paths drifted. Jonathan to Richmond, Powell to Bloomington and into a career that would eventually win him a National Book Award (March, Fall Through, the upcoming Diana out October 6).
They reconnected in 2025 after Jonathan invited him to speak at an event in Virginia. Out of those conversations came the cover art for “Welcome to Mt. Forever,” the debut LP from Jonathan’s new Richmond band Mt. Forever, out May 1st.
The rest of Mt. Forever β Ken, Scott, Billy, and Cameron β had been playing together in various forms for around a decade, cycling through different vocalists, never quite finding one who clicked.
Ken and Jonathan had previously played in Souvenir’s Young America, and in 2024 Ken invited him to a practice. Jonathan hadn’t been in a band since 2016 and hadn’t tracked vocals since 2004. He’s blunt about how it went: “I can’t say my contribution that day was anything less than embarrassing, but they kept inviting me back and eventually I committed.”
What followed was over a year of writing, practicing, working, and rewriting before the band even had a name, much less a show booked. “Allowing me to have that space and time to develop was essential for a variety of reasons,” Jonathan says, “but most of all it integrated me into a group that had already been clicking for a while.”
The result is a heavy, big-sounding LP that sits in territory shared with the Melvins, Kyuss, Danzig, and Goatsnake β but with its own conceptual spine. Each of the songs centers on a character, all placed in the same fictional Southern town.
Jonathan wrote short narratives for each one alongside the lyrics, and the whole record functions as an anthology rooted in a single setting.
Mt. Forever is the place β “where strange things happen, influenced by dark forces.” The Traveler is the otherworldly boogeyman of local legend, and the figure on Powell’s front cover. The Elder refuses to roll over and accept the evils of the world.
The Agitator β the album’s first single, already out there β is the one trying to wake the public up. The Crush is a ray of light in a sea of darkness, something to hold onto. The Rambler is a cursed loner serving a self-imposed punishment. The Scamp is a charming delinquent who keeps slipping past consequences, “as if by magic. Something demonic or just dumb luck? You never know in this town.”
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The fiction has a target. “The record is a response to humanity plunging itself further towards oblivion,” Jonathan says. “My thoughts and feelings about the now are very present. There’s a whole personal and political conversation that could be had, but I didn’t want to be just a blunt object.” Building the world gave him a way to write into all that without becoming one.
The Powell collaboration unfolded across many months. Jonathan handed over lyrics, the character narratives, the broader concept, and the two of them traded ideas back and forth. The Traveler ended up on the front. Mt. Forever itself on the back. Characters on the insert. “It was a really wonderful collaboration. Being so familiar with his visual language really helped and he was very open to my ideas.”
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The recording came together through equally old connections. From 2007 to 2010 Jonathan managed Sound of Music Recording Studios working under David Lowery and John Morand, where Bryan Walthall (RPG, The Catalyst) was an engineer at the time.
Walthall produced, engineered, and mixed the LP. “He has a particularly good ear for what we’re doing and I knew he’d push us to get solid takes on everything without lingering too much on ideas that could derail us.”
With Jonathan returning to studio vocals after over twenty years away, that trust mattered. The band wanted a big, heavy recording with the rhythm section pushing everything forward, and Walthall β a drummer and bass player himself β knew how to land it.
Instrumentals were tracked in the room at Space Bomb. The rest was done at Stereo Image, a more intimate, focused setting. Walthall also brought in mastering engineer Dan Millice β a Grammy winner with sixteen nominations whose usual credits run through people like Dolly Parton and A$AP Rocky rather than heavy bands. “To be honest, we weren’t sure if Dan was the right guy but Bryan insisted and we’re glad he did,” Jonathan says. “Though Dan doesn’t typically work with heavy acts, he’s obviously talented and he really enjoyed doing something different.”
Mt. Forever sit a little to the side of Richmond’s heavier wing. In January they played Gallery 5 with Sinister Haze and Book of Wyrms β the local bands closest to their wavelength, but on a more psychedelic tilt. Jonathan flags Inter Arma and Killing Pace as Richmond bands at the top of their game, and points to Persistent Vision as a local label worth watching. In late February the band played a house show at Chugalug House. “DIY is as important as ever, maybe more so.” On giving anything resembling a proper scene report, he shrugs: “Honestly, we’d probably be terrible at giving a true scene report. We’re old.”
Where Mt. Forever lands relative to the members’ previous bands depends on who you ask. “I think it’s both,” Jonathan says.
“For the majority of the band, Mt. Forever is where they’ve been trying to go for quite some time, so they’re happy to finally be there. For me, it’s different. It oddly feels like a return to my youth.” The past two years, he says, have felt similar to starting his first bands: “excited, nervous, critical, motivated. Just this time I have a lot more experience and patience.”
“Welcome to Mt. Forever” streams everywhere on May 1st with vinyl out the same day. Find the band at mtforever.bandcamp.com and on Instagram at @mtforeverva.
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