The music of Forest Blakk comes from an unshakable sense of purpose, a belief in building beauty from life’s most painful moments. Growing up in Montreal, Canada, with time spent in Florida and Jamaica, the singer/songwriter first took up guitar as a refuge from his chaotic home life. He then spent years learning to channel his most complex emotions into song. Over time, that devotion has forged a deep-rooted connection with his fanbase—a particularly meaningful triumph for the L.A.- based musician, who once held an impromptu concert at the back of a diner for a pair of fans who’d missed that night’s show. With the arrival of his breakthrough single “If You Love Her”—a fall 2020 release that marks his Billboard debut—Blakk has brought his heart-on-sleeve songwriting to a whole new level of resonance, again proving music’s power to transform both audience and artist.

“It’s been a massive metamorphosis for me to understand that you really can sing your way out of hell,” Blakk says. “I make this joke all the time: ‘I couldn’t sing to save my life, so I learned to sing to save my life.’ And that’s what this all feels like.”

Like many of Blakk’s songs, “If You Love Her” came to life during a time of intense heartache. “That song was inspired by me getting my heart broken but wanting to honor the relationship and honor that partner,” he explains. “It’s a way of saying: ‘We may not be meant for each other, but I genuinely hope that everything works out for you, and that the next person who comes along gets it right.’” Co-written and co-produced with Steve Solomon (James Arthur, Aloe Blacc), the starkly arranged and deceptively simple track unfolds with an emotional intensity that Blakk attributes to the spontaneous nature of the creative process. “We were in the studio, I grabbed a guitar, and the song just poured out,” he recalls. “It was completely raw, to the point where I’m all but crying into the mic. By the time we were done, I felt like I’d really served the message in my heart, and captured that feeling in the most pure and honest way I possibly could.”

With its intricate detail and lucid self-expression, “If You Love Her” reveals the lyrical finesse that Blakk first cultivated by writing poetry as a kid. At age 15, he began exploring his musical side by learning to play a guitar given to him by his grandmother. By that point, Blakk had endured an entire lifetime’s worth of trouble: born in Montreal, he spent much of his childhood with his mother (who struggled with addiction) and his stepfather (a notorious drug dealer), moving around constantly and eventually finding himself on and off the streets after his stepdad went to prison. But within two years of picking up the guitar, Blakk had joined a rock band and started to create songs of his own, drawing endless inspiration from one of his all-time favorite tracks: “Desperado” by the Eagles, which he still holds as a touchstone when it comes to crafting lyrics. “Don Henley’s mastery of words on that song has always stuck with me—I’ve never been able to escape it,” he notes.

Soon after moving to Calgary at age 21, he formed a band that later earned a JUNO nomination and played for crowds of thousands a night. In the years following the band’s dissolution, Blakk experienced a period of great transformation, ultimately embracing the more soulful and folk-infused sound that defines his music today. One of the first songs embodying that sound, a deeply vulnerable track called “Love Me” promptly earned attention from heavyweights like Pete Ganbarg (president of A&R at Atlantic Records) and legendary music exec Seymour Stein, paving the way for Blakk signing to Atlantic in 2015.

Through the years, Blakk has shown extraordinary dedication to his ever-expanding following. “I remember being homeless as a teenager and feeling like I was invisible,” he says. “So the more things that happen for me now and the more visible I become, the more I want to shine that light back on other people. If I can give someone even just a few minutes of my time, there’s no telling what kind of impact it could have.” To that end, Blakk has included his personal phone number when self-releasing spoken-word pieces like 2018’s “Swipe Right,” and, over the past several years, has made a tradition of making phone calls to fans. And with the breakout success of “If You Love Her,” he’s seen an unprecedented number of listeners reach out to share their reactions to the song. “I’ve had people tell me things like, ‘My parent passed away and I feel like they’re speaking to me through your lyrics,’ or ‘I want this song at my wedding,’” says Blakk. “I wrote it from one angle and now it’s being interpreted in so many different ways. That’s so crazy and beautiful to me.”

Referring to his bond with his fans as a “symbiotic relationship,” Blakk is quick to point out how profoundly those interactions have affected him. “For a long time, I didn’t know what my value was. I thought I’d end up a gangster because that’s what I was born into,” he says. “I started making music because it made me feel good, and once I heard from other people that it made them feel good too, I felt like my life had some kind of meaning. I hope that helps people see that not all stories are born in beautiful castles—sometimes they’re born in absolute emptiness, but there’s always the chance to grow from that. You can really build a whole kingdom on top of the pain.”