Ten Eighty Trees are an exciting indie-rock band from Newcastle, UK. I caught up with lead vocal and frontman, Nathan to discuss the band's latest single 'Born Free' and the inspiration behind the music video, as well as their plans for 2021.
Hi Ten Eighty Trees, tell us a bit about yourself!
We are Nathan, Michael and Lewis and we each make up 1/3 of Newcastle based high definition rock perennials Ten Eighty Trees. The band name comes from when I was at Glastonbury festival a few years back and a friend of mine had indulged quite heavily in some shrooms. When I went to ask him if he was alright, he just replied something along the lines of “Aye, sound, I’m seeing Ten Eighty Trees.” I knew straight away I had to use this as a band name. It just sounded so cool to me and really sounded like an advocation for a vibrant life. I think this is something we try to emulate in our music.
How did you guys meet?
We all met whilst studying music at The Sage in Gateshead. I had a few songs kicking about left over from another band and asked Michael if he knew any bassists who wanted to come and jam with us. The bassist he asked turned out to be Lewis and the three of us just hit it off pretty much straight away.
Have you always wanted to pursue a career in the music industry?
Not really, I wanted to be a footballer when I was younger and kind of still do. I loved videogames and pizza a bit too much to be any good though and then I think the final nail in the coffin for that dream came with picking up the guitar.
Who are your biggest musical influences, do you all have similar tastes in music?
We’re all really into alt rock and I think that’s where all our musical rivers meet. We’re all hugely into big American bands like Foo Fighters and Jimmy Eat World and stuff like that but also more wonky stuff from the UK like early Biffy Clyro and Basement. I think it’s all pretty evident from the music we make.
Do you all have different roles within the band, or is your music quite collaborative when it comes to writing new music?
I draft up a demo of what I want a song to be like and then show it to Michael and Lewis for them to add their own parts. This has become how we’ve had to work during lockdown not being able to meet up and that but it’s been a very rewarding experience in my eyes. We’ve hit a serious purple patch since the start of the year writing this way as well. I think we’ve demoed up about 20 songs since January so it’s looking good for the future.
Your recent single ‘Born Free’ builds upon the heavy sound present in your previous work like ‘Something In The Blood’, could you tell us a bit about how you came to write this song and the meaning behind the lyrics?
It’s actually quite an old song that was one of the first we pieced together when starting the band. It was already pretty much fully formed when I showed it to the lads for the first time and came together really quickly because of that. I was just trying to write a no nonsense rock song in the style of maybe Pixies or Nirvana but a bit heavier. I think that influenced the structure of the song a lot with us trying to keep it as lean and concise as possible. Lyrically, I think Lewis (bass) summed it up perfectly recently, describing it as “a shot of anger towards the hand you've been dealt”. Whilst there is still a lot to be grateful for right now, I think a lot of people can resonate with those notions of dissatisfaction.
What was the inspiration behind the music video? Would you say that as a band you are quite specific when it comes to making visuals that reflect the song?
We are very meticulous when it comes to our image and we like to keep everything to a colour scheme so people know it’s Ten Eighty Trees without even having to think about it. We worked with long time collaborators Isaac Johnson (eyezmedia) and Louis Bowes on the visuals surrounding this release. We tend to give them an idea of what we want and the overall vibe we are going for and then let them be creative with it. We trust both of them greatly with our music and they never cease to amaze me with how they can tap into the feel we are going for with each track.
You have said previously in other interviews how your recordings differ from your live performances in terms of being more polished, with the importance of recognising the balance of maintaining intense energy when it comes to recording your songs. Would you ever consider recording live versions of your songs?
Definitely! It’s actually one of the first things we’re wanting to do once we can meet up again. We have never done a proper full band electric live session before and I think it would be amazing to capture this on film and audio. That being said, I think Born Free is the closest we have gotten to capturing our live sound on record. The energy we give off on stage just oozes from this recording I think.
What do you have planned for 2021? Will ‘Born Free’ feature as part of a larger project?
All we can say for the moment is we have a lot more coming in 2021. We’re only just getting started.
How has the past year affected your creative process, have you found it difficult to record music given the current restrictions?
We were lucky enough to get a lot of recording and activity in before lockdown hit the UK last March so we haven’t really been greatly affected so far. With regards to our creative process not a lot has changed for us. I’ve been living in Sheffield since 2017 so our songwriting process has always been very much based online, sending song ideas back and forth then meeting up with the lads when I am back in Newcastle to run through what we have been sending each other.
What advice would you give to someone who may want to start a band?
Make sure you’re doing it because you really love it. Whilst I think that would be my general life advice for anyone doing anything really, it's especially the case for starting a band. It’s a super rewarding experience and you can make friends for life but it’s also hard graft if you don’t enjoy it I imagine.
What is the best advice you have ever received?
It’s probably something along the lines of “just do it”, not to quote a Nike trademark. I think procrastination is one of creativity's biggest enemies and I think you can surprise yourself sometimes with what you can do and get done just by making a start.
Check out Ten Eighty Tree's recent single 'Born Free' in the link down below!
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