UTG INTERVIEW: If These Trees Could Talk

To coincide with our recent CD giveaway, we bring you this exclusive interview with If These Trees Could Talk!

ITTCT is a do-it-yourself, instrumental post-rock group based out of Akron, Ohio. They recently released their sophomore full-length effort entitled Red Forest which has already received substantial recognition across the blogosphere for its display of the band’s talent and evolution since their first EP in 2006. Red Forest is sure to satisfy any post-rock fan and will undoubtedly be featured on many of 2012’s “best of” lists.

UTG had the opportunity to speak with guitarist Michael Socrates about Red Forest, their touring schedule and pirates. Read through and get caught up with If These Trees Could Talk!

How did your recent European tour go? 
The tour went really great. It was better than our wildest expectations. We really had no idea what to expect, so to have most shows sell out or be packed to capacity was such a surprise for us. We will definitely be going again soon enough.  
 
How has the response from fans been with the new songs being played live?
The response so far has been great. We’ve only played one show stateside with the new material, so it’s hard to tell on this side of things how fans are taking it. The European audience seemed to react great to it. It felt as if the album had been out for years over there when we were playing it for them, when in reality, it had only been out about 2 weeks. 
 
Although instrumental, is there a theme to Red Forest?
Not necessarily.  When we were writing it, we had a theme and storyline in mind, but it was never something that we wanted to promote the record with. It was mainly our own interpretation of it. We really wanted to leave it wide open for the fans to interpret for themselves. In our opinion, the story followed the birth and death of mankind type of thing. We got really involved with it, but I think we were just going a bit stir crazy toward the end as we were finishing it up.  
 
How would you say Red Forest differs from your previous releases?
I think it’s just more mature and a progression from the things we were writing before. I feel like we took a step forward without changing the core of our sound. We really wanted to maintain the “trees” feel but wanted to step a bit outside our comfort zone to do it.  
 
Have you ever considered adding vocals to any tracks?
No. We’ve always toyed with idea of doing an EP, with different singers on each track, but who knows? Aside from that, no, never thought of putting a singer on anything.  
 
Any other touring plans this year after Europe?
Yeah. We’ll be hitting up some cities throughout the year. Upcoming, we have Columbus, Chicago, some Canadian dates and hopefully a little bit of east coast plans. Spring of next year we’d really like to go to the west coast and spend a week or two touring there. We’ll see how things pan out.  
 
What has the band been listening to lately?
Not really sure what the other guys are into lately, but I’ve been jamming Gotye (not just the hit song; the album is killer), Atlantis, Night Flight Orchestra, Ghost, Papa Vegas and various other bands both recently and from years gone by.  
 
Your song “Malabar Front” was used in the PS3 game inFamous. How does it feel having your music featured in major media like that?
It’s crazy. Didn’t really expect it to have the draw that it did. We gained quite a few fans due to that, so we hope we can be involved in something like that again.  
 
How do you feel about fans pirating your music?
Honestly, we’re just happy that people care enough about us to WANT to pirate our music. Of course, in a perfect world, everyone would buy the album instead of downloading it. But even those that pirate still support the band by buying merch items and things. We had a ton of people in Europe tell us that they pirated the album, then preceded to buy a shirt, so it was all good.  
 
It looks like the band has had the same members since your formation. What has kept the original line-up together for roughly six years?
I think just having a clear vision of what we all want out of the band has helped. We have all been there since the beginning and we all still enjoy doing it, so no reason to switch dudes out. Plus, we all have known each other since high school, so we all just know how each other operate.   
 
What’s the next big goal for ITTCT?
Next goal would be to just keep this thing alive and continue to put out tunes that people enjoy. Getting to places around the world is just a bonus to all of that.  We’re just thankful to have an incredible fan-base that has been supportive since the beginning. Without that, we would have been done a long time ago.  Thanks!

Written and conducted by: Brian Leak

Brian Leak
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One Response to “UTG INTERVIEW: If These Trees Could Talk”

  1. overseas fan says:

    Come on guys! Come to Barcelona! Please!