The Bowling Green-born ambient rock band Tree No Leaves will rediscover its roots this Sunday as headliner for the Strange Stage at the Black Swamp Arts Festival downtown. The show will promote their new album, and it will be their first live performance in nearly a year.
The band’s seed was sown in Midwestern soil in 2007 when self-taught University graduate guitarist Dustin Galish met formally-trained pianist Sarah Smith. The two built a friendship playing together, and from the friendship sprouted a courting relationship. From the relationship there bloomed a band; Tree No Leaves began.
The band branched out in 2008 when Smith and Galish moved to Cleveland and acquired drummer Matt Novak. There, they recorded their first album “Peer Pressure/Mass Euphoria” before Novak moved to California in 2009. Following this, Smith and Galish moved to Colorado, for a stint, and later returned to Ohio to put out their shorter, second album “Under the Covers.” The two then reunited with Novak and began writing their third and latest album “Asorta Story.” In the spring of 2010, the band returned to Bowling Green to record their latest album, inviting bassist Jake Hildreth to play on the recording.
Smith and Galish cited Pink Floyd as one of their heaviest influences, and this influence can be felt in their earlier albums’ ethereal imagery, much reminiscent of their idol’s album “Dark Side of the Moon.” These early albums contained very few lyrics, allowing the songs’ swaying soundscapes to transport listeners to whatever surreal plane their individual minds might conjure.
“For me, playing it, it’s very visual, so I’d like to be able to cater to people’s imaginations,” Smith said. “We’re not telling you exactly what’s supposed to be there, lyrically or musically, so it’s up to the listener’s interpretation.”
This open-to-interpretation nature of ambient music is also important to Galith, whose end goal is to inspire others to make art of their own.
“For me, a big part of it is just trying to make other people inspired; to make music or draw a picture, write a poem,” he said. “Inspiring other people to make something because of the music is kind of my goal.”
Artists searching for idea-prompts in Tree No Leaves’ music can find much to muse on in the depths of its imagery. Feelings of synesthesia – the blending of two or more senses – manifest themselves to the active listener as the sound seems to sculpt out an almost palpable visual evocation.
Junior Nic Ross, co-founder of the net-label Modicum of Silence, who has handled much of the band’s promotion, praised the open-ended visual interpretations of the band’s sound as well as the sound of ambient music in general.
“You have a painting,” he said. “Put that into a blender and pour it into your ear; that’s ambient music.”
Ross spoke most reverently of the band’s song “Hallows,” for the inspiration it offers him.
“[Hallows] takes you to several places. I could think I’m over the Arctic or in the middle of a bunch of dead trees,” he said, laughing. “I think it just really lets your imagination go.”
Tree No Leaves will take the stage at 4 p.m. Sunday, performing music from their third and latest album for the first time live. “Asorta Story” is a concept album, and tells a story from beginning to end. Though still an ambient album, the band amended their approach slightly to incorporate more vocalization than their previous works. Galish is excited for the album’s live debut.
“This is a big event for us because it’s us starting again,” he said. “We kind of have a new sound and we get to throw our new music out there.”
All music events at the festival are free-of-charge. Tree No Leaves’ albums can be heard streaming and are available for free download at Treenoleaves.bandcamp.com.
