Years ago, while its members were attending BGSU, Mango Tree was born into existence here in Bowling Green, Ohio – with an indie rock-inspired sound that allows listeners to fall right into the music.
Mango Tree is a band made up of three BGSU alumni – Aloe, who plays ukulele and sings, Taylor, who plays bass, and Denny who plays cello, guitar and cajon. While Mango Tree members are inspired by folk, country-adjacent artists now, back in the day their influence came from bands like 21 Pilots.
The three created Mango Tree back in 2017 when Aloe was asked to play solo, but decided he wanted to enrich the sound.
“I was asked to play a solo set,” Aloe said. “I had asked Denny to play with me to have a fuller sound and we decided to become a band pretty quickly after that. We didn’t even have a band name yet.”
Mango Tree grew and shifted over the years, but their early days stick out to its members, nostalgia of years ago inciting a reminiscent moment in their Live & Loud interview.
“We’re still pretty active in the local scene … I do miss the 2018-2019 music scene here at BG, though,” Aloe said. “There were a lot of local house venues, and that’s mostly where we would play back then. We would play at a place called North Side… and we would play Summit Shack pretty often, too…There was this one show in summer 2019 at the Summit Shack, and the energy was really great that night. If I could be transported back to that space, I would do that in a heartbeat.”
While looking back on the beginning is always fun, Mango Tree’s members said they are looking to the future with exciting things on the horizon. Their new album, Goblin Time (Live), was released last year and is available on Spotify for streaming.
“Working with Jacob is a dream. He is so kind, so generous, and he would bend over backwards for us,” said Aloe on working with Jacob Fowler of Beautiful Rat Records (the brains behind Rat Fest) on their album Goblin Time (Live).
Mango Tree’s newest project, Thank You for Thinking of Me, was released this past January, and is available for streaming on Spotify.
