About to Pop: Blowing Trees

July 31, 2008

Who: Blowing Trees
Album: ‘Blowing Trees’
Hails From: San Antonio, Tex.
For Fans Of: Muse and The Flaming Lips

Why They’re About to Pop: Lead singer Chris Maddin and guitarist Edwin Jered Stephens grew up skateboarding and listening to each other’s music collections before deciding to start a band of their own. Bassist Roy Scavone and drummer Drew Pierce, an old friend of Maddin’s, rounded out the lineup of this young band that got its beginnings in Texas just five years ago. By 2007, Blowing Trees was armed with modest touring experience and a demo that was impressive enough to draw an audience at the annual SXSW music festival in Austin. From that show, the fresh quartet inked a recording contract with Glassnote Records and have now released their self-titled album, packed with twelve sweeping rock jams that meander through yearning and declaration. Blowing Trees are on tour throughout June and will play Diversafest (DFest) in Tulsa, Okla. on July 26th with All-American Rejects, Paramore and the Roots.

Three Questions with Blowing Trees:

What inspired the songs on your record?

Stephens: So many different things. The record deals a lot with a discontent we have for the current state of things — backwards politics, war and the general passivity people seem to have when it comes to these important issues. But Maddin has a knack for coupling these serious issues with personal experiences — i.e. work, friendships, and love — that manage to humanize what some might call a political record, making it both relevant and easy to relate to.

Maddin: Ultimately it’s supposed to be a story about the end of the world and the emotions one would face in knowing that.

Scavone: Sonically, we look up to a lot of great bands, which can be both inspiring and discouraging when your as ambitious as we are. We really wanted the album to flow right, to come across as a cohesive piece. We looked to bands that used a lot of space and texture for inspiration.

What’s your favorite song on the record?

Stephens: Favorites? We’re one of the most indecisive bands you’ll ever meet so that’s a hard one to answer. I guess the song I’m most proud of would be ‘California Skies.’ It’s been with us for a while and took until this record to really come into it’s own. It was weird working with an external creative entity (Dave Castell/Blue October’s Foiled), and I remember when we all decided to drop this outro we used to do on the song feeling like we’d lost something. But out of that came the inspiration for the Beatles’ style harmony during the bridge, which absolutely makes the song for me now, especially because the riff I play over Chris’ chord progression was inspired largely by George Harrison’s style. We’re also really proud of the flutes which we’d to twist Dave’s arms to play. Maddin and I would always impersonate Christopher Walken during mix telling Dave, “We need more flute!”

Scavone: I love ‘Airplane Fixation’ because of its grandeur, and the power and versatility of ‘Running Blind.’

Maddin: I really like ‘Running Blind.’

What did you think life as a musician would be like when you first started out and how does it compare to what it’s really like for you now?

Scavone: I actually think its very much the way I perceived it. I knew it’d be more work than most think.

Jered: Yeah, turns out even work you love is still work, and even though we do get to have fun, there’s a lot of time spent working, whether it be promoting, getting ready for shows or talking to MySpace fans. There’s a lot of responsibility that comes with making a career out of your art.

Maddin: I thought that it could take me places I would never get to see otherwise.

Purchase the album on iTunes