Their songs are streaming online, for free. Unfortunately, however, free doesn’t pay the bills.
And when Tree No Leaves was declared the winner of Findlay’s Battle of the Bands in August, it gave the experimental band the financial push they needed to release their newest album, Sleepy Shakti. More importantly, the new album was a uniquely collaborative effort—Toledo artist Mary Dunkin designed the cover of the album, and more than 40 communication and film students at Bowling Green State University helped produce a series of music videos for the band
Growing tree
Tree No Leaves was formed in 2008 by Dustin Ray Galish of Bowling Green, who refers to the band as a “project”—and given the amount of collaborative work and involvement with local artists the musicians have utilized in the past four months, project seems like just the right word.
The band has gone through several formations, originally performing as an instrumental-only duo.
Now, Galish is joined by Toledo musicians on the stage—guitarist Calvin Cordy, bassist Josh Waterfield, and drummer Kurt Busson. Sleepy Shakti, is primarily composed of live songs the band hadn’t gotten around to recording.
Influenced heavily by ambient, early-80’s shoegaze and experimental bands like Mr. Bungle, Sleepy Shakti contains the band’s synth-laden sound, more definitive and mature than their previous albums—even last year’s Blind Tigers, which Galish cites as a personal favorite. The band used three different recording studios to produce the new album: Little Elephant in Toledo, SixtyTen in Northwood, and Terra State Recording, operating out of Terra State Community College in Fremont. And they didn’t take that route because they had to; rather, they wanted to continue the collaborative experience that’s become a trademark.
Experiments with sound
“We can say that we’re more like a rock band now,” Galish said, “but we still have a lot of psychedelic and ambient elements … our goal is to take experiments with sound and bring them into more traditional song structures, to connect more closely with our audience.”
Although Galish takes the reins on vocals and keyboards, he credits the soaring solos of lead guitarist Calvin Cordy with making the album work, asserting that the uniquely inspired phrasing is some of the best work the band has ever done.
“Early on as a band, we figured songs out in the studio. With [Sleepy Shakti], we’ve worked on these songs live for a year already, so it was more comfortable, stronger, and we could take more risks,” he said.
Galish expects the band to accept more invites to festivals in the future, both in the Toledo area and throughout the Midwest. “We’re not necessarily a bar band, so being asked to play festivals and being surrounded by more than just music is ideal for us,” he said.
So what does the future hold for a band that describes itself as ‘ever-evolving’? “There’s a point at which you want to stop changing, when you want to define yourselves. We want to write more pop music, more storytelling, that kind of stuff,” Galish said. “Not to abandon our past by any means, but to learn from our experience and just write really good songs.”
Tree No Leaves will be on stage with Conestoga Trace and the Ben Stalets Band at the Ottawa Tavern on Saturday, September 20. For more concert schedules and to hear
Sleepy Shakti, go to treenoleaves.com.
