At this point there is little to be known about Leeds four piece Treeboy & Arc. Their releases to date have made bold statements. A single called ‘Neighbourhood Witch’ and its B-Side ‘Part 2’. Born in 2015, the band have been compared to city sharers, Eagulls, as well as the ever expansive american band, DIIV. For us, what’s most exciting is a band from the north providing the necessary backdrop to gloomy and desperate times. ‘Austere’ is the new one from Treeboy & Arc, proof that the north/south divide couldn’t be less apparent and the fat white flag of British angst is bridging the UK’s bands. Recorded using the free studio time they receive with their studies and the Leeds College of Music, Treeboy & Arc have created post punk noise that nods towards Bad Breeding in its delivery whilst pairing sonic escapism with its anger. Below is the track and below that we have a chat with the band.
Can you tell us about who Treeboy & Arc are and how you came to be?
George and I (James) met in high school and we started to write songs together, over the next year or so we met Isaac and Ben in the same college and started to play gigs. When we first started we sounded drastically different. We had a bunch of songs written so we just picked our favourites and that largely decided what we sound like now.
Can you tell us the story behind the track ‘Austere’?
All our songs start with an idea instrumentally that we’ll just jam around. We usually rehearse and record due to free studio time at Old Chapel in Leeds, which is pretty handy and that’s where we wrote the song, its in Holbeck which is the only place in the UK where prostitution has been decriminalized so we always stumble into awkward encounters there, one of the girls working tried to get into George’s Uber a while back. Austere started off with the bass riff, I’d just bought a flanger pedal and wanted to utilize it, I guess I got a tad overexcited. then we fitted the other parts around and worked out the structure and dynamics.
You’re from Leeds, does the city effect or inspire your music at all?
I think we’re definitely inspired by the city. We didn’t really think about it or set out to be a post-punk band but we gradually just turned in to one (like I said our music used to sound quite different). Leeds has always had a good post-punk scene though and so many good bands have come from here I guess it just kind of happened naturally. They must put something in the water.
What’s it like to be a band from Leeds..how is the scene?
The scene here is really good actually, there are a lot good bands and venues, there’s always something going on. A lot of people are putting on gigs all the time which helps bands find a name for themselves, there’s a lot here to help a band that are just starting out.
You’re all currently still studying at college, is this easy to pair with the growth of the band?
Being in college and trying to be in a band is usually fine, college takes up a fair bit of time so it can be quite hard to fit things in but band stuff is usually a priority. The college has really great facilities that we use to record demos and occasionally rehearse, but the course we’re on kind of sucks.
Do you create your music for solely self satisfaction or are there subjects you like to tackle?
I’d say we mainly write music that we’d like to listen to and if some other people like it as well that’s just a bonus. We don’t really try and tackle any global issues or anything profound, we mainly just make music that we want to play live, for us that usually seems to be on the slightly heavier side of things because it’s more fun.
What would success be for Treeboy & Arc?
Having fun with the boyz is the main thing, so keeping that up for as long as possible is the dream.
Plan for 2017?
We’ve got a bunch of stuff planned for 2017. We’re playing Live at Leeds soon, after that we’ve got a bunch of gigs lined up for the summer which should all be good. We’re also working on an EP that we’re gonna record at Suburban Home Studios which should be coming out later on in the year.