MySpace Trawl - We Are Trees

In life, there are many occasions that you look forward to. For example, finishing work on a Friday and enjoying a hassle-free weekend away from the office or, if you’re a student, getting wasted at pretty much any opportunity when you’re not pretending to learn by scribbling an essay down hurriedly about three days before the goddamn thing is due.

But if you’re a loyal heckler, we know that you all look forward to every Thursday because that's when we gently prod you in the direction of music that has yet to be discovered by the uncultured masses. After mooching around the electronic/dance scene over the last couple of weeks, we’d thought that it was about time to take our trawl in another direction, just to show we do listen to other genres. This week, we venture in to the valleys of Wales, where we find the five-piece band We Are Trees lurking in the city of Cardiff. 

Usually when we bring you an artist, they have something about them which sounds fresh and new, but this time we’ve decided to feature We Are Trees because their style is extremely reminiscent of an 1960s psychedelic band, but with the added touch of some grooviness. Don’t believe us? Well you can easily have a listen on the We Are Trees MySpace page, but it's not just the sound of the music that grabs us. Just looking at the background of the We Are Trees MySpace page makes us feel spaced out and groovy. The brightly-coloured patterns definitely seem to mirror the band's feelgood and uplifting tracks. 

Our favourite track on the We Are Trees MySpace page, Little Susie, features a subtle but driving key section which caused a few heads to bob around when we played it here. Add to this a gentle springing of guitar and some light drum work and we have a fantastic pop song. Simple as. The song would not sound out of place in either an indie disco at the beginning of the evening to get people geared up for the rest of the night.

But whilst the words of the song appear to be about some kind of heartbreak or loss over a girl - ironically enough called Susie  - it doesn’t seem to sound like a sad song. Maybe if some other band like The Zutons did the same song, it would come across as a lot more dull and sad. More of the same sounds can be heard during the We Are Trees track One of These Days which starts off with a short bouncy intro of pounding drums and guitar, before delving straight in to the main body of the song. This track is different to Little Susie as we reckon it's one worth putting your dancing shoes on for. Again, this could be featured in some form of indie kid discothèque. We would blab on more about the other two tracks, See You Later and Tricked in Motion but we reckon you’re in for a treat without us saying a word about them. 

Here at hecklerspray we love nothing better then spreading the word about something decent but we’re not so keen on labeling anything in case people don’t see it themselves. But this time we are quietly confident that We Are Trees could give the Kaiser Chiefs a run for their money. They're both doing the same thing - making funky music with catchy lyrics.

Whilst all four tracks are available for you to download and listen to at your disposal, we must inform you, dear heckler, that this is only the tip of the musical iceberg. By visiting the We Are Trees official website - which we will generously supply you with at the bottom of the page - you'll find a few more tracks that aren’t even on their MySpace page! Crikey! They're just spoiling you now. Though we have no idea of their live exploits, we are pretty much going to presume that We Are Trees are pulling the right strings, as in the past they have had the honour of supporting well known superstars Kasabian and The Subways.

Coming up soon - today, in fact - all of our Welsh hecklers will be able to see the band perform at the Barfly in their native Cardiff. After that, We Are Trees play back and forth between venues in London and Cardiff again until late October. If you are able to see these boys do their live thing, let us know how they are. 

Over the last decade and current years we’ve all been exposed to some cracking music from Wales. Who could forget The Automatic, Manic Street Preachers, Super Furry Animals, Stereophonics, Goldie Lookin Chain, sadly Charlotte Church and of course the legend of all legends that is Tom Jones. Will We Are Trees  be added to this growing list of famous Welsh artists? We’ll we certainly hope so, and have high expectations of this band. A storming new We Are Trees single, entitled Pieces Of Plastic/Trace is out on October 26, so head down to your local record shop and hassle them to stock a copy or two.

Read more: 

We Are Trees MySpace page

Official We Are Trees website

[story by Matthew Laidlow]