Today on the podcast we are featuring the Bergen, Norway-based group Secret Treehouse. Learn more about them and listen to their track “Lovers in the Streets.”
Show Notes and Full Transcript
Hey everyone welcome to the Eat Sleep Breathe Music podcast. I am your host Jeanette Kimszal. For those of you just joining us, this is the podcast where I talk about different musicians and how their music affects me and then play I track of theirs for you to listen to.
So you can check it out and form your own opinion as well. And if you are so interested in sharing your thoughts on this track and the artist I’ll have details at the end of the show where you can leave your comments.
Today I’m chatting about the Bergen, Norway-based group Secret Treehouse.
The band is comprised of vocalist Anja Bere, drummer Marius Mathisen, keyboardist Trond Espen Teigen Bjoland, bassist Tormod Smith Svanevik, and guitar and songwriter Sveinung Fossan Bukve.
And please forgive me if I am pronouncing any of these names incorrectly.
So a little bit about the Secret Treehouse. They have come together.
The band was originally started by songwriter and guitarist Sveinung, along with vocalist Anja and bass player Tormod. And then Trond Espen and Marius joined the band sometime later, and the band started collaborating with producer Stamos Koliousis on recording their debut album in 2017.
All the members have a broad musical background and have come together with a quest to create the perfect musical soundtrack to accompany the scenic landscape found on the west coast of Norway.
This goal was met with their first musical endeavor, entitled The Big Rewind, and released in 2019. After that release, they continued to strive to bring music that represented their homeland.
They continued to make music regularly and released an additional 6 tracks between 2020 and 2021.
The band felt very at home with Secret Treehouse and its music has also been quite well-received by fans and reviewers alike.
Secret Treehouse has has writeups and featured in outlets including The Other Side Reviews, Indie Central Music, It’s All Indie, Gave The Gothic Chav, Last Day Deaf, Loud Women, Solo Vibes Music, and Concert Monkey just to name a few.
I will also leave links to these in the show notes if you want to check out the features.
The name Secret Treehouse also has a deeper meaning. It has something to do with the type of music they want to put out.
It has something to do with a form of escapism. You want to have distance and escape from reality.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be a physical place but it can be like a mental and just something to take you out of the present mind, present focus, and something that is lifeless and urban and something free and luxuriant.
Something that grows like a light in the dark. Almost like a Pheonix.
There’s like a landscape that might be very dark and industrial and all of a sudden you see these little growth spots popping up growing out.
Then there is this treehouse in the middle of this dark, doomy landscape and it just seems like a cozy warm space to kind of retreat to.
And it’s not necessarily a cabin but it is a place to escape and a room where you can create life and that is where you can breathe.
And it just gives you this place to go when you’re feeling desolate and sad.
I like the idea of that. This secret treehouse.
It’s kind of a neat way to think about how they are going about making their music. They really want to make something that will speak to the listener and kind of give the listener an escapism.
And give them a kind of beautiful picturesque landscape to kind of look at and think about and give them some hope and optimism.
It’s really a great metaphor because music is something a lot of people use for escapism and just to get out of this present mindset.
If it’s being in a rut or feeling in a specific way, music can definitely shift your mood.
You know, you can listen to something to make you feel better. You can listen to something if you are feeling sad and you want to feel sad (laughing).
And it’s nice that they are kind of bringing their music to the forefront of this and noting that their whole band is this kind of concept of just escapism and just kind of giving the listener something to look forward to and enjoy.
Aside from their messaging, when it comes to the band’s music they have been described as a culmination of pop orchestra, indie rock, and electronic pop music.
I was curious how the new track “Lovers in the Streets” compared with some of their earlier music so I took to the streaming services and listened to some of their popular tracks.
Form what I gathered their music is heavy instrumentation with a lot of feeling and sounds. It brings to mind a darker feel with introspective lyrics.
A few numbers were fast but for the most part it seemed like they were a mid range speed tempo. Not such a slow song but not such fast track.
This speed of music brought to mind something that was kind more on the meloncholy side. It semed like there was kind of a sadness that I could hear coming through on the music. I don’t know if that was just my opinion when I listened to the tracks or if that was the intention of the music as well.
For the most part I would say their music is very guitar heavy. There is this very large wave of sound that I get when I listen to their earlier songs.
It seems a lot of instrumentation and orchestration goes into making this music. The culmination of sound is impressive and lovely sounding.
Another thing I want to note is there are however some numbers that are more of an electronic sound but you know I like the diversity in their sound within each song as well as the across the board.
Because there is like this wall and landscape of sound that you do get from these songs.
And just comparing them to the new track “Lovers in the Streets” I would say there is a differentiation between this new track and some of their other stuff.
“Lovers in the Street” is a much more upbeat number that of their previous relases. It opens with a energetic melody with even just the few couple notes you know?
There’s like this infusion of a pop melody that is very enticing and engaging to the listener.
It has a culmination of..it has like these guitar riffs, these keys, there’s a little electronic vibe to it.
And it’s just got this very like pounding drums, you know? It’s very infectious. It’s something that’s very like “oh?!”
It’s very different from their other stuff but it’s also very going into that whole like wall of sound kind of orchestration. Lots of things culminating which is part of what they done in the past.
So the song is basically about romantic love and rekindled love according to the band they had said that its a “song about the feeling of rediscovered love in a relationship and the feeling of being free wandering the streets together.”
And you get that from the lyrics. Part of it goes
Let us be lovers in the streets again / Let redefine ourselvs.
You know, just listening to the tone of the vocals and the music it kind of creates this very hopeful and very exciting prospect to the future as to what can happen for this couple.
Another thing I wanted to mention is just about the vocals. And they kind of come in I think at really great point. The songs at about 19 seconds and then you kind of are hit with the vocals from Anja.
And they are seductive and sleek and curious vocals. You know you wonder what is happening where this song is going to take you.
And the music kind of mimics that. As she gets to the point when “we rekindle in the streets” and the music kind of goes high and its like (imitating music) and it kind of just compliments the lyrics and the vocals so well.
Then you get halfway through the song and there is this whole orchestral part that just hits you and amps up the beat and the song.
And you know, I think that will stick with the listener and I really, really enjoy this song.
When it comes to who this song may appeal to I could say it could cross genres. Someone who is into pop music, someone who is into dance music, and also indie rock.
I think it has sound that crosses genres and I can see it appealing to those different types of audiences. And I see music nowadays really becoming more cross dimensional in terms of different genres of who its appealing to.
It seems music is defining boundaries. It’s not really so one genre. Like a lot of musicians are kind of adding lots of diffrent elements to their music and I think that’s great becuase it makese it more kind of indepth and just kind of more entertaining.
Secret Treehouse brings a lot to the table with this track. The band said this is the first of several upcoming releases so if you like theier music there will definately be more available.
If you want to listen to some of their other music you can find it streaming services like Amazon and Spotify. And you can also pre-save this new track for when it comes out on friday I’ll leave links to this in the show notes.
And as I said this song will be out this Friday, November 18th via Filibuster Records and I’m excited for you to hear it now.
So without further ado here is “Lovers In the Streets” by Secret Treehouse.
We would love to know what you think about Secret Treehouse and their track “Lovers in the Streets.” You can tell us in a comment on the podcast webpage. You can also leave an audio comment at link in the episode summary.
For more information on Secret Treehouse you can check out their official website SecretTreehouse.no.
That is S-E-C-R-E-T-T-R-E-E-H-O-U-S-E dot N-O
You can also like them on Facebook at the handle SecretTreehouseMusic
That is S-E-C-R-E-T-T-R-E-E-H-O-U-S-E-M-U-S-I-C
You can follow them on Instagram at the handle SecretTreehouseBand
That is That is S-E-C-R-E-T-T-R-E-E-H-O-U-S-E-B-A-N-D
On twitter they are at the handle ScretTreehouse without the 2nd E.
That is S-E-C-R-T-T-R-E-E-H-O-U-S-E
If you are looking for more new music be sure to subscribe to our podcast so you will get the latest updates on our artist features. You can also find more music features on our website at www.EatSleepBreatheMusic.com. That is E-a-t-S-l-e-e-p-B-r-e-a-t-h-e-M-u-s-i-c dot com.
Thanks for listening and see you in the next episode!
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