Friday, March 13, 2020 was a hell of a day.
First, it was Friday the Thirteenth, objectively.
Second, Owen and I spent the afternoon in my basement recording our first tracks as Tree Streets.
Third, while we were recording, the President of the United States and the Governor of New Hampshire both declared states of emergency in response to the nascent COVID-19 pandemic.
If perfect timing is the hallmark of a great band, we NAILED it.
Owen and I had been working towards recording original tracks as a band for many months. We had been planning and writing, demoing and editing, plotting and scheming. Owen would write prolifically and send me quick recordings from his iPhone when he had free moments from a crushing office work schedule. I would comment, edit, noodle, and send my own recorded tracks back to Owen in the rare minutes I found in my own life balancing a professional office job and a one year old baby. However, we were both prepped and primed for Friday, March 13th. We had both taken the day off from work so we could guarantee time to sit and play. We had amassed around couple dozen or so original songs to draw on. The guitar, bass, and mandolin were tuned. The inputs and mics were plugged in and, after a few practice runs, we fired up and put down the first cuts of "Breaking Out" and "Heal." Owen immediately uploaded the songs to the web, and we both gleefully believed that this would be a quick kickstart to more recording and some small live shows in advance of the release of a full debut album. Emergencies, shmemergencies! We were full gas forward!
Lord, we were wrong.
The world came to a startlingly crashing halt in April. Stay at home orders and emergency governmental measures rightfully foreclosed any chance of Tree Streets making a quick live debut. We were quickly, and with significant emotional difficulty, cut off from performing live even in the living room for many of our most cherished family members. On top of that, Owen ended a four year relationship and moved in for a time with my wife, toddler son, and I as we were beginning to navigate managing full-time work and child-rearing from home. It was a looooong spring and summer. There were amazing high points (my son learned to walk in front of our eyes). There were some low points (Owen ruptured his Achilles’ tendon, laying him up with surgery and a cast). There were some funny points (Owen impulse purchased a Gibson Les Paul). But the music has been a constant companion. Owen has picked up the guitar every day. I've picked up a mandolin, bass, guitar, or banjo every day. We played a live Youtube show in July to our friends and family so we could express ourselves in the easiest channel available. Owen has been religiously adding to the song catalog despite having already written at least two or three albums worth of material for Tree Streets. Some songs are more focused on lyrics, some on guitar, some on another instrument. It's all about the flexible way in which we seek and find our sounds in 2020.
This year truly reset many of my anxiety-ridden expectations of normal life. For instance, I now work at home three or four days a week. I have never had as much time post-fatherhood to play and practice music. I have devoted much of this year to learning and improving on my mandolin and music theory skills and knowledge. Owen has continued to write music at a spectacular velocity while exploring new musical realms. New instruments have come. Old instruments have gone. We have all made adaptations to the COVID world in the hopes of doing whatever we can to keep our friends, loved ones, and strangers a little bit safer. We continued on. We wrote more. We recorded more. We have continued to plot and scheme in the hopes that, one day soon, we will be able to play live music to our friends. The songs that come out of the 2020 experience will be the sound of a time of challenge and change, but also opportunity.
Tree Streets remains strong, creative, and productive. Thank you for the support through 2020. We are looking forward to 2021.
-J