Hank Tree Delivers A Warm And Honest, Lush Folk Record
A wonderfully lush new release from Hank Tree delivers a lot of robust honesty in the form of these sort of classic but cinematically robust folk songs, each telling a bit of a story from some personal perspective and digging a little bit deep into the artist's personality, which is one of the things that lets you really hold on to it the most.
These songs definitely aren't stripped down. Yes, they are folk songs, and they do have some roots undertone to them, but they feel very full-bodied. Most of this is due to certain elements of percussion and additional instrumentation, along with the acoustic guitars, coming on top of double-tracked vocals almost all the time, which gives things a certain kind of thickness.
The singer also has a little bit of a deep voice, and this is portrayed amazingly throughout the record, and somehow lets you pay more attention to the stories and lyrics.
The first track on the record is called "Unspoken", and it's meant as more of an introduction than anything else. This, to me, is what starts bringing out that filmic aspect, as it feels sort of deepening. There are layers to it. The acoustic guitars have additional instrumentation sort of fading in and out in the background with an almost reverse effect to it. So, when you hear the notes being played, they feel like they're coming through in reverse. I love this effect because, again, it adds a bit of depth and sounds amazing with the crisp acoustic guitar work on the track.
"Walking to Get Lost" starts letting us delve into some of the artist's character a bit more. This is a beautiful song, displayed with articulate lyrics that are kind of straightforward, which makes them super relatable.
This feels almost spirited, very warm in its tone, and layered once again. There are layers of acoustics that are flowing together, along with those deep-tone vocals coming through.
There's something almost elegant about the performance here. It's the way that it actually invites you to sort of swim through all these layers and words.
You can hear the blend of sort of classic singer-songwriter and folk, combined with a much more updated and current indie folk kind of approach as well.
Songs like "You Can Thrive" deliver that one-on-one approach, giving a soundscape that almost feels like you're watching a live performance right then and there.
There are what sound almost like crickets in the background, giving you this sort of, once again, roots-nature, almost rustic feel. I love this because it gives a certain mood to the song.
There's something about this track that sort of makes me calm or puts me at peace. It'll probably have the same effect on you.
Gorgeous progressions and melodies get hooked in your brain and sort of stick around.
Throughout this track and a lot of other ones on the record, you can hear other vocals coming in, sort of accenting certain lyrics, and I really like this because it adds yet another layer to everything.
The whole record boasts a very texturally enticing aesthetic.
Now, there are some strings on this record, which are coming from a violin performed by Peter Broderick, and those secondary accent vocals, along with upright or double bass, are coming from Clarissa Cheong, all being helmed by Fergus MacDonald.
All of this comes together in such a brilliant way, and it's pieces like "Please Write" that showcase how they work together so incredibly fluently.
This is a piece of music that really wrapped itself around me. You get engulfed in some of this stuff. This is a perfect example of a track that you can get swallowed up by. Of course, I mean this in the best way possible.
A lot about this record feels like diary entries. I wouldn't say it's a concept record, per se.
The songs feel more like chapters in the artist's life. Like you were reading a book. I wouldn't skip chapters in a book, nor would I suggest skipping songs on this record.
It is a beautiful escape that pulls you away from whatever you're doing and puts you in a very particular kind of headspace.
It's a completely sort of humanizing experience. This is mostly because there are vulnerabilities that show face, along with loads of those attributes of personality that come from vocalist Fergus MacDonald speaking his mind. He tells his stories with certain descriptive details, and that lets you really feel like they come from life experiences.
What really blows me away is the fact that he's able to create these moods to go along with those lyrics so well.
Now, in terms of it being a book or an experience, the opening track is an instrumental introduction, and so is the closing one.
The final piece of music on the record is called "Leaving the Hospital", and this is how he ends this journey in particular.
So, like I said, you can sort of even feel how this record was a personal experience as a whole.
The entire thing was riddled with alluring and addictive acoustic instrumentation that fills the space around you with that warmth I mentioned earlier.
It's that element, along with the lyrics and vocal approaches, that really make the record so inviting.
But you'll have to see for yourself.
Upon listening to it, I wanted to chat with the band to find out more about where the record came from and what might be coming up next for him.
So, while you dig into this album, have a read through of our interview with Hank Tree below.
Hey Fergus and thanks for doing this with us! Care I was an unreal record!
Thank you very much! Good to hear that you like it.
What was this album about and where did it come from?
Care I is the first of two records that are born out of the decade I have spent working in the care sector, supporting people with profound learning difficulties and mental health problems. It often feels like elemental work and quite intimate in a way, seeing up close good times and crises. I have written songs for longer than I have worked in care but was initially wary to write about it. During the pandemic I started to think that the experiences and memories it has given me were too powerful to ignore, and in my music I had basically been cordoning off subjects despite the fact that I was thinking about them all the time. I started writing about this area around then. Some of the songs are inspired by particular people I've met through this work and others come more from personal experiences. I felt that most of the people I've supported were marginalized and largely forgotten about in wider society, and it was evident that there are so many people showing great resilience in coping with difficulties that are ignored and that the work done by carers is also ignored. I believe these sorts of experiences should be reflected more in the arts, and since I had worked in the sector for years, I felt in a reasonable place to do some of this work in a way that is honest and respectful to the people involved.
The record was experimental but held onto some classic folk approaches as well. Who are some of your big musical influences?
I listened to a lot of Nick Drake, Papa M and Elliott Smith growing up to the point that I think their influence is probably inescapable for me. A lot of this record has fairly minimal arrangements grown out of experiments in alternative guitar tunings, so the influence of those three is pretty present here, as well as that of guitarists like Robbie Basho and Mason Lindahl. With making music, I am often trying to find a balance between clean and more abrasive sounds. I guess some of these artists have explored similar terrains at points.
What are you performing on the record?
Musically I see the fundamentals of the record as being, classical guitar, double bass, electronic layers and dual vocals (from Clarissa Cheong and myself). The previous Hank Tree album, The Big North, was pretty much 50% full band arrangements with electric guitars and drums, and 50% more minimal arrangements based around the classical guitar. I decided that rather than trying to balance these two types of arrangement in one place, I would write two separate albums, one with full band songs and one with the more solo type arrangement. I figured that this would be a way to give both of these more space and allow for greater freedom to explore them in more depth. Care I is more like a solo record, while the full-band album is on the way too. Classical guitar is the instrument that I play the most and I love coming up with pieces with lots of interweaving nylon string parts. There's plenty of that on this record.
Did you record this at a big studio, or home DAW?
It was largely recorded at home. I thought that this album would benefit from a lo-fi intimacy that could come from recording at home, and doing this allowed me the freedom to disappear down rabbit holes without worrying about budgetary constraints. This is the first time I've released something that was recorded in this way, and as I was pretty much learning how to record throughout the process, it is nice for me to listen back to the record and hear it sounding like a legitimate album while knowing that it was recorded in this informal manner.
Did you work with an outside producer on this, or was it all you?
Well, the fact that it does sound like a legit album is mainly to the credit of Peter Broderick. He mixed and mastered the record and added parts (violin, keys, percussion and layers). He also came up with the final album sequencing. While we weren't in a room together while I recorded the bulk of the album, I see him as a co-producer of this record as he was very engaged in the process of refining the arrangements at the mixing stage in a way that went beyond the boundaries of simply mixing and mastering. It was great to find someone who understood what I was trying to achieve with the album and had so many creative ideas to make it attainable.
Are you performing live shows right now?
There is an Edinburgh Album Launch show at Home on the 4th of October, when I'll be performing as a duo with Clarissa Cheong, whose double bass and vocals are important parts of the album. Looking forward to that one! Working on getting some English dates in the diary at the moment too, so hopefully more news on that front soon.
This was a pretty big release! Did it take you long to finish it? Also, did you mix this yourself?
I started writing the songs about 5 years ago so the process of getting to where we are now with it has taken some time. In order to get Peter involved so that I could make the album I wanted to, I needed to get some funding, which can be pretty time-consuming in itself (I appreciate the support of Creative Scotland with this). As anyone who makes music will know, nothing is easy, however, the difficulties meant that when the album was finished, it felt like an achievement.
How did it all begin for you as a songwriter?
Aside from little bits of juvenilia that I made at a very young age, I'd say I didn't write a song until my mid-late twenties. I had played in bands before this but didn't have the confidence to attempt to write my own songs until later. It was something that I wanted to do, so I basically just forced myself to work through the cringe and try and get better at it. In the end, the first 2 songs I wrote (On The Way and Now Your Colours Sing) ended up being on the Hank Tree EP, which came out in 2018. I still find writing lyrics very tough, but writing music is very freeing and something that I love doing more and more as time passes.
Now that this is released, is there anything you are already working on now?
Hank Tree is sometimes just me but is also a fully formed band at other times featuring my esteemed bandmates Roy Mohan Shearer, Meja Aheinen Vesterlund and Bart Owl. We have recorded an album of full-band arrangements (which will be Care II), inspired by the same context. Hopefully that will surface next year. There's also a collaborative album I've made with an old pal that should be coming out in the near future too!
What sort of advice do you have for other artists out there creating and trying to get noticed?
Be ready to roll with the punches. Like a lot of people, when making records, the parts I love are creating something from nothing and developing songs through hundreds of little decisions until you reach a point of having a finished album, But then there's this whole other part that artists are more responsible for these days, the promoting yourself, trying to get gigs, reviews, radio plays etc, all that stuff that is necessary but fairly joyless and involves lots of disappointment. I think trying to not get disheartened by this part of the process is really important. Remember that if you are making the thing you want to be making, that's what matters most. All that other stuff related to how people respond, or don't respond to your music, is out of your hands anyway, so try to not get too bogged down in it. These are things I need to remind myself of all the time!
before we go, what would you like to say or express to fans or listeners?
Though the songs were inspired by quite a specific context, at some point I began thinking about the songs as more exploring what it means to rely on other people, so I think that there is something universal about it in its own weird way.
My aim with this album was to explore some quite difficult subject matter while retaining a sense of hope. I hope that this comes across to listeners.
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