Instant Treeline is a Brooklyn-based Americana group founded by musician Will Leet and lyricist Christopher Burns. The pair has spent the last five years crafting campfire pop songs inspired by their shared passion for the woods and travels across the country.  They define music as a spiritual necessity, though they understand it in different ways. Burns can’t recognize a single scale, while Leet plays more than five instruments on their debut. Their process of creation is, therefore, entirely reactive and collaborative — founded on a shared respect of each other’s abilities.

In this interview spotlight, we chat with members of Instant Treeline about their new project, their influences, surviving in the digital music age and more.

Full Q&A along with streams and a video can be found below.

Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)

Instant Treeline is currently based in Brooklyn, NY.  Founding members Will Leet and Chris Burns are both from Connecticut and met in 2009. Morning Songs is their first album.

We create a style of music we like to call ‘unapologetic pop with a dash of Americana.’ Our songs are thoughtfully constructed pop tracks that draw inspiration from country soundscapes and themes.  Each song is built during collaborative writing sessions between the founding members, with most lyrical ideas coming from Burns, and most musical ideas coming from Leet.

They both define music as a spiritual necessity, though they understand it in different ways. Burns can’t recognize a single scale, while Leet plays more than five instruments on their debut. Their process of creation is, therefore, entirely reactive and collaborative — founded on a shared respect of each other’s abilities.

What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to stay the course?

Both Will and Chris have a profound love for music, though they have traveled very different paths on the road to collaborating.

For Will:

“Music has been an integral part of my entire life.  I started singing before I could walk, took up piano at age 7 and joined a professional Boys Choir at age 8.  This discipline at such a young age kept me away from video games and sports and I quickly dove into other instruments like the guitar, drums, and even saxophone.   By the time I was 14, I became obsessed with the Beatles and was inspired to start writing songs.  Most of the lyrical content was about relationships and dreaming of being a rockstar while the music itself was inspired by playing guitar around a campfire and being out in the woods.  I fronted 2 different high school bands, played with the CT band, “Poor Old Shine”,  directed my college A Capella group, and tried to be a solo artist for a while in NYC.   Never have I felt I was in a more genuine and original musical project until the day I started writing with Chris.  While melody and song arrangement is my forte, his is the written word, but we have a special way of connecting both worlds.  Most importantly we can get on the same page emotionally with what we’re writing. Something about going through those formative college years together gave us a whole lotta stuff to write about.  Now in our mid 20s, the songs seem to just be pouring out of us.   I came to the city 3 years ago to “do something with music” because I had enjoyed doing little else.   Writing with Chris and conceptualizing Instant Treeline over the last year has led me to believe that I’m on track to having a career in music.  I’ve never in my life been more inspired to work as hard towards something.”

For Chris:

Chris began writing poetry while attending college in 2009, as he attempted to navigate his way towards an identity in an increasingly complicated world. He learned quickly that the process of writing poetry — understanding one’s emotions, and structuring them in a relatable way — could be used to overcome his tendency towards cynicism. He is most content in the moments after he’s crafted a piece of writing based on intimate personal experiences that can help others better understand their own life and perspective. His deepest ideas are inspired by common experiences, like pumping gas, and come to life without pre-meditation. He often pulls over while driving from assignment to assignment as a newspaper reporter and photographer to jot down notes and thoughts on a new song.

How is your new release different than previous ones? Did you set out to accomplish anything specific?

“This is our first formal release, so we had no reference point for expectations. So far, we’ve gained a number of followers on the sites where we’ve released our songs — Spotify, iTunes, etc — and that is an awesome accomplishment in-and-of-itself. We’d love if our songs continue to inspire people and become a part of their everyday lives and playlists.”  -Chris

“Chris and I felt that until we created a body of work, we basically didn’t exist as a band yet.  We were connecting with people at our live shows, but we wanted something people could take home with them.  Now that we have it we feel that we can start connecting with our followers everywhere in a deeper way, network with other artists, and book more shows in and out of NYC.” -Will

Do you face any challenges as an indie musician in a digital age? On the flip side, how has technology helped you (if it has)?

The major challenge we face is floating to the top of people’s playlists in an era where music, and new music, is ubiquitous. Though plummeting production costs and the ease of distributing music digitally has helped us tremendously, it also means our music is competing with more music than could even have been imagined 20 or 30 years ago.

On the other side, technological progression over the last 20 years allowed us to write and produce a professional quality album without the help of a record company or outside funding. This gave us the freedom to make every creative decision on the album, from the guitar tones to the artwork. Chris feels this makes the final product a work in the style of fine art, rather than a commercial release.

Where can we follow you online and hear more music?

• www.instanttreeline.com
• www.facebook.com/instanttreeline
• Instagram and Twitter: @instanttreeline
• Spotify, Itunes, Amazon Music, etc.
• https://instanttreeline.bandcamp.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PZ9RQyNvQE