Secret Treehouse is about a form of escapism. The place you retreat to when you need some distance and escape from reality.  Secret Treehouse is set out on an everlasting quest to find the perfect melody.  

Fear of Frogs is about the fear of holding someone back that you love and the feeling of wanting to run because you’re afraid you’ll end up doing damage

In this interview spotlight, I chat with Secret Treehouse about their debut, motivations, challenges and more.

Full Q&A along with links and music 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.)

We are based out of Bergen, second biggest city and on the west coast of Norway.

Our genre is within the indie pop genre, with influences from guitar and melody driven music and synth based electronic music.Some of the songs have an ambient specter as well, and we see ourselves as a band that’s going to play on big stages, sometimes with a wall of sound.

What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?

For me (Sveinung), writing music has been a very important way to express feelings and opinions. It’s been like that since I was a little child. I remember starting writing simple songs at the age of 6, holding and playing the guitar upside down. I still have that strong urge to write, and I do feel that I continue to do so. That’s all the motivation I need, but being able to explore these songs in different ways with these great musicians and friends (the rest of the band) gives me further motivation to show to the world what is on my and our mind(s).

How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?

We did release a few songs in our early days as a band, but the release of Fear of Frogs and the full album The Big Rewind (coming up in 2019)  is in many ways a huge step up for us. We’ve worked closely with our dear friend and producer Stamos Koliousis on this record, and together we’ve made a sound and a record we are very proud of. We traveled all the way from Norway to a small village in Poland, just across the border from Germany, to a totally unique studio called Recpublica Studio, where a 700 year old water mill is converted into a high end studio. This experience manifested our connection as a band and as friends, and Secret Treehouse as an ambitious musical project.

Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this oversaturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?

It’s quite simple to release music these days, but it’s hard to stand out. It’s not enough to have awesome music, you need to put a lot of work into the visual aspect to it as well. It takes hard work and sometimes heavy costs to do this, and that means that we need to have dayjobs to be able to withstand the financial challenges until (hopefully) success will bring us a steady and sustainable income from our music. Another thing is how to justify spending lots of money going into studios to do great live drums for instance, when you see so many just uses samples (made by others) to program drums.

What was the last song you listened to?

I (Sveinung) just listened to Song for Zula by Phosphorescent. Great song!

Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?

Vinyl by a longshot!  But have to admit most of my listening sessions are on streaming services. For the sake of convenience I guess. But I have to say vinyl. Vinyl brings back old memories of my parents having vinyls with The Beatles, David Bowie, Keith Jarrett & Jan Garbarek and more, and I listened to those LPs growing up.

How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?

I’ve always used Spotify, therefore I know it so much better than the other ones mentioned here. I’m glad they’ve opened for artists to pitch directly to their editorial playlists, and I find it intriguing that they are opening for direct upload of music to them (without distributor).

I also find Soundcloud useful, but find that I have lot to learn about how to use it efficiently.

Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?

• Band Website –www.secrettreehouse.net
• Band Facebook – www.facebook.com/secrettreehousemusic
• Band Twitter – @secrttreehouse
• Band Instagram – @secrettreehouseband
• Band YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvnBXnp6nDaIbc2Hesu9PEA

And of course on Soundcloud. We are stepping up activity on all of those social medias, but if you want a very quick response or check out stuff I guess Facebook is the place to go for now. Hit us up!

Anything else before we sign off?

Yeah, this is just the start for us. Our first song from our debut album. Can’t wait to release to video for this and then taking the band on the road. We are planning a tour as well, first in Norway. Later on we want to tour Europe, and save the best for last: USA! Wouldn’t that be just great, having a bunch of Norwegians in a tour bus going coast to coast, city by city, I just know we have to do that!

Thanks a lot!

Sincerely,

Sveinung from Secret Treehouse