A five-piece formed out of teenage friendships and New Year’s Eve encounters, Leeds’ Treeboy & Arc share new single ‘False Objects’ taken from debut album Natural Habitat out 7th July 2023 via Clue Records who are partnered with EMI North.
“A lot of the vocal deliveries on the record are spoken word and lacking in a real melody, so I wanted to make an effort to sing a bit on at least one of them.”, says guitarist and vocalist Ben Morgan of the new single. “False Objects is a bit slower in tempo and the instrumentation felt more open, there was a lot of space to play with so I thought this would be a good song to do this on.”
Ben continues, “For some reason my girlfriend and I became weirdly obsessed with Jack Osbourne. We saw a programme called ‘Portals to Hell’ and the name sounded so ridiculous we watched it and it was him presenting it, that opened a can of worms. He also does a show with Sharon and Ozzy called ‘The Osbournes Want to Believe’ where he plays them spooky video clips of ghosts and UFOs and Bigfoot in an attempt to convince them it’s real and plausible. A lot of it is bollocks obviously but some of it is pretty compelling and left me thinking “OK well if that isn’t a ghost, then what on earth is it?”. At some point you can tell that Ozzy is really starting to buy into it all, and I realised that I was also starting to believe.”
On debut album Natural Habitat, they pit pop songs against avant-garde, kraut-punk noise to see which elements come out on top, perfectly setting the scene for abstract tales of disillusionment, loss, ill health and the occasional Bob Mortimer obsession. The lyrics often dark and sinister sounding, you don’t need to listen hard to hear the tongue-in-cheek wit and cynicism in their deliveries that is so often associated with the North of England.
Natural Habitat is Treeboy & Arc’s most ambitious release to date, after the original version was scrapped. With the opportunity to really experiment in the studio, the songs recorded became darker, harsher, and more brutal sounding than any of the original demos the band had recorded themselves. With two singers and two lyricists, the meaning of each song feels completely separate from the last. From anxiety to the supernatural, whether disguised by cryptic language or told as “matter of fact”, the album discusses the full spectrum of emotions.
The band felt it important to keep things homegrown and chose to work alongside seminal Leeds producer Matt Peel at his studio The Nave, who has worked on the likes of TRAAMS, W.H. LUNG, Eagulls, Pulled Apart By Horses, Heck, and more, helping them create a brand new sound.
Treeboy & Arc are:
James Kay – Bass / Vocals
Ben Morgan – Guitar / Vocals
Sammy Robinson – Synths
George Townend – Guitar
Isaac Turner – Drums
Natural Habitat
Out 7th July 2023 via Clue Records
Pre-order HERE
