Trees Don’t Sway Before the Wind Blows

Interview with Samuel Morris
by Abel Ibáñez G.

How did the song change during the process of writing, producing and recording?
The structure of the song didn’t change too drastically from start to finish. The original demo I recorded is basically the same track. When we started to practice it to record, Will worked out a synth part that provided an ambience, a point of interest that was missing beforehand. Sunny plays the rhythm guitar part a little differently too.

Who collaborated in the process of writing the music, lyrics, production, recording, mixing, etc.?
The demo I sent in to the rest of the band was basically complete. We played it through, recorded it in a couple hours and roughly mixed it before finishing the vocals off a week or so later. Sent it off to be properly mixed and mastered and that was it.

What was something fun, interesting, weird or intense that happened during the recording sessions?
It wasn’t too interesting in all honesty, we were pretty intent on getting the whole track laid down in three hours, which we managed to accomplish. Think it took three or four takes before we decided we had succeeded.

What were other options for the title of the song and why was this one chosen in the end?
It was originally Trees Don’t Sway but the others suggested the full lyric as the title and we agreed it worked better. I actually wanted to write the lyric Trees don’t sway until the wind blows because I think that makes more sense. But in the context of the song, ‘before the wind blows’ just sounds better, less awkward.

What’s the inspiration for the lyrics? Were you trying to communicate something specific or is the idea more to leave open to interpretation?
I was just trying to come up with a concise phrase or metaphor about not needing to worry about things until they happen. Obviously it’s important to think about points of tension or conflict that you’re expecting to come into contact with. But overthinking or hyper-focusing on hypothetical issues does little to help you in any meaningful way. A friend of mine was telling me he had been anxious about a few things in his life and the only advice I could find to give him was to not overthink it and to accept that times of trouble are inevitable. So, I landed on the phrase ‘trees don’t sway before the wind blows’ as a way to say: ‘Don’t overthink about your issues before they actually happen. Hardship is inevitable and a natural part of life, like the wind’.

Were there any influences or musical references that you used during the writing and recording process of this song?
From memory, I think I was trying to emulate The Clean’s Crazy, just the atmosphere of the track. Lindsay Buckingham’s Trouble was also in my mind, one of my favourite songs. Bill Callahan uses a lot of natural imagery in his lyrics to elucidate introspective themes, so that probably played a part thematically, maybe Too Many Birds or Rococo Zephyr. Sunny has written a few excellent songs using the wind and nature in similar ways. I figured I’d give it a shot if it worked for him. I remember being worried that I had ripped off The Smashing Pumpkin’s 1979 because the dynamic shift between vocal phrases seemed so similar. No one else seemed to notice so I suppose it worked out alright.

What was the biggest obstacle during the writing and recording process and how was it overcome?
The Brights are haunted by ‘The Crackle’. Every time we’ve ever attempted to self record anything, this annoying crackling sound has emerged in the audio tracks. We tried different software, cables, instruments, laptops, interfaces- all blighted by The Crackle. Eventually, Sunny bought a TASCAM interface and we broke the curse but for a while we found it hard to find motivation to do anything because each attempt would be marred by this bullshit crackling sound.

What was the biggest lesson during the writing and recording process?
Have fun!

For this song, did you do something completely different to what you normally do for other songs?
Not really, just wrote and recorded whatever came naturally.

If could have collaborated with anyone in any part of the process, who would that person be and why?
Collaborating with the band was more than satisfactory, I wrote the song for them to hear to they were the only people I wanted to work with.

If you were to record another version of this song, how would it be? What part of the process would you face differently?
I think it’s great, all finished up. Honestly, I didn’t focus too much on fleshing out this song and when we all played it together, it worked. It’s fun to write and play sporadically, keeps us engaged and forward-thinking.

Which is the biggest challenge of play this song live and how have you resolved it?
We all caught on pretty quickly. We had to get used to the structure, there are brief dynamic changes, the bass and guitar double the riff during the chorus, a bit of a pause mid song. Just played it through and it worked out. Learning how to sing it live was challenging – it’s all falsetto in the chorus which makes it difficult to control during a live show.

In a playlist, which song would you play after this one?
Trouble by Lindsay Buckingham.