Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt Boone.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Matt. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
New Tree can be traced back to 2011 when I (Matt) met Griffin Dangler (bass player) in early high school. We formed a band called The Greys and started playing shows around Atlanta and Athens. We also played together in Jazz Combo band and I was in a music technology class, both of which were with the same teacher. It was around this time that I fell in love with music production and began taking songwriting seriously.
When senior year came around, The Greys had pretty much dissolved, but our Jazz teacher was approached by a production company that was looking for young musicians to audition for a band. They wanted to put together a cover act to play that summer at Lake Lanier Islands Water Park for parties and such. My teacher recommended that we go to the audition and it was here that we met John Scherer, a Georgia State University Jazz guitar major who had already landed a spot as the lead guitar player for the band. The three of us quickly bonded over our shared love of psychedelic, lo fi, indie pop and beat music. Naturally, we decided to form a new band.
Playing at the water park was invaluable for us because we got a lot of experience playing sets in front of a crowd, although honestly most of the time, we were playing to people passing by on the ‘boardwalk’ or on the beach. It was still great though. I mean, we were just some teenagers who got paid to jam out for 4-5 hours a day in a waterpark and we got to pick the songs for the cover sets (although we couldn’t help but slip an original in from time to time). We got to ride the waterslides and swim in the lake, and we even met Adam Sandler and his family (he was filming “Grownups 2” at the water park). Truthfully, it was a kind of paradise.
When we weren’t playing at the lake, we would all meet at John’s apartment downtown or my parent’s basement really late at night and write songs. I eventually approached a friend of mine, Carter Nilson, who I knew was a really incredible drummer, He had always made metal and punk rock type music with his older brother, but I was always so impressed by how fat and juicy he could make a beat sound, He was like a little John Bonham. He can also rap and honestly today remains my favorite rappers, even though he’s never really released any of it. The guy literally has three or four albums worth of bars in the notes of his iPhone. Anyways, I introduced him to John, and the two pretty much hit it off instantly and really bonded over what each of them were trying to accomplish musically. John was recording beats for a couple of other rappers around Atlanta and I distinctly remember the two of them going back and forth for 2 or 3 hours with beats and ideas on the first night that the three of us hung out together at John’s apartment.
At this point, we had the lineup together and it wasn’t long after that when we had about 4 or 5 songs finished. So, naturally, we decided to record an EP. Carter had a band at the time called “The Great American Jihad” with Josh Loner. They were working on a record that they were making in some dudes house. His name was Kenny Muto and he had inherited his parent’s house in the suburbs and turned the entire thing into a recording studio. He was in his mid-20s and already had been around the block with a band a few years earlier and he had decided to become an audio engineer. Carter asked him to do our EP, which he agreed to, but only after listening to the Voice Memo recordings we sent him and deciding it was worth the effort. We spent probably two weeks recording at his house. It was a really formative time for me because I had never really recorded in any type of proper studio and to be doing it with music and lyrics that I had written was honestly life-changing. It was a blast and having a finished product at the end made me fall in love with the whole process.
After we put the first EP out, we started playing shows as much as we could while I was going to school at GCSU. I would drive up to Atlanta from Milledgeville every weekend meet with the guys. Either we had a show to play, or we rehearsed for a show that we had coming up. John worked as a teacher in a music studio in Smyrna, so we would usually end up there around midnight and have the whole place to ourselves where we would play until like 5 in the morning on Fridays and Saturdays almost every weekend. We played shows at The Masquerade, the Mammal Gallery, The 529, and we even played at Inman Park Festival. After a while, John and Carter ended up moving in together in a house in Decatur and that eventually became our main headquarters. This all took place over two years or so and my routine was basically go to class during the week (while writing new material in my free time), leave Friday night, pick up Griffin in Athens (he was going to UGA studying physics at the time), stay at John and Carter’s house in Decatur, make music all day and night for the weekend, then drive back around 2 AM Monday morning to make it to that morning’s class.
Eventually, we had a lot of new songs and figured it was time to release another EP. At this point, we had all either bought or pirated some software for recording and John and I each had bought synthesizers and a Sure SM57 mic, so we decided we would just do it all on our own.
This was probably one of the most formative times for the band. We worked harder and spent more hours than we ever had meticulously crafting the music. We must have recorded and re recorded every part of every song in this EP 1000 times. Not exaggerating. This is the period where New Tree’s style really materialized. We wanted the songs to be an intense exploration of musical ideas that would have so much depth and detail that you could get lost in them, if only just in the shear volume of sounds weaving in and out of each other. We had no idea if we were even capable of it, we were just trying to see what would happen if we just chased an idea down to its bitter end. We wanted to feel like there was absolutely nothing left in our brains after finishing each song. It was never about playing the most technically complex or impressive riffs; we’ve always been more interested in the nuance of the tone and the feel of how the different parts exist together. It became an obsession and there were times when I truly could see us all as wrinkly old men sitting in John and Carter’s makeshift studio shouting at each other about which parts need to be added or redone. Believe it or not though, we finished it and named it “1744”, which was the street number of that house that we had spent so many hours creating it.
What came next is the point in time that I would probably consider chapter 2 for New Tree. A lot of things changed. Shows were coming a lot easier. Instead of tirelessly emailing and DMing venues and promoters, we found that people were reaching out to us asking if we could play parties in Athens or opening spots at venues in East Atlanta like the 529 and The Earl. It was at one of these gigs at The 529 that I met Diego.
We had just finished playing a set and this blonde dude walks up to me and says, “Hey man, I’m Diego. I really liked your guys’ set and I want to make music with you. Here’s my card.” and he hands me this business card with his name and contact info and SoundCloud on it. After that, he started coming to more and more of our shows and we would always hang out together afterwards and talk about all the bands that we liked. We were both Unknown Mortal Orchestra fanatics and he told me about the time that he got to hang out with Ruben after UMO played a show in Atlanta because he knew someone in that was running the show, I think. I had also started listening to the music he had on SoundCloud and sometimes he would text me these recordings that would just blow my mind. It was so raw and honest and had this intoxicating mix of psychedelic, indie dream pop music with a slight Latin flavor. It was stunning. On my birthday that year, I just hit him up to hang out with me and Griffin and we all went out in East Atlanta Village. At some point that night, he told me he was New Tree’s biggest fan and I told him that I was his biggest fan, so we figured it only made sense that he would join New Tree as second lead songwriter/frontman.
At the same time that this was happening, John had been playing as a live guitarist for a few bands around town, including Baby Rose (who he now tours the world with). Carter had pretty much left the band in order to focus more on a career in sales and another band that he was in with his brother called Moonchief. They had left the house in Decatur, and we were without a drummer. John, myself and John’s younger brother Louie moved in together in a house in Smyrna, which has since become the new New Tree HQ. Not long after we moved into the new house, John introduced me to Seef Anam, a drummer and songwriter that he had been playing with at different gigs around Atlanta and who now also plays with Baby Rose. It was another match made in heaven. From the first time I met him, I knew that this one someone who would be a huge part of my life. We had almost identical tastes and music. We were both obsessed with bands like The Gorillaz, Washed Out and Tame Impala and producers like Jinsang and Flying Lotus and he introduced me to bands like The Marias. Not to mention he is an absolute beast behind the kit. Anyways, in what seemed like the blink of an eye, we had a brand new band.
This all happened around a year ago, and in that time we have written almost 30 new songs and have played around 7 or 8 shows with the current lineup, including opening for Baby Rose’s sold out show at Aisle 5 alongside DaVionne. Lately, we have been back on the grind recording some new songs in our house. So far, we’ve taken two of them to Castle Hill Studios in Mid Town to be professionally mixed. I then had my childhood best friend Christian Hines, an audio engineer in Nashville, master them with his mentor Steve Jones.
Our new single, “Warp Speed Love,” comes out on April 10th and we are also gearing up to release and entire new EP at a later date.
Has it been a smooth road?
It’s definitely been an interesting road with lots of ups and downs. From people leaving and promising opportunities falling through, we’ve had our fair share of disappointments.
That being said, I’ve met some incredible people and had some life-changing experience and I wouldn’t change anything. Creatively, we’re in a really great place to make music that’s better than we’ve ever made before, and it wouldn’t be the same without all the failures of the past. It sounds cliche, but it’s true.
Can you give our readers some background on your music?
New Tree is simply a group of best friends who make music together. We all have a lot of other projects outside of it, but we are drawn together by our love of the music and our admiration of one another as creative people. It’s really like a family. We’ve been through so much together, both creatively and personally, and we love each other like brothers.
The music we make comes from a deeply sentimental place. We’re not interested in being trendy and we don’t really care about people thinking we’re cool (because we know we’re not haha). All we care about is writing good songs that captivate each other and we can be very critical of ourselves. It’s almost like a competition. If someone writes a new song or a new part to a song that sounds really cool, there’s this feeling of “Okay, so who else is gonna write something that good or even better?” Like, we’re all trying to one up each other in a good way.
I’m really proud of the fact that we have done everything to this point as a completely independent band. We’ve never had a label or any type of connection to steer us in the right direction. It’s not like we’ve made it big or anything, but there’s always been this spirit of never giving up no matter what happens because we love what we do and that’s all that matters. We’ll be 75 years old one day and still playing together, guaranteed.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I love Atlanta. I grew up in the metro area and I don’t really see myself moving away any time soon. It’s a true melting pot. There is so much happening here and so many different scenes and they all seem to mingle. From DIY indie gigs to the big stages, it’s all happening in this city. There’s a lot to be inspired by if you’re willing to put yourself out there.
I think Atlanta has become a hub for creative people over the past few years and it’s only growing. I feel very blessed to be a part of this community.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5k56O1PyseQ9nExU4SrxsX
- Phone: (678)-602-8566
- Email: mattboone1111@gmail.com
- Instagram: newtree_music
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/newtreemusic
Image Credit:
For the two pictures of the concert (with the icon in the center), photo credit goes to “Wildly Civil” www.civilcreations.com. All other photos were taken by Jackie Do
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