Premiere: Awkward Branches arrive with sun-soaked visual for 'Summer of the Pine'
Awkward Branches, the new dream-pop project of singer, keyboardist and former Fiction frontman Mike Barrett and close collaborator and guitarist Phil Swan, share their Matisse-inspired visual to 'Summer of the Pine'.
Taken from their recent 6-track EP 'Melody for a Friend', released earlier this month, the Balearic dream-pop offering showcases the feel-good vibes the duo is all about.
"Although neither of us can quite remember, we like to think Summer of the Pine was written in the haze of a heatwave. It was a few ago," explain the band. "Some songs come together quickly and effortlessly and thankfully this was one of them. It’s all built around Phil’s shimmering guitar riff and a Balearic-ish beat Mike programmed into a just-about-working Roland TR-505. This was topped off with a light dusting of breezy strings, some lap steel and yearning vocals."
They add: "It’s another song about pining for someone. Or it's a song about trees. Fun fact: we chose our band name from the lyrics in the bridge: 'awkward branches reaching to the sun / awkward branches reaching out for someone'."
'Melody for a Friend' charts the growth of a friendship over seven years, formed when the pair first met under a much-beloved tree in the grounds of an old wedding chapel where they both worked.
In between managing ceremonies, handing out confetti and pouring prosecco for an endless stream of wedding guests, talk would often turn to music. United by a shared appreciation for ambient soundscapes and buoyant melodies, they tentatively began recording a few sketches, some of which would eventually find their place as fully formed songs on the EP.
Speaking about the new video, Awkward Branches concludes: "The video was really just an excuse to make some pretty Matisse-inspired abstract landscapes using an AI generator thing, but the final render is actually taking so long, by the time it comes out we may well have been replaced."
Watch the visual above or stream the EP here.
