Treehouse Project Grinds Into the Scene
“Got to pay your dues…” The lyric from the old song “It Don’t Come Easy” resonates for the late-blooming Treehouse Project band. Breaking in and knocking on the door of the music scene in Houston is not as easy as singing a song.
Treehouse Project is not your typical band either. The trio of middle-aged rock groove-makers performs a raw, progressive sound it calls “garage prog,” putting their original music out however and wherever they can.
Each band member has lived different music lives before coming new and hard at “the scene.” Ignacio Gonzalez, on guitar and supporting vocals, morphs a tapestry of influences into a unique guitar sound; Robert Matthews on the drums is a student of monolithic drum artists from the days when you had to have two bass drums; and Corbin Russell composes intelligent tunes, bringing them to life, singing lead vocals and beating a front-and-center bass. Each member brings an unexpected piece to this unlikely puzzle.
What are these guys doing on stage?
It’s simple: they are musicians and their shows transmit this belief in the music. What they compose and play is worth sharing. And, why not? With so much riding against these three dudes with day jobs in the shrinking oil and gas industry in Houston, the only thing left is the love of music and the need to perform. But, today it takes more than musicianship to perform.
“Getting a show is not an easy affair,” exclaims Corbin, who fronts and manages the act. “You basically start from zero: zero connections, zero cred, zero fans, and finding a stage to play original music is harder than getting a bank loan. There is a reason they call it ‘the grind.’ You go to a club’s website and you start emailing. You friend people on Facebook, ‘like’ bands, and send messages. Then you meet people in person and get to know people who gig, send them messages or emails. Finally, you catch a break and land a show, maybe it’s on a Tuesday at Notsuoh in downtown Houston and 6 people show up. It’s a lot of work for little return. So, you have to love playing music to keep facing ‘the grind’ it takes to perform.”
And then you break through a little bit
Once opportunities arise for better gigs at bigger venues on weekends, the grind actually gets a little bit tougher. “You have to promote, promote, promote, and hope the club and the bands sharing the bill do the same,” Corbin continues. “And just when you think you can focus on rehearsing and getting the music ready, you find out that the club wants you to put the bill together!”
If Corbin were a smoker, this is the moment when he would grind out his cigarette butt and light up another–maybe even give up. But the love of the music keeps things moving.
“For a recent gig, I reached out to probably forty bands. I was strung along by two and ended up booking a band from Austin.” Metaphorical cigarette flick here. “It broke my heart. So much stress, so much grind. I figured finding bands to play a Friday night at a well-known venue would be a piece of cake.” He shrugs. “But things worked out okay. The show was good and about fifty people showed up.”
“It’s a numbers game if you want to get attention from venues and get booked easily,” Corbin declares. “If you can bring 500 people to a show, the world is yours. Anything less and it’s more about who you know.”
A Good Product
An early challenge for finding gigs was the lack of a professional product. So the trio booked time in the famed and local 226 Recording Studios on 19th Street in the Heights. With singles now available on SoundCloud, the trio looks forward to combine them into an EP by the end of the year as they continue to perform and build a fan base.
“Studio time was a new thing for us,” says Robert, the band’s drummer. “But once the butterflies of the first take were scattered, we fell into it with the rigor that we approach any gig. Practice is key and for these sessions we were practiced up in order to capture the tight grooves that we are known for.” Robert doesn’t feel like the gig is a success unless people come up to him after a show and curse: “That was fucking tight!” If a person at the show is motivated enough to come to Robert and curse at him in praise, the band has accomplished its goal.
Luckily for the band, people do. And their recorded body of work reflects the tight grooves and emotional depth that never fails to move listeners.
“The songs are complete works of art,” guitarist Ignacio says. “We conjure something that is more than the three of us, and my dream is that we will continue to grow as musicians, bring more to the experience, and unearth all the rock fans in Houston.”
What’s next for Treehouse Project?
“Well, the grind has been paying off,” reports Corbin. “We have gotten some better gigs, and our next gig is booked at the Satellite Bar on a Friday night. I have been able to lock down some great acts with great musicians to headline and open for this show. I credit this bit of progress to Treehouse Project being ‘in the scene’ enough to gain some traction. This show coming up should bring a good night of original music by local Houston bands. And the grind continues as we do everything to get the word out, including old school flyers and posters.”
Will the grind ever become too much to kill the dream of making music? “If there is nothing next, then you’re dead. So you have to keep grinding. I guess success means that you can pay someone else to grind for you. Until then, it’s emails, late nights, and meeting as many people as I can who can help us get a show.”
Houston’s own Treehouse Project takes the stage at the Satellite Bar on November 18th with Glass the Sky and 10000 Chiefs Under the Sea. They hit the famous 226 Recording Studios to finish out their EP in December with an expected release in the first quarter of 2017. You can learn more about Treehouse Project, listen to their music, see videos and pictures, at www.treehouseprojectband.com.
