Happy Ears: Star Jasmine by goodtree
By Mason Robinson
Much of the inspiration behind goodtree was found in the mountains and forests along the California coast, where Nick LaDue (they/she/he) and I (Mason - he/him) spent much of our time during the peak of Covid. The solitude of sitting at our campsite with nothing but the sounds of a crackling fire and Townes Van Zandt playing over a dying bluetooth speaker led us to the minimalist, warm tones of our music.
As our artists' inspiration collided over our college years, we decided to use the sounds of 60s and 70s folk ranging from Bob Dylan to Peter, Paul, and Mary and blend it with the more modern psych & noise rock of artists like Yo La Tengo to Kurt Vile and Courtney Barnett. Our goal: channel the aura of the vintage 60s cowboy with a fresh ensemble of electric guitars, synth, and various psychedelic elements to make it feel distinctly us.
Much of our songwriting consists of jamming in Nick’s old cramped bedroom in South-Central Los Angeles or our eventual “music room” in our Inglewood duplex. Any array of guitars, banjo, piano, cajon, or harmonicas would be called into the mix as our two-piece band would put together the bones for our first originals.
As we played gigs over the last year, we would bring on our musician friends to fill in the parts for bass, lead guitar, and drums. This would let us take our stripped back tunes sung by two friends around a campfire and make it into a much more complex arrangement that would better emulate our desire for a warmer, psychedelic-rock sound.
Star Jasmine was scribed on an iPhone notes app in 2021 as Nick LaDue and collaborator Fiona Pestana were playing around with a set of chords and a desire to describe the feeling of finding refreshing beauty in even the most familiar spaces. The song itself is inspired by the moment of going on a walk around your own neighborhood to clear your head and take time to notice all the seemingly minute yet beautiful details in your surroundings.
Over the past year and a half, we played Star Jasmine at various house shows. The harmonica solo that tail ends the song has allowed a build-up and release of raw emotion as we dive into the noisier side of our sound. Star Jasmine was our first track that we experimented with live harmonica and it never fails to bring a warm and encompassing sound that feels distinctly goodtree.
After tinkering with the song and our other originals for many months and going through some live shows, we paired up with Noah Weinman (Runnner, Skullcrusher) to put together a studio version of the track. By having conversations about other artists, songs, and influences that led to the creation of Star Jasmine, we were confident that Noah understood the general sonics that we were going for in the recording. Essentially, taking the bones of the banjo and guitar as the heart of the song, and adding a sleuth of instruments including synth, e-Bow, piano, harmonica, and much more.
This past Summer during the peak heat, we spent two days recording in Noah’s cozy homemade studio in Los Angeles. The whole set-up could not have been more on brand for goodtree as we spent all day individually recording each instrument, only turning on the AC in between takes to help ease the sweating— and taking a lunch break for tacos down the street.
After recording take after take and having over seventy stems, we got to a place with the track where it had enough sonic elements to feel psychedelic and noisy but not messy and muddled. The finale really encompasses the rock-adjacent feel we have been looking to emulate for so long with the mix of harmonica, stadium electric guitar, and background notes of vocals and synth to cover you up like a warm blanket.
Lastly, the cover of the album symbolizes so much of the goodtree story and identity. It was taken at our Inglewood home during our move-out day when pretty much everything we had was cleared out. It goes back to the very meaning of Star Jasmine: noticing the seemingly minute yet beautiful details in even our most familiar surroundings. Every room in that home had a story, from the shadeless windows and half-working stove to the half-century-old couch that is physically impossible to remove from the home unless you tore down the walls. It had been home to us, our dog Sandy, and plenty of goodtree sessions.
Star Jasmine will always remind us of our Inglewood home and all of our familiar spaces across Los Angeles, and we hope it can help remind you too of all the places and communities where you can feel at peace as well.
