Treehouse Of Horror

Jun 30

The global screamo scene has been growing lately, but Toronto itself is home to one of the largest and most prolific annual screamo festivals known as New Friends Fest. With the rise of screamo and the popularity it’s gained worldwide, it’s always exciting for me to cover screamo bands that are local to my province of Ontario.

Three piece act Treehouse of Horror are a Toronto based screamo band that have been turning heads since 2022 and today we have the privilege chatting about their new EP “Our Days Are Numbered…” which is out today and released by their friend Kai from boxcutter, under their label, Maraming Records.

We sat down with their lead vocalist and guitarist Ryan to discuss this new EP and what we can expect from them in the near future.

SO HOW DID YOU DECIDE TO RELEASE WITH MARAMING RECORDS?

“We basically do everything together so it felt like a perfect opportunity to collaborate on a project again. Kai also repressed our demo EP as well as the split we put out with boxcutter and Please Don't Crash. The more labels there are putting out this kind of music, the better!”

WHO DO YOU ALL CONSIDER TO BE MUSICAL INSPIRATIONS FOR THIS RELEASE?

“It goes without saying that we are continuously influenced by our fellow cohorts in the local scene; boxcutter, Basque, Terry Green, Burial Etiquette, Respire and Please Don't Crash (RIP) to name a few. It’s easy to make good music when you’re surrounded by so much of it right in your home town.”

WHAT WAS THE WRITING PROCESS LIKE FOR THIS EP?

“We had to work pretty quick to get everything out by June, since recording had to be done by late April, and since we wanted to press to a 7” each side had to be under 7 minutes. This put us in a unique bind, but I really enjoyed working under these constraints. It forced us to really trim the fat off these songs and keep things straight and to the point.

I think we've really shed a lot of the mathy emo thrills we had on the last few songs we’ve written, but i'm not mad about it, they’ve come out sounding a lot more catchy and poppy this way.”

“THIS IS DEFINITELY THE MOST CONFIDENT WE’VE EVER FELT ABOUT OUR MATERIAL AND IT REALLY FEELS LIKE WE’RE COMING INTO OUR OWN WITH THESE SONGS.”

- RYAN @MILKANDCOINS

HOW WAS THE EP MIXED AND MASTERED?

“Mixing was done in the same space it was recorded, my basement (Lucky Duck Studios). It took me a good couple weeks to get everything sounding basically how I want it. My goal with these tracks was to get them sounding like a polished blend between more modern stuff like Dreamwell, Massa Nera, or Jeromes Dream (new), with a healthy dose of crap-fi skramz like Cowboys Became Folk Heroes, Merchant Ships, or Jeromes Dream (old). Aki McCullough from Nu House Studios (and Dreamwell) mastered the EP for us and we couldn’t be happier.

Getting some of that real analogue gear on the tracks really beefed up the tracks and made all the heavy parts come across way better. I wish I could take a peek into the future a month from now and see what everyone thinks about this record, because getting to write and perform these new songs has been so much fun.”

WHAT MAKES THIS RELEASE SO SPECIAL FOR YOU?

“We are so lucky to exist at the same time and in the same place as each other, and these songs reflect that once in a lifetime opportunity. I really hope anyone going into this record recognizes the unique bonds we share between each other when it comes to our writing styles, but also the emotion we’re putting out through these tracks. To briefly summarize ‘let’s pretend’ in specific; the song is about feeling isolated for so long as a kid going into adulthood, and then finding a community in the scene. It probably goes without saying that we were all picked on growing up, so when we started writing music together and meeting all these incredible people, it felt like a light switch went off inside us.

All three of us are also gender-non-conforming, so when we came into such a large group of like minded folks, it felt like finding a second family. This subculture means everything to us and we wanted to write a song to all our friends to reflect this bond that we share, like a love letter to the scene.

Two of the songs, ‘Heads or Tails’ and ‘Loaded Gun’, are about our struggles with gender dysphoria and identity. This isn’t the first time we’ve written a song about gender expression, ‘Jeff the Killer’ being the other, but these felt more personal to us. ‘Jeff the Killer’ was more about the anti-trans laws targeting our friends across the map, whereas these new ones follow our own internal struggles. Feeling like there’s two ends of a gender spectrum pulling me from either side, where one yearns to be seen and the other longing to feel comfortable and understood. This is who we are, and we want to be transparent with these emotions to hopefully allow others to confide in these songs.

‘Day Terrors’ is our self deprecation anthem. I wrote the lyrics for that one while at work and on the subway, when I’m in my absolute most apathetic state. In that one I’m mostly talking about my depersonalization and social detachment. Riding the TTC will do that to a mf, so I captured it in a song. Toronto, I love you but you gotta stop doing track work when I got places to be.'“

ANY SHOWS OR TOURS COMING UP?

'“By some stroke of luck, Radura, one of the coolest bands out of Italy, asked if we wanted to run a small circuit around the eastern USA with them. This will be the first time we’ve ever played the states, and getting visas was a massive pain in the ass. If you are a Canadian band trying to play shows in the USA without getting banned for 10 years, you’d have more fun beating your head into a wall. We’re playing July 27-Aug 1st through Providence, RI, Brooklyn, NY, Philadelphia, PA, Baltimore, MD, Pittsburgh, PA, Akron, OH, and then New Friends Fest in Toronto on August 4th.

Not to geek out but it’s probably one of the coolest things we’ve been offered in our time of being a band, especially since touring the states is a bucket list item for all 3 of us. We’re looking forward to meeting everyone on the road and making some fun new memories!”

There will be 100 tapes and 100 vinyl copies of “Our Days Are Numbered…” on July 19th through Maraming Records, so go cop one quick before they’re gone. Check out this track below, and the full release is now streaming everywhere.

Checkout their bandcamp here: Treehouse Of Horror

Writer : @just_reidz

Editor : @ohmucollective

07/15/24