The Lowbrow Palace was packed at the Undiscovered: Battle of the Bands this past February and it wasn’t just the bands filling up the room—friends, music enthusiast and people just there getting drunk were witnesses to a showcasing of some of El Paso’s top bands. Golden Trees won over the judges with their psychedelic blues rock and took first place. Fusion shared a few words with the winners.
Where does the name Golden Trees come from? What are some of the other band names you came up with?
I think we tried to come up with a name that meant something to the three of us for about half a year… and it never worked out. The Golden Trees came up from nowhere one day when we were recording our first LP, and it didn’t really mean much for us at first, but we’ve grown on it and people have too, which we’d like to guess is its purpose.
Who is in the band and what instrument do you play? Where are you guys based out of and where do you play shows?
Alex plays guitar and sings, Alfonso plays bass and Rayell sings and plays drums most of the time. The three of us live in Ciudad Juarez and we jump in and out of shows between Juarez and El Paso (there’s a show at the Delicias Music Festival on April too). Our usual venues are Fred’s Bar and Anexo in Ciudad Juarez, and Tricky Falls, Lowbrow Palace and Black Market in El Paso.
What are the differences and do you prefer one over the other?
There aren’t really many differences for us as a band, we just like playing around wherever they’ll let us. We’ve realized if we enjoy ourselves then people can enjoy the show too, so everybody wins. We love playing on both sides of the border.
What other bands do you like in the area that you’ve played with?
All of them! We’ve had some great surprises; most of the people we’ve run into are really cool. The guys we’re most friends with are definitely Biscuit Roller, Acid Pie, Tractat Del Bisonte Rojo, Golem, Lunatic, Destroying the Shapes, Fever, Sonido Cachimbo, Call for Candor, Lake of Fire and Mirror Men. The list goes on and on. It’s amazing how many great bands we’ve played with!
How would you describe your sound to someone who hasn’t heard your music? What do people who’ve heard you say you sound like?
We would describe it as “A graceful psychedelic-blues-rock punch in the face.” We’ve heard it all from “you guys sound like Queens of The Stone Age from the 70’s” to “you’re definitely Nirvana-meets-The Doors.” Ha! We wish. All descriptions are welcome.
Who are some of your musical influences?
PINK FLOYD. Joke… I mean, well yeah they’re definitely an influence. We go from Howlin’ Wolf to Lorde to Arctic Monkeys, then back to Jimi Hendrix, Santana and end up with Temples lately. Our upcoming album’s gonna be a weird kicker.
How did it feel to have your name announced when you won the battle of the bands at lowbrow?
AWESOME! Alfonso almost fainted. The rest of us almost fainted too when Tony and Taylor from Biscuit Roller went to congratulate us with the most amazing hugs we’ve ever gotten. Those guys are incredible, brothers in arms, as Tony would say.
How did you feel about the competition? Did you like any of the other bands?
We were almost sure we weren’t going to win. Everybody was so good from Biscuit Roller, L.I.G.R.E., The Great Shapes, Polaroids, Mirror Men, Ruidos Diablos… man! Kilo and the Dew we’re awesome too. That energy’s tough to compete with.
What do you have planned with your prize money?
No clue. We’d like to get a deal at Sonic Ranch to record more than the three days we won, but we’ll see…
What’s next for Golden Trees?
Hopefully, opening up shows for big names! We’ve also got three new videos planned, new songs for recording (at Sonic Ranch of course), grammys, rock n’ roll chicks (kidding girlfriends) and buying our first castle in Germany… but above all: gratitude and fun. It’s all about that!
www.reverbnation.com/thegoldentreesband
www.facebook.com/TheGoldenTrees
TEXT: DANIEL SALAS | PHOTO CREDIT: LILIAN ACOSTA