New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Green Light Go Entertainment) Keep it simple. How many times have we heard this advice, but failed to heed it? Matthew BigBee, songwriter and driving force of indie folk group BigBee of the Whitetree, has listened, and the results, found on the EP
Fairytale Dust, are as majestic as they are straightforward. Beginning from a place of observation, BigBee seeks to unite himself with the environment he sees. "When I decided to make
Fairytale Dust, I thought 'How can I apply some of this to the recording process?'" he says. "I decided to let the songs stand as sketches... hoping to bring the listener's attention to the shadows of introspective thought. "Let them fill in the voids and space left in the music". The songs draw the listener into these spaces, and leave them hanging on every word sung by BigBee's rich and sweet voice.
Fairytale Dust will be released Sept. 13.
Honesty, simplicity and unity are all indelible parts of BigBee of the Whitetree's music. "The whole musical journey seems about simplifying things for me," he says. "The more honest I become with myself, the more easily things flow. I always knew it was good to get out of your own way, but never knew how to apply that to my music, and then it dawned on me, be honest with myself and express from that place." From the sparse instrumentation on all of the five tracks (mostly guitar, bass and minimal percussion), to the lyrics celebrating the beauty of nature and of human relationships, to the use of his home's natural reverb on the recording, BigBee gets down to the roots of music on Fairytale Dust. This is no surprise considering his influences: early Jamaican recordings of Bob Marley, Mark Knopfler's Ragpicker's Dream and Fleet Foxes.
When asked about Fairytale Dust, BigBee stated, "I knew it was time to make a record that reflected the intimacy of a friendship. We gather, eat some good food, share some herb and I sing a few tunes." Joining BigBee on the album is good friend Armando Nunes (bass and vocal harmonies). You can even hear BigBee's little girls joining in the chorus line of the track titled "Because I Can".
BigBee of the Whitetree is currently hailing from a mountaintop in the San Juan Islands, Wash. His brand of indie folk comes way by subjecting himself to a multitude of environments. Following BigBee's path to his new project Fairytale Dust requires taking a look into the adventurous journey that was (is).
