Treecreeper was formed in the small-town of Wendover, Buckinghamshire in 2004 by brothers Will and Greg Burns (vocals/guitars, bass/vocals), and childhood friend Steven Blackwell (guitars). Hailing from the kind of no-mark, factory-fuelled London satellite town prevalent in the areas surrounding the capital, Will began writing songs while at school, starting punk bands with varying degrees of seriousness, however it was after leaving school and working in the factories and bars of his hometown that Will began to find his songwriting evolve into something unique, it also began to elicite an increasingly positive response from whoever happened to be listening. After a couple of years playing solo shows, and a short-lived band (Hart Crane), Will and his brother decided to start playing together. Steven was enlisted on guitar, and drummer Simon Masters, and the band began honing their sound in feedback-drenched, high-octane shows across the country, soon forging a reputation as a fearsome live band as well as possessing, in Will Burns, a songwriter of some considerable gravitas. Inspired as much by literature as music, Burns’ lyrics are unashamedly poetic, lines are impressionistic rather than explicit, eschewing a narrative style in favour of more subtle, ambiguous meaning.
Somewhere along the way, the band won the approval of fellow Wendover natives The Boy Least Likely To who offered the services of their studio down-time while they where on tour.One week in March 2006, Treecreeper’s debut, “Grain†was tracked mostly live in Faraway Sounds Studios in Notting Hill, London.
The record perfectly captures Treecreeper’s unique blend of ferocious rockers and world-weary, moody ballads, all underpinned with Will Burns’ poetic, literate lyrics and gravel-pit,older-than-his-years voice. It captures the sound of four guys in their mid-twenties, on a stage somewhere playing songs that above all else they mean.
GRAIN is available now from ROUGH TRADE SHOPS .
