Negative Feedback
Our second single from our upcoming album
This is Circus Trees
Circus Trees wield an anguish that beckons. Droning through a weighty sadness, their musical spell extends a hand, instead of turning in on itself, offering an open invitation to all misery-loving company. This is how the Marlborough, Massachusetts-based band started in 2018, and that’s how it has remained as members and sisters Giuliana, Finola, and Edmee continue to spin their sadness into listless post-rock.
Formed three years ago during their adolescence, Circus Trees brandished a unified tone from the start, as their first singles - 2018’s “Floating Still” and “Impermanence” - revealed their sunken melodies, carrying an emotional weight far beyond their years. “Impermanence” in particular was recorded at The Record Co. in Boston with Vanessa Silberman via her independent label and music company, A Diamond Heart Production. Their first music video, created for “Floating Still,” bears Circus Trees’ DIY ethos, captured entirely in nearby Lowell, Massachusetts against a fitting backdrop of busted 'n' bruised bricks and cobblestones. To date, the video has reached over 3,600 views.
The band chronicled their formative days in 2018 with a half-hour documentary also named Impermanence, making their formal introduction to the world from Five By Two Studios, their musical home base. Their arrangement remains the same in 2020: Finola, now 16, plays guitar and sings, Giuliana, 18, keeps the languid beat behind the drum kit, and Edmee, 14, holds down the band’s heaviness on bass.
2019 saw the release of the band’s first EP, Sakura, released digitally and on vinyl on March 3. The four-track effort was recorded at Getaway Studios in Haverhill, Massachusetts with Boston producer and studio owner Jay Maas.
Aside from shows scattered throughout New England in cities like Manchester (NH), Worcester (MA), and Burlington (VT), the sisters earned multiple opportunities to take the stage with musically similar peers at major events last year, such as TRC Fest at the Sinclair, Post New England at Jewel Nightclub, and Post Fest in Indianapolis,
Indiana. Along the way, they caught the attention of Caspian guitarist Erin Burke-Moran, who proudly sported a Circus Trees shirt every night of Caspian’s 2019 tour with Minus The Bear. By the end of the year, Circus Trees had garnered a Boston Music Awards nomination for “Best Metal Act” alongside other established scene staples like Set Fire, Worshipper, and Glacier.
For their debut full-length record Delusions, Circus Trees tapped Jay Maas once again to work with them on this especially pointed collection of six new songs.
Delusions is a record that’s fortified with feeling, yet malleable; brimming with emotion, the trio twists heady sadcore into something vacant, leaving space for the listener to safely and subconsciously mingle with their
moods. Delusions is a harsh place, but it’s a human place, too, bringing a new intimacy to Circus Trees’ songwriting dynamic. A vinyl pressing of the record will follow.
“The songs on this album are much more personal than the last, where we focused on themes of love and loss in the abstract,” Circus Trees share of Delusions. “This album reflects more introspection, and comes from the emotions felt personally from one or more members of the band, based on events that naturally happen growing up. Still love and loss and sadness, but much less distant to us as individual human beings.”
Praise for Circus Trees ‘Delusions’
“In a generally male-dominated area of music, the McCarthy sisters stand out with a compelling blend of formidable gaze, expansive post-rock, and the sort of homespun, doomy tones that give everything a disconcerting yet charming edge.“
— Everything Is Noise 14AUG2020
“Like it heavy and dense? They’ve got that! Like music that’s earnest and has something to say? They’ve got that, too! Like music that seizes the general feel of 2020 in a glorious forty minutes? Well, you’ll be hard pressed to find another body of music in that captures this year’s all around vibe as well as Delusions does.“
— Rock and Roll Fables 07AUG2020
“With textures that scratch but seduce with electrical energy in between, a genuine and human voice, organic instrumentation in general and an authentic resonance that reaches its own stamp immediately, this band could be opening a worldview about music and its rhythms quite interesting. The potential here is incalculable, and that's the scariest thing (in the best of senses) right at this point in these young girls' careers.“
— Sound & Vision 19AUG2020 (translated)
“Delusions meets you on your own turf, worming its way into your emotions, your memories, the little keepsakes of your life. It tells you “we are crumbling and we are fading but by god, we are doing it together and we’ll get through it”. In fifteen years, when I reminisce about the good days, I’ll be listing off albums that made it all worth it by existing, that I am proud to have listened to and to have written about. Delusions is one of those.”
“Listening to this record reminds me that dark days don’t last and that heavy music doesn’t all sound that same. Circus Trees is a young band that are bringing something really special to the genre of shoegaze and they write songs that pull at your heart strings.“
“…what matters is of course the four to eight minute songs by Circus Trees, which are sometimes melancholy, introspective, sometimes loud, sometimes roll and sometimes flow gently, as if songwriter Julien Baker was headed by Shoegaze metal hero Hum…“
— Visions 07AUG2020 (translated)
“In a vacuum, “Delusions” is a striking collection of powerful, focused, emotionally wrenching songs that balance their soft-loud dynamic with a skillful ear and keen emphasis on visceral impact. But look to the peripheries and you’ll find so much of what we all need to support about independent music and, beyond that, the role of family in the development of artists.“
“Whether it is a gloomy and rainy day, a sunny afternoon or a freezing night, Delusions will manage to get you out of the present moment to overwhelm you with decibels, leading you into its dark, disillusioned, yet endearing world. [The album]…is a moment of pure melancholy that injects itself into the veins, but it feels so good.”
— Découvertes musicales en toute simplicité 24AUG2020 (translated)
“There is absolutely no sophomore jinx here as Delusions is a tremendous follow-up for the trio. Shoegaze fans up for some very dark angles should absolutely add this one to their collection.“
“What should be highlighted about Delusions is the wonderful mix of slowcore and shoegaze which makes for six superb tracks of great emotional depth. It really is a release that has everything, but what might steal most attention is the three female members are aged 14, 16, and 18.“
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