‘Lost in the Trees’ to play

Tonight, Gerrard Hall will resonate with grand orchestral arrangements. But don’t expect a chamber orchestra or symphony. Instead, Chapel Hill band Lost in the Trees will play a show free to UNC students, bringing their brand of epic, elaborate pop to campus.

This isn’t the first time Lost in the Trees has graced the stage at Gerrard Hall, but the band’s mandolin player and Trekky Records co-founder Will Hackney says the group looks forward to playing at UNC for a second time after its successful show last year.

“We have a lot of members of the band who are connected to UNC,” Hackney said, citing the bulk of the band’s string section and the year he spent at the University.

Unlike the band’s previous on-campus performance, tonight’s show will feature music from Lost in the Trees’ upcoming album, the follow-up to last September’s somber “All Alone in an Empty House.”

The show will be an opportunity for Lost in the Trees to play the unrecorded material in front of an audience, a set of new songs that will supplement tracks from previous recordings.

“I definitely want to make a more upbeat record,” songwriter and band leader Ari Picker said. “The last record was much more subdued and it was meant to be so, but I think it would be fun to make a really raucous record.”

And while Lost in the Trees’ sound is far from conventional, Hackney and Picker believe that UNC students will find it enjoyable and accessible despite the plethora of instruments and members that characterize the band.

“I’ve been really surprised to see that every kind of music listener seems to find something in the music,” he said.

And Lost in the Trees has experienced the diverse appeal of its music firsthand.

“We played a show in New Jersey yesterday and nobody in the audience was under the age of 40, so even those old people were getting something out of it. It has a special way of having something for many different kind of music listeners,” he said.

Hackney emphasized the importance of exposing students to local music that they might not otherwise encounter.

“I’m really glad that they’re bringing local bands to UNC, because we can play here at Gerrard Hall and it’s easy for students to come,” he said.

“Hopefully when we play at Cat’s Cradle they can come and see a band that opens for us and check them out at Local 506.”

Picker also sees the performance as an opportunity to expose students to the burgeoning Triangle music scene.

“I think the Carrboro music scene and the Triangle music scene is really blossoming,” he said. “So if people haven’t discovered music outside the campus bubble, they should.”

Even if Lost in the Trees doesn’t suit the taste of every Gerrard Hall member of the crowd, Picker hopes that the band’s audience will, at the very least, appreciate the uniquity and dexterity of what they hear.

“I think people that come out should enjoy it,” he said. “Or at least think it’s different. At least that it’s a worthy project, whether you like it or not.”



Contact the Diversions Editor at dive@unc.edu.