Features Tree Hopping

Gabriel Berrios hits the nail on the head by describing his work as “Highlife-guitar-based sample pop.” You can dig into each of those words and you unearth the work that goes into his Tree Hopping project. The Highlife influence is sewn into the very core of his work, with guitars loitering around in the background of gorgeous, intricate sample work, all coming together to create what is quite essentially pop music, both for those who adored pop in the first place as well as accommodating for the snobs in their proverbial thrones. Self-releasing the majority of his material, Berrios has just put his name to a split-release on MJ MJ Records with fellow sonic experimentalist Messy Sparkles - DIY asked him about how that all came together, as well as discovering the hard work that went into constructing and self-releasing his previous albums.

How did ‘Messyhopping’ come about? Were you just put together with Messy Sparkles by MJ MJ or did you know each other beforehand?
It was a funny coincidence. I don’t remember how I first hear JD’s music but after I did I remember finding his page and adding his real life profile. I remember ‘Softly Sweet Nothing’ was the first jam I instantly replayed. We had a few conversations since we both draw from some of the same basic influences and both work with sequences and beat oriented music.
It seems like the very next day Andy from MJ MJ approached both of us individually about a split. We both loved the idea. So yeah, right after we had met we found out we would be under Andy’s care and putting out a cassette together. It was very easy completing that split. We are both relatively new to the whole game and - and I think JD would agree with this - are just excited to have this kind of support. That was a few months back. We still talk. JD is a good guy. He has a really great voice.

How important do you judge the aesthetic/concept that goes with physical releases, especially cassette tapes?
It’s interesting because new artists really have to rely on aesthetic if they want to be recognized. At the same time, however, the majority of people listening to music are not purchasing it. Which is fine. It opens a lot of doors though and it’s chaotic to sift through music today. Also, it makes it very confusing. I don’t know the right way to do things anymore, as far as releasing music goes. So I offer everything for free. If it’s good, it will spread.
Anyway, I know that I spend almost as much time making images and artwork as I do recording and producing. The way I see it, without an aesthetic element, there isn’t anything someone can really hold onto. It gives someone an automatic visual before that they can attach to the music.
MJ MJ is as close to the ‘right way’ as I know. They were around when music became almost strictly digital and they know the right way to release music. A lot of small labels are offering cassettes and LPs and I think there is something timeless about that. Like having a very nice copy of a book you’ve already read or even a print of one of your favorite paintings. It’s just a beautiful object that doesn’t necessarily need to be physical to enjoy. But it’s something you always like to look at. Why wouldn’t you just own it?

There seems to be a lot of stuff on your tumblr about African styles of music. Have you gotten into these genres recently or is it something you’d grown up with? Would you agree that Highlife has a huge influence on the music you make?
It is a huge influence. I practice playing in this style every day. I tried to make it my goal a little while to be able to play Highlife automatically every time I picked up a guitar. To make it my dominant style. It’s ironic because I am Puerto Rican and world music was probably sitting in my parents stereo all my life, but it was only about two years ago that I started listening to highlife. I was and am a huge Abe Vigoda fan. I’ve listened to ‘Skeleton’ thousands of times since 2008 and that album is what really made me determined to start a tropical sounding band. A lot of other artists in the mid 2000s were sampling Highlife and world music and that led me to doing some researching. I found out what they were sampling and dug around for vinyl rips. The first Highlife albums I got into were from Ghana. African Brother’s Dance Band (International)’s self titled album from 1964 (PAB 001) is a classic gem. I also love Nigerian Highlife.

You’ve self-released a lot of your earlier stuff and it’s done really well. Was it a big challenge exposing your music on bandcamp and other platforms? Was it at all financially successful?
Thank you. Thankfully a lot of my friends are nice enough to spread the word about my music. Everybody who is a member of the FMLY is great and they honestly just want the best for everybody. Some of the most dedicated and genuine people run that site. I have been written about on a lot of nice smaller blogs too and you really can’t replace that either. I feel like I have no real talent for exposing myself. I do run my tumblr and facebook and post on it everyday but, like I mentioned before, it’s kind of a free for all as far as offering free music goes. It seems like it’ll get hopelessly overlooked if the right people don’t mention it at the right time. Still, I have the idea in the back of my head that if it’s truly honest and good then it’ll always get into the right hands. I am still learning though and I always notice that I like my new music more and more than my old. So maybe it’s a good thing that it’s hard to expose myself. Maybe my future self will be happier if nobody heard this early material. Just kidding. Its hard to shake that feeling sometimes but ultimately I am happy with what I have made.

‘The Beat Band’ is made entirely out of loops. Did you have an idea of where you wanted the album to go before you set out on making it or did it all piece together quite organically, through the loops you ended up using?
There was a lot of conceptualising for ‘The Beat Band’. A lot of notepad kind of stuff. Just jotting down everything and getting myself pumped for it. There are two ‘sides’ with two distinct focuses, samples on every song and overlapping lyrics on some songs. I was interested in focusing on three different styles. The most dominant focuses mostly on electric guitar and live drum loops. The second was based around Highlife and tropicalia samples. The third and most recessive was based around Afro-Peruvian acoustic guitars. So the concept was to blend virtually everything I came to love and to sing songs about my last year living in South Florida (from Fort Lauderdale to Miami). ‘The Beat Band’ was the kind of thing that I would fantasize about whenever I was waiting for something or sitting on the bus. Its nice to be working on something and to be excited for it.
I was obsessed with the idea of loops and samples while I was recording different song ideas. I decided to make the entire album out of live and sampled loops very early on. It led to all the recording sessions sounding healthy and focused. Starting with ‘The Beat Band’ and even more so now, I record for about 10% of the time and arrange for the other 90. The idea of creating a circular rhythm or combining things that will endlessly layer on top of one another was very exciting for me.