JT: Will it be fully scored, are you picturing it that way, or are there elements of improv worked into the written score?

          SW: Right now everything has been written and it lines up with what Frank has done there. It’s very cool that there’s a little bit of space as a connector, but remembering this is only two trees. So what – there’s seven more that we’re going to explore, wherever they take us. Really, the trees are leading the story.

          FH: I think what I love about our process, Sharlene, is that you have your own compositional style and I have my own compositional style, but the way we’ve structured the steps in our creative process, that basically, we’re – especially myself perhaps – that we’re sort of open-ended. So when I’m creating the electronic part or the tape part, I know when I’m creating that to leave it very open-ended, so Sharlene can put her creative stamp on it. 

          And then phase four will be when Shar records the live part that will go on top of all of it. But what's cool about it is that the material I'm using to create it was generated from Sharlene’s harp, so it’s like this foundation, you know what I mean? 

          It's layers and layers and layers, and every layer has its own unique stamp, and for me personally, after listening to what we’ve created, that is what I really appreciate most from a purely artistic or musical standpoint, when I listen to what we created. If it wasn’t for our system of working on this, I would never have created a sound like this, like Sharlene’s, because we’re working on this together. I’m pushing my musical voice in a direction I've never gone before, so I really appreciate that because that’s what keeps things really interesting for me musically.

          JT: It sounds like each of you are pushing yourselves artistically in the way that your’e welcoming the opportunity to really push boundaries, your comfort level a little bit. And Frank, that sounds like a new experience. For example, to leave room in your creative canopy for Sharlene’s creative layering of the live Celtic harp over-top. Sounds wonderful!

          SW: I think co-composing is a very unique experience and we didn’t want to over-think it! We have ideas that we’re just stepping in with in a very open way.

          FH: Right.

          SW: There’s nothing pre-determined.

          FH: Seriously, Sharlene and I are going to have to teach a course on how to

do this, because it is such a unique way of creating music and it’s such a holistic and communal way of sharing music. 

          JT: And your work together with Frank, the two of you feel like it’s a natural extension of your creative approach?

          SW: Yeah, and right from A Little Loopy, I think that’s where I was, when I knew. I think that opened my eyes in terms of working with someone. All we’re doing is exploring sound.

          JT: For sure, it’s all about the sound! Like see where the instrument guides you. And I’m wondering if the trees, when you’re layering your solo part over one of the things – you know, you’re describing Hazel, for example. So I’m wondering with this experiential aspect, whether the Hazel, the spirit of the Hazel – the essential character of any of these particular trees – whether they inhabit you and they’re guiding you. Do they kind of turn the tables on you in a way?

          SW: Oh yeah! Yeah, I would say the Hazel really dug deep in me. Yeah, that I think was where I realized, “Oh my gosh, there’s more than just, ‘Oh look, the pretty tree. Isn’t it cool?’”

          And the connector has been really weirdly or not so weirdly meaningful. You know,  like discovering the tree from more than 300 years ago in Oakville – not the one on Bronte Road that was saved, but the one in the park that’s massive that’s got a vibe, you know, and I keep revisiting it to almost feel comfortable around it. And you know, just standing there, and the wind blows, and it’s like touching me, you know? Like I’m not trying to humanize it, but that’s the kind of movement experience. You know what? How do trees sound trembling? 

          Aspen. Really specifically, you know – an Aspen, the sound of them, with leaves, without leaves. 

          How big their leaves are, whereas Alders have smallish leaves. These things are not just giving actual voice to the sound of the tree, but to the length of the limbs – the size of all of that is part of what we feel being in the presence. And the more I’m feeling that – that’s one of the things I’m drawing on when we’re entering into the writing process.

          JT: Have you chosen the third tree, or is there a process for selection? Is it kajian or yarrow stocks like the I-Ching?

          FH: No short straws! [Laughter] So we’ve selected all the trees already, all nine have been selected. We’re just going through the musical notes A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, those are our nine things?

          SW: So we started… We didn’t do A.

          FH: We didn’t do A, we skipped it.

          SW: Actually, just conceptually, we started with Birch, and the the Birch is one of the

first trees in a forest to begin the growth of a forest, especially if there’s been a culling.

          JT: Or fire?

          SW: Yeah yeah. So it’s one of the early ones. That’s done. There were more spiritual parts to the Birch that felt like a beginning, a connection. It’s a good tree, and also I grew up with a birch tree in front of the house that I grew up in, that my dad had planted.

          I’m still visiting that Birch tree, and it’s so familiar, and I’ve known it all my life. And yet I like really noticing it, really feeling it. And Birch are not a longlasting tree. Where my dad grew up, it was called Silver Birch Point, and in his lifetime many of the Birch have passed on, have felled themselves to allow for new ones.

          And then the Hazel – I just became obsessed with the buoyant feeling of the limbs, and just these long, long lower limbs are just magic, it’s just such a magical tree, and it’s what’s used for finding water, right?

          JT: Well, I was just going to say, that’s a forked rod for divining, yeah.

          SW: Yeah, exactly, for divining, exactly. Yeah, so we haven’t talked yet what the next tree will be.

          JT: Okay, cool. Yeah, it reminds me, of course, how Bach and other composers wrote pieces where they took letters, but this is a whole ’nother game, there’s layers to this.

          SW: For sure.

          JT: Exactly! That always really annoyed me somehow,  that it felt very contrived. This does not feel contrived at all – in contrast, this feels really organic.

          Frank, have you encountered any outside tree-related projects or communities that you might be able to collaborate with, or is it something that you might have to initiate?

          FH: Definitely one of my hopes is that this project is gonna spawn a lot of opportunities for Sharlene to do performances, perhaps hosted by some of these tree NGOs that are working very tirelessly and vigorously to have more trees planted.

          Or if Diana was able to read from her book,  and then Sharlene played interspersed. So this is the other thing Sharlene and I have talked a lot about in relation to this project is, what is a concert? You know, like the traditional format of a concert that we’ve always known and are used to? There’s that way where an audience sits, and they listen to music for X amount of minutes and that kind of thing, and then everyone leaves.

          But why can't we have more of these kind of hybrid events, where they’re more of a gathering? They’re a social place for people to come together, to learn, to be engaged and not just listen to music, but hear people talk about trees.

          For Sharlene or others – or you, Jamie – who love taking photography, where we make it into an exhibition at the same time. There’s so much potential with this project.

          You know, all Shar needs is her Celtic harp and a couple of pair of speakers, and she basically can do this show anywhere! It's so much larger than just about music we love creating. The music, that’s what drives us and what fills our heart, but I’m so excited about the possibilities that might happen once the music is complete, you know?