SW: Yeah, and how it goes beyond us as well.

          FH: Other harpists, yeah, absolutely right. Sharlene, you’re the trailblazer as harpist, but can you imagine a network of harpists all around the world who are performing Trees.Listen in their respective communities? Because listen, the one thing that ties us together as a planet is that we all have trees. Unless you live in the Antarctic or the far reaches of the Arctic, almost every single person on this planet has some relationship to a tree,  and it’s one of the basic necessities of our survival on this planet. So this can be huge.

          JT: Yeah, it’s a vast topic and it’s really lovely how you zeroed in on a specific approach and manner of collaboration that taps into such deep roots, in terms of how trees and forests are so important to the health not just of our planet, but of our psyche.

          You know, we’re so divorced from nature, there’s a lovely return to appreciation and it feels like, well, we might be imperiled otherwise, so it kind of lends some urgency to the situation. I’m interested from the aspect of mental health and how healing nature can be for each of us. Take forest bathing for example,  or just taking a short walk in the woods can be a game-changer for one’s mood! I guess there’s science behind all of this, but I know, for myself, there’s always been something very redemptive and healing about nature. 

          Are there other artists or communities that you’ve encountered that are doing anything similar exploring forests and trees for inspiration?

          SW: Not specifically musicians, but artists in the interior of BC connectors with forests.

          JT: And are you familiar with Jane Cardiff?

          SW: Oh yeah, absolutely!

          JT: She and her partner have done an installation where you listen to their recording in the woods, so you’re in the woods listening to –

          SW: Yeah, she has one in one of her installations in Ottawa.

          Actually, since I first experienced her work, she lives in part of my brain all the time, so she’s definitely part of – she’s a little bit there in this project, especially because [of the common aspect of having] exterior performances.

          I think that maybe one of the bottom parts of this practice of this project is about noticing – that’s where you start to notice trees around us, which we otherwise can take for granted. So often, living in Toronto, everyone thinks that Toronto is basically pavement and buildings. Sure, but the tree canopy here is spectacular, with all of the valleys and parks –

          JT: – The lungs of the city, yeah.

          SW: Unbelievable, yeah.

          JT: And right here in Montreal, I’ve really been enjoying the trees, which has been an aspect of moving here that I didn’t expect at all. The trees are quel extraordinaire [laughter]. They’re different again from Toronto. I have my favorite trees in Toronto, but I was very familiar with them, and it’s so cool to have new streets and back lanes and surprise tree vistas. And at the nearby park some of the trees are massive, they’re like seven to eight feet in diameter.

          FH: Big around!

          JT: Must be 27 feet in circumference – they’re huge, yeah.

          SW: A lot of trees were planted in Toronto that aren’t native to the city. And there are also aspects of male vs. female trees, and which trees are messier. More to do with the fruit, so you have this very lopsided hierarchy of particular types of tree. It’s a very interesting thing, what kind of trees are good for where you live.

          FH: Yeah, and also whether one tree is next to a different type of tree, or the same tree. The fungi, through the roots system, is navigating the health of the forest.

          JT: It actually is part of the reason I’m confident that your project will succeed, this idea of how trees will help each other out through the root system.

          SW: Yeah yeah, exactly!

          JT: It’s sometimes healthier when there are multiple species beside one another – if one is dry, others redirect water or nutrients to neighboring trees.

          FH: There’s a great Rush song about that from the ’70s. The lyrics are amazing. Neil Peart wrote brilliant lyrics about that!

          It's called “The Trees.” It’s from their 1978 album called Hemispheres. It’s like,

          There is unrest in the forest

          Trouble with the trees

          For the maples want more sunlight

          And the oaks ignore their pleas

          The trouble with the maples 

          (And they’re quite convinced they’re right)

          They say the oaks are just too lofty

          And they grab up all the light.

          JT: Have you guys climbed trees? You’ve already answered my question about your Favourite Tree, Sharlene, the birch tree is something that you’ve tracked over the years that sounds really special, although they’re not so good for climbing! Have you climbed a tree?

          SW: Have I climbed trees? Yeah, like in my ] past I certainly used to. Mostly pine, up up north.

          JT: But they’re great, the way the branches are solid, you can trust them compared to, say, maples, which are sometimes a little dicey whether a branch is going to hold or you know –

          SW: – Yeah, sometimes, some.

          When I was living up north, sometimes I would drive up for the day, like drive up and walk out behind the house into this field that had a big knoll. This is in winter and I would snowshoe out, and I would just lie down and for hours just stare – stare through the canopy.

          FH: I love the trees in the winter too! There’s something – everybody always goes so crazy about the leaves, and of course they’re beautiful in the fall and that kind of thing. But when all the leaves go and there is some peace and solitude of winter out in the middle in the country somewhere, and you just hear this little bit of creaking through the wind and you ignore the architecture and the design of all of the branches, so that’s the wondrous thing about trees too, isn’t it? – is how our perception of them is different throughout the year, through the different seasons.

          I love it in the city when you have that return of light, and in the autumn, like once the leaves drop, except for the oak, because they’re so tenacious.

          JT: But you know the the the light is coming in at a more oblique angle and you see all sorts of lovely shadows that you don’t in the – Frank, do you climb trees or no?

          FH: No,  I – I do not have a practise of climbing trees. I don’t know why. I think I was – you know, I wasn’t swift as a child, and now, I don’t know about you, but I’m always afraid. I don’t want to.

          I think of trees these days as being sacred. 

          JT: You mentioned the word “worship” in your Trees.Listen.

          FH: Yes, for me it’s really a religious site, you know what I mean? A tree is a very sacred place. You know, we wouldn’t go to the Vatican and start climbing on the altar and that type of thing out of respect, or in a mosque or a synagogue. And for me, I see whole trees in that same type of reverence – it’s a sacred thing, and it’s something to be admired and protected, to be cherished. I often feel bad for the tree when people will hang a swing or something like that. I’m not saying that’s bad, and I’m sure the tree is fine! Or when people put a notice or something, I think that’s just wrong somehow, at least for me.

          JT: I used to love climbing trees, maple trees, especially as a kid, and then at some point, I don’t know, you stopped doing that, but I had a project a couple of years ago that had a tree theme as well, and I ended up climbing a tree. I thought I’d do that so that when we checked in, you know later the next week, I could report back that I climbed a tree, and oh my God, it was such hard work. I mean my muscles were so sore. The branch I had to grab was just slightly out of reach, I have to take a run at it and like grab this branch.

          Thank you, you both anticipated questions beautifully. I really appreciate that.

          FH: Well, I don’t know. I think it was just the telepathic thing through the – Zoom just knew what was coming.

          JT: The root system intermingling –

          FH: – Yeah, that’s right, that’s right! [Laughter]

          JT: Last couple of questions I have are about the bed track. Is there a beginning and end? I mean, is there a specified length, Frank, that you zero in on, or is it sort of open-ended that Shar can hit decay or delay – that it can fade away when she wants?

          FH: Well, you know in that respect, Jamie, it’s like a traditional instrument tape piece, a traditional electroacoustic piece. I’m composing the electronic bed track, so it’s conducive to that.

          So you were talking earlier about the beat and the rhythm. Yes, I do love that and that type of thing, but – but it’s a practical thing, you know. So when Sharlene would perform this live, and of course when we do the album recording, it’s easy for Sharlene just to have a click track in her ear as she hears the tape. But it would be nice, in a perfect world, that she doesn’t need any click track, and she can just synchronize herself to the tape part that she would play along with. Reference points. So that’s why you put in your little rhythmic cues in there, to make it flow easier.

          JT: And are the root systems going to be delineated that you’ll have a short silence between each piece of the nine? 

          FH: I think so.

          JT: Would one or two of them overlap or intermingle?

          FH: Well, I don’t think so. I think, Sharlene – I think we’ve always envisioned it, right, that they would be individual pieces. So you know, it tells a story if you listen to the entire suite of nine pieces. But at the same time, if people enjoy certain particular pieces, then they’re stand-alone pieces as an individual thing, too.

          Maybe we’ll be clever there and maybe morph and there’ll be ivy intertwining with neighbouring trees – like an attacca from the end of one movement into the Ivy, and then out of the Ivy right away into the next and – you never know, right? So from a symbolic standpoint, that’s a really good point.

          JT: You’ve both been very generous with your time today, and thanks so much once again! 

          FH: Oh, you’re welcome.

          SW: For sure, Jamie!

          JT: Such a pleasure and it all sounds truly remarkable and really exciting!

          SW: That was so fun!