It was somewhere in remote Alaska that Michael Gold—who records and performs pop–infused psych-rock as Mirror Tree—began to realize that he was officially on the road less traveled. “I was flying around between all these native villages and all these little, muddy gravel air strips in a single-engine Cessna, in and out of snowstorms, and landing on ice-covered runways,” says Gold, who worked for several years as a pilot in the Last Frontier, and currently is based out of Los Angeles, and flies a 737 for a major airline. “Being a musician to me always felt like the path of least resistance a little bit, you know? And when I touched down in a place like Bethel, Alaska, I felt very firmly off of the path of least resistance.”
Until Gold decided to fly away from the world he knew, music was always right there in front of him. Gold’s mother, Sharon Robinson, is a Grammy-winning singer/songwriter who collaborated extensively with the late Leonard Cohen, co-writing some of his classics like “Everybody Knows.” Robinson was close friends with Cohen, and Cohen was Gold’s godfather: “He was definitely a big part of my world growing up, for sure,” Gold explains.
Raised in L.A., Gold was formally trained in classical and jazz piano, and the wonders and possibilities of music seeped into him. He continued pursuing music in college, studying jazz piano at nearby CalArts, where he lived in a barn in the remote town of Val Verde, which was at one point known as the “Black Palm Springs.” Around this time, he joined the indie-disco band Poolside as a keyboardist/vocalist, bouncing around the world on tour with them, as well co-writing songs like the disco-rock-fusion epic “Feel Alright.” (18 million streams on Spotify and counting.)
But the call of the wild never stopped pulling Gold—driven in large part by adventures he would go on as a kid with his dad to places like the Mojave Desert. And, after getting his pilot’s license, he decided to trust his instincts (and some good advice from a fellow pilot) by heading to Alaska. “I basically just bought a plane ticket, and knocked on all of [the local airline services’] doors with my resume in hand,” he laughs. For the first time in years, Gold wasn’t thinking like a musician anymore, and went back to enjoying some of his favorite bands—like Stereolab and Broadcast—solely as a listener. “It just kind of changed the way I heard music,” he explains. “I wasn’t analyzing it for the purpose of learning, for the purpose of becoming a better musician anymore. I was just kind of feeling it.”
But he couldn’t stay away from making music for long. After coming back to L.A., Gold began writing and recording again, and soon teamed up with former Poolside bandmate Filip Nikolic to develop his sound—something like a mishmash of Supertramp and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. When the two were honing in on the vibe they were going for, tapping into Spaghetti Western soundtracks and Tropicália, they realized they would ideally need a Farfisa organ, which Gold conveniently happened to have in storage—but hadn’t ever used before, and wasn’t sure would even work. Sure enough, though, “We plugged it in and it fired right up,” Gold marvels. “And that just became the backbone sound of that whole album.”
With Gold serving as the main writing and performing force of Mirror Tree, and Nikolic producing the set, while co-writing and performing on some tracks as well, Mirror Tree took flight. Gold would demo out songs and at his home studio, and then bring them to Nikolic’s studio, where they would work together to create grooves worthy of ELO for the chillwave generation. Songs like “300 Miles” and the title track “Mirror Tree” take the vintage Farfisa reverb and twist it into something modern, infused with a non-Western sensibility and a simultaneous Western accessibility. On rippers like “See It Through” and “Echoes Competing,” Gold combines his virtuosic keyboard abilities with earworm choruses and subtle poetics: “Cigarette thrown in the wind,” he sings in his falsetto on the latter track. “Mirror shows the glow / Driving on alone.”
As the project went on, the image of the Mirror Tree stuck with Gold—a metaphor for the way that light and life bounces off of people and things around us. Soon he realized that it was the appropriate title for the album and the band at large—and served as an ethos for everything that brought him to where he is today: “I’m not a super spiritual person, but whenever someone dies, I really get a lot of comfort that they are just kind of being constantly reflected on everyone,” he says. “Their presence—you get to keep it through the people that they affected.”
credits
released September 8, 2023
All Songs Written by Michael Gold and Produced by Michael Gold and Filip Nikolic except:
Carefree and Echoes Competing written by Michael Gold and Filip Nikolic, 300 Miles and Along
for the Ride written by Michael Gold, Filip Nikolic and Jeffrey Brodsky
Thinking of You written by Michael Gold, Filip Nikolic and Jason pipkin
Personnel:
Michael Gold- Vocals, Keyboards, Synthesizers on all tracks. Guitar on See it Through, Another
Day, Echoes Competing, A Message, Feel It, Along for the Ride, In a Day, 300 Miles, Thinking of
You, and Mirror Tree. Electric Sitar on See it Through and Carefree. Bass on See it Through.
String Arrangements on Another Day, Echoes Competing, and Tuesday. Tape Loops on Let it
Go. Percussion on Echoes Competing and Feel It
Filip Nikolic- Vocals on Intro, See it Through and Carefree. Keyboards and Synthesizers on Intro,
See it Through, Another Day, A Message, In a Day, 300 Miles, Thinking of You and Mirror Tree,
Guitar on See it Through, Another Day, Echoes Competing, A Message, Carefree, Along for the
Ride, In a Day, 300 Miles and Thinking of You. Bass on all tracks except See it Through. Electric
Sitar on See it Through. Tape Loops on Let it Go. Percussion on See it Through, Another Day,
Tuesday, A Message, Carefree, In a Day, Thinking of You. Sound Effects on Tuesday, A Message,
Carefree, 300 Miles, Mirror Tree. Lap Steel on Thinking of You. Drums on Mirror Tree.
Jason Pipkin- Drums on Intro, See it Through, Another Day, Echoes Competing, Tuesday, A
Message, Feel It, In a Day, Thinking of You.
Jeffrey Brodsky- Drums on Carefree, Along for the Ride and 300 Miles.
Marta Sofia Honer- Violin and Viola on Another Day, Echoes Competing and Tuesday
Ben Schwab- Acoustic Guitar on See it Through, Echoes Competing and Feel It
Sam Burton- Acoustic Guitar on See it Through, Echoes Competing and Feel It
Diva Dompe- Vocals on Intro, Echoes Competing, Feel It and Along for the Ride
Sofia Arreguin- Vocals on Echoes Competing, Along for the Ride and Mirror Tree
Lola Gold- Vocals on Intro and Feel It
Special Thanks to Juanita Garcia, Like MGMT, Lola Gold, Sharon Robinson, Greg Gold, Diva
Dompe, Emmett Kelly, Ryan Powers, Talkeetna Air Taxi, Sofia Arreguin, Anna Jones, Stacey
Howchin, Larchmont Village Wine and Cheese Shop, Butchy Fuego, June Okada, Chili Johnson,
Jason Ajemian, Margaret Stern, Andy Evarts, Lorca Cohen, Gabby Faurot, The Kahiltna Glacier,
Ellie Kompare, Kevin Boog, Danial Doty, Tuesday, Automatic.
Mirror Tree is a project by artist Michael Gold, who toured with artists like Poolside, LP, and Sharon Robinson. Psychedelic
synth sounds combine with writing rooted in ‘60s and 70’s pop to give the songs choruses to sing along to. Mirror Tree is a journey through many worlds of style and lyric sentiment that give the listener an emotional link to faraway places....more
Dirtbag Transformation: "What is this?" was my first reaction. But what an amazing song. It reminds me a bit of the Pixies in how it pulls together dissonance and then resolves. malfunction54
Like so many others, this came like a bolt out of the blue and, even though it's well before payday, I had to have this astonishing album on vinyl to prove it exists. The feel of the tunes makes me feel like the Impressions do, Curtis Mayfield, the big spaces and instinctive horns and stuff drifting in and out. Great grooves and I can see lots of ghosts nodding along to this with big smiles on their faces. At last! Anthony Cottrell
Dreamy, intricate guitar pop from Oakland's Absent City; splashes of accordion, sitar, lap steel, and mandolin add textural richness. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 26, 2020
Woozy, rollicking indie rock that's thick and humid, searching vocals set against pealing guitars. Also available on cassette. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 22, 2016
