MIRROR TREE

Description

Somewhere in the remote Alaska, Michael Gold – who records and performs pop-infused psych-rock under the name Mirror Tree – began to realize he was officially on the road less traveled. "I was flying between all these indigenous villages and all these little muddy gravel runways in a single-engine Cessna, in and out of snowstorms, and landing on ice-covered runways," explains Gold, who worked for several years as a pilot in the Last Frontier and is currently based in Los Angeles, flying a 737 for a major airline. Raised in Los Angeles, Gold was trained in classical and jazz piano, and the wonders and possibilities of music seeped into him. He continued to pursue music in college, studying jazz piano at CalArts, where he lived in a barn in the remote town of Val Verde, which was once known as "Black Palm Springs." During that time, he joined the indie-disco band Poolside as a keyboardist/singer, bouncing around the world on tour with them, as well as co-writing songs like the disco-rock-fusion epic "Feel Alright." (18 million streams on Spotify and counting.) Gold teamed up with former Poolside member Filip Nikolic to develop his sound, something like a mix of Supertramp and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. With Gold serving as the main writing and performing force of Mirror Tree, and Nikolic producing the set while co-writing and playing on some tracks, Mirror Tree took flight. Gold was demoing songs in his home studio and then bringing them to Nikolic's studio, where they worked together to create ELO-worthy grooves for the chillwave generation.