Familiar Trees

In 2002, while demo-ing songs for a new record, Ken Negrete and Joel O'Neill invited Fabiola Sanchez to sing. Knowing Fabiola had never done anything like this, Ken and Joel still enjoyed her smooth and sultry tone. Fabiola, realizing that this would be a challenge, agreed to sing on the record. Familiar Trees was formed, a sort of in between experimental and ambient pop group who makes records. By writing and recording with multiple instruments on various songs they discovered that less was more for this first release.

Searching for inspiration to complete a cohesive record, Familiar Trees asked Christine Nguyen to consider doing the artwork for a six song EP and a thirteen song LP. Naturally, Christine, needed to listen to the music and see if she enjoyed it enough to lend her artwork to it. So they sent her few songs and after a few minutes of listening they received her acceptance call. She was excited and eager to get started on some drawings. Little did Familiar Trees know that in order to finish the LP, there would be new songs born from the concepts and images Christine created while listening to the music. It was an inspiration swap. Ken Negrete, using his ears, experience and tools crafted these recordings and Joel, with his ability to play multiple instruments helped blend the sound.