Getting To Know: Lone Tree

Lone Tree are a Nairobi, Kenya based group of four expat teens formed 7years ago to create a high energy, powerful sound that is contemporary yet firmly rooted in their influences from rock,blues,funk,reggae, and thelegacy of great, live music. We caught up with the band during their world tour, heres how it went down:

How did you all meet and form as a band?

We all met in middle school in Nairobi, Kenya but Lone Tree was formed roughly 6 years ago when our drummer Gabe and I (Patrick Sanders) had first begun to casually jam together not expecting to make anything out of it. The more we played the more we grew a passion for writing, composing, playing live and simply jamming. We continued to add members which has turned into our current line up of Teresa Sanders on vocals, Ben Matsaert on bass/keys, Gabe Gebremedhin on drums and myself (Patrick Sanders) on guitar/songwriter.

How would you best describe your sound to someone who has never listened to Lone Tree?

Though we do not like to restrain ourselves to a singular genre, we do have a wide variety of sounds we like to incorporate into our music. As we've tried to establish our sound over the years, we fell quite in love with rock n roll music and have built upon that foundation by dabbling with alternative sounds and always keeping an experimental edge to our music. Individually we have quite eclectic tastes in music outside rock n roll as well. We've even experimented quite a bit with afro-beat, folk, psychedelic rock and jazz.

How was your recent tour in the US, any specific highlights or memorable shows?

Last summer's tour was really fantastic. It was our first experience playing on the road, but also our first time playing a festival in the US. Although touring Tennessee was incredibly electric and filled with some soulful rock n roll nights, the highlight of the tour had to have been playing at Musikfest the same day as the great Ziggy Marley. Another great night worthy of a shout out was our first night in Nashville at The Basement, playing alongside some friends of ours; Full Hollow and The Garden of Eden. The all night jam session after the show really made the night.

We look forward to you coming to the UK later this year. Will you be playing any shows, how can we catch one?

So do we! We will be having a tour at the end of June playing a variety of different venues in the London area. Some of the venues will be at the Amersham Arms, The Dublin Castle, The Star in Shoreditch and many more! You can find all of the ticket, venue and show time information on any social media (Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok etc.) platforms and via our link tree on our bios.

You have roots around the world: Bolivia, US, Eritrea, Ethiopia, UK and Belgium, and more. How does that range of lived experience blend into your live sound?

I guess all of us coming from quite an international background gave us a unique perspective on music and the arts as a whole. We've been able to see a lot of parts of the world and a multitude of different cultures that not everyone gets to experience in a childhood, which has been such a blessing in my life personally. The way that's fused into our music has been very natural. Everyone in the band has such a wide variety of tastes and interests, that it made our sound unique and experimental.

Do you have any suggestions of bands from Kenya that we should also check out?

Absolutely! There are some really incredible artists in Kenya making real moves internationally. I'd recommend anyone to check out Crystal Axis, Hart the band, The Movement, Sauti Sol and Kelele Kollective.

What have you got coming up?

At the moment we are working on two ep's that will both be released by the end of the year. We are also going to release a number of singles featuring some of our favourite Kenyan artists. As mentioned before we have just embarked on a London UK tour that will last from the 20th-25th and potentially a few shows in Nairobi in July and August.