{"title":"Mini Trees","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"mini-trees-always-in-motion","title":"Mini Trees - Always In Motion","description":"\u003cdiv id=\"afi-container\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor better or for worse, life keeps moving forward. It’s this fundamental truth that Lexi Vega, the creative force behind Mini Trees, confronts throughout her debut album Always In Motion. But coming to terms with this inevitability has been a life-long struggle.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe daughter of a Cuban-born father and Japanese-American mother, the uniqueness of her identity has been an ever-present tension in Lexi’s life. She never quite fit in growing up within predominantly white communities in suburban southern California, with few who around her outside of her family to understand the generational scars caused by both exile and internment. When she was only 5 years old, Vega’s father, a professional drummer himself, took his own life. These traumas set in motion an ongoing questioning of Vega’s own self identity - and Mini Trees has provided the palette for Vega to process, to persevere, and to grow.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter playing drums in various projects for years, Vega began writing and recording her own music under the moniker Mini Trees in 2018. She recorded her first solo track in the Summer of 2018 with producer Jon Joseph and was immediately hooked on the feeling of creating something that spoke directly to her as an artist, fully in control of her own vision. Mini Trees debut EP, Steady Me, dropped in 2019 and Vega followed it with 2020’s EP, Slip Away. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFollowing the release of these two EPs and with ample time to work on music during 2020, Vega both found herself ready to progress creatively and challenging many of her long-held beliefs and notions about her own identity. Originally envisioned to be yet another EP, Vega instead began working on what would become her debut full length, Always In Motion, a collection of relatable indie-pop songs that acknowledge our collective anxiety about life’s improbability.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Moments In Between,” Always In Motion’s ethereal opening number, was written early on in the process, kick-starting Vega into songwriting mode and reflecting the anxiety and dread she was grappling with as the world shut down around her. That sense of uncertainty pervades the album, although it’s more universal than circumstantial as Vega uses the lyrics to consider how we move through life with a constant sense of unknowing. “Moments In Between” wonders whether spiritual belief can help us accept all types of challenges, although the introspective track doesn’t necessarily find a conclusion.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“When you’re in the midst of something painful you long to get to the other side of it,” Vega explains. “You want to be free from that. Faith can mean that even though life is long and painful, there is hope at the end of it all. I like the idea of there being something better than this on the other side. That possibility acknowledges that while people go through periods of intense anxiety and dread, they make it through.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Carrying On,” a pulsating, layered track, was written during a trip to the desert, where Vega struggled to reconcile her sense of the world with actual reality, especially during a time when everything felt so unbelievable and surreal. The lush “Cracks in the Pavement” reflects on identity, with Vega acknowledging and embracing who she is and recognizing that change has to come from within. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThose themes extend into “Spring” as Lexi explores long-term relationships, wondering whether they can withstand one partner’s internal evolution. “It explores that fear of when you care about something so much that you don’t want to lose it,” she notes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe closing track, “Otherwise,” confirms that there is no easy answer for these queries, but maybe that’s okay. Life, as usual, moves forward.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“I liked the idea of ending on an unresolved note,” Lexi says. “It emphasizes that there’s no certainty until we reach the end. That’s the only truth that seems reliable. You can’t ever know what’s going to happen until you get there. And that doesn’t have to conjure up feelings of dread. Over the course of the album I teeter-totter between having questions and wanting answers, but the resolution is to be okay with not knowing. I think I do find some acceptance along the way, but the album purposefully concludes with no real resolution.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTracklist:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1. Moments In Between\u003cbr\u003e2. Doomsaday\u003cbr\u003e3. Underwater\u003cbr\u003e4. Cracks In the Pavement\u003cbr\u003e5. Youth\u003cbr\u003e6. Spring\u003cbr\u003e7. Carrying On\u003cbr\u003e8. Differently\u003cbr\u003e9. Numb 10. Otherwise\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePressing Information:\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e 250 Yellow \u0026amp; Clear Swirl (RFC Exclusive)\u003cbr\u003e250 Yellow with White Smoke (Band Exclusive)\u003cbr\u003e300 Scarlet Red (Vinyl Me, Please Exclusive)\u003cbr\u003e500 Opaque Violet\u003cbr\u003e1000 Clear\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRelease Date: \u003c\/strong\u003eSeptember 17, 2021\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mini Trees","offers":[{"title":"LP - Yellow \u0026 Clear Swirl \/ 250 (RFC Exclusive)","offer_id":53558515794292,"sku":"RUN2V222LPC1XXAX","price":22.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP - Blue Swirl \/ 500","offer_id":53558515827060,"sku":"RUN2V222LPC6XXAX","price":22.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":53558515859828,"sku":"RUNCDRFC222CDXAX","price":12.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0939\/0607\/6020\/files\/600_31.jpg?v=1762291648"},{"product_id":"mini-trees-burn-out-ep-colour-3-12","title":"Mini Trees - Burn Out EP","description":"\u003cdiv id=\"afi-container\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eIn the late summer of 2022, Mini Trees’ Lexi Vega was wrapping up an exceptional year. Her debut album \u003ci\u003eAlways in Motion\u003c\/i\u003e came out while she was on the road supporting Julien Baker in 2021, and she launched into a busy touring schedule, supporting towering fixtures of the indie music world, like Death Cab for Cutie, Thao, Yumi Zouma, and Hovvdy. Suddenly, Mini Trees — a project Vega started on a whim in 2018 — had become a career.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eBut the thing no one talks about with periods of time that are exceptional is that they are often equal parts amazing and draining. When Vega returned home to Los Angeles after almost two years of touring, she found herself tired and dejected. Rarely do musicians talk about the\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eemotional toll exacted behind the scenes — the energy it takes to connect with audiences night after night in strange towns; the industry’s insistence on synthesizing your identity into something consumable; the struggle to find joy in commodifying the thing you once did purely for love. “I struggle with the balance of being so emotionally attached to the art that I make and simultaneously trying to build a business out of it,” Vega says.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eShe pondered quitting. A month passed — no planning, no writing, no recording. But Vega has been playing music since she got her first miniature drum kit at five years old. And so, like anybody for whom music is core to their identity would, she got antsy. She decided to stop worrying about how her next moves would be perceived and instead focus her energy on how to cultivate the most joy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eReturning to the studio with her old friend and producer Jon Joseph (Low Hum, Bayonne, BOYO), Vega pushed herself to experiment with the possibilities for her sound. She pushed for a determinately pop sound with production that was live, organic, and substantive. She and Joseph invited other collaborators into the studio for the first time — Death Cab for Cutie’s keys player Zac Rae (Lana Del Rey, John Legend, Fiona Apple), James McAllister (Sufjan Stevens, Taylor Swift, Big Red Machine), and Jimmy Johnson (James Taylor, Rod Stewart, Phil Collins), an old family friend of Vega’s. The result is \u003ci\u003eBurn Out\u003c\/i\u003e, a defiantly euphoric five song EP.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eThe production on \u003ci\u003eBurn Out\u003c\/i\u003e’s songs shimmers, as Vega explores the pervasive sense of fractured identity, disillusionment, and otherness that has shaped much of her sense of self. On EP-opener “Shapeshifter,” Vega contends with her tendency to change herself to blend with her surroundings. “\u003ci\u003eTied together pieces of nothing\/A tapestry frayed at the edges\/Oh tell me when you start to see something\/That I can’t see for myself\u003c\/i\u003e,” she belts over pulsating synths and buoyant drums, referencing the difficulty of locating herself amidst the many binaries and identities she’s pulled between. These disparate identities are reflected in the EP’s cover art, as Vega lies draped over a bed cluttered with discarded clothes, familial heirlooms and mementos strewn at her feet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eThe child of a Cuban father and Japanese mother, the question of heritage and how she’s meant to relate to it has long plagued Vega. Her father was a sought-after studio drummer, best known for his work with James Taylor, and her mother sang for a period in the Grammy-nominated jazz group Hiroshima (both of their records are tucked into the EP’s cover art panorama). So for Vega, music and familial identity are tightly linked, especially in the wake of her father’s death when she was a child and the loss of contact with her Cuban relatives. “When I contemplated quitting music I think I felt very scared that I would lose some kind of connection to my dad because he was an incredible musician — I meet drummers all the time who tell me how much they looked up to him. Even though he’s not here to be part of any of this, I think I still feel connected to him through this passion we both have. Because of this, music always felt like a place to belong.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eJimmy Johnson — her father’s close friend and a surrogate father to her after his death — plays bass on EP-closer “Push and Pull,” in which Vega asks her loved ones to ground her despite feeling pulled between her many warring selves. And on “Cave,” which features Medium Build’s Nick Carpenter, Vega contends with the idea of a self she’ll never know. “\u003ci\u003eYou’re never going back there\u003c\/i\u003e” the two singers belt throughout the song’s build, a lament for life’s unlived trajectories.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eThe irony of \u003ci\u003eBurn Out\u003c\/i\u003e is that as vulnerably as Vega grapples with her insecurities throughout the EP, this is Mini Trees’ most assertive and intrepid work yet. Gritty guitars rip through polyrhythmic backbeats, Vega’s voice pressed tight to the listener’s ear, gleaming as it flips into breathy falsetto. These are hooks meant to be belted in loud rooms, and arrangements that sparkle as if they were crafted in million-dollar studios. These songs came mostly out of the same rooms in which Vega made \u003ci\u003eAlways in Motion\u003c\/i\u003e — a testament to the profound artistry and talent that she continues to develop, and a sign that she has a firmer grasp of herself than even she knows.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTracklist:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1. Shapeshifter\u003cbr\u003e2. Burn Out\u003cbr\u003e3. Cave (ft. Medium Build)\u003cbr\u003e4. Sabotage\u003cbr\u003e5. Push and Pull\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePressing Info:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e100 Pink \u0026amp; Orange Swirl (Magic Circle Exclusive)\u003cbr\u003e200 Orange in Purple (Mini Trees Exclusive)\u003cbr\u003e200 Red \u0026amp; Purple Swirl (RFC Exclusive)\u003cbr\u003e500 Orange\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRelease Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e March 1st, 2024\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mini Trees","offers":[{"title":"12\" EP - Red \u0026 Purple Swirl (RFC Exclusive) \/ 200","offer_id":53624079745396,"sku":"RUN2V263LPC3XXAX","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0939\/0607\/6020\/files\/MiniTrees_BurnOutEP_FINAL_1500x1500_fc3739c9-5080-4f10-a77d-f6c8948277c5.jpg?v=1762291605"},{"product_id":"mini-trees-paper-boat-longsleeve-natural","title":"MINI TREES - PAPER BOAT LONGSLEEVE (NATURAL)","description":"","brand":"Mini Trees","offers":[{"title":"SMALL","offer_id":53865280176500,"sku":"RUNLSLEU04039A03","price":28.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"MEDIUM","offer_id":53865280209268,"sku":"RUNLSLEU04039A04","price":28.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LARGE","offer_id":53865280242036,"sku":"RUNLSLEU04039A05","price":28.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"X-LARGE","offer_id":53865280274804,"sku":"RUNLSLEU04039A06","price":28.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0939\/0607\/6020\/files\/LS-Both-Store.jpg?v=1769430990"}],"url":"https:\/\/runforcoverrecordsuk.com\/collections\/mini-trees.oembed","provider":"Run For Cover Records UK","version":"1.0","type":"link"}