Mini Trees (aka LA-based songwriter Lexi Vega) arrived on our radar back in April with the heartrending “Spring”, and makes her return today with news of a debut album. It’s called Always In Motion and comes out on September 17 through Run For Cover. She says:
“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.”
This week she’s also shared a new single called “Carrying On”, saying:
“I wrote ‘Carrying On’ in the middle of 2020 when I was out in the desert escaping the city and reflecting on the unsettling new way of life we all had to adopt during the pandemic. Despite how in some ways life had begun to feel mundane again, there was a constant underlying fear that everything could unravel at any moment. In a sarcastic tone, the song questions my ability to hold it all together. We tried to capture this sentiment with the music video, displaying a character who is being led through the motions of day-to-day life, but beginning to recognize that something isn’t quite right.”
“Carrying On” comes bounding out of the gates with a buoyant and propulsive bass line and strident drumming, which acts as a brilliant counterpoint to Vega’s more circuitous and uncertain words. It’s as if the instrumentation is the activity of the world rushing on all around, while Vega is stuck in the middle simply striving for a “sense of peace” and trying to keep troublesome ideas at bay, vividly describing her thought patterns in lines like “Colors paint my mistakes, it’s more than I can take.” The push-and-pull continues throughout “Carrying On”, resulting in a finale where one moment she’s quietly musing “I try to convince myself we’ll see it through” and the next she’s yelping “Is it over like that? Was it all a wash?” It’s a simple but effective reflection of our current mental dissonance, all wrapped up in a three-minute indie pop package.
Watch the video for “Carrying On” below or listen to it on streaming platforms.
Mini Trees’ debut album Always In Motion comes out on September 17 through Run For Cover (pre-order). Make sure to follow her on Bandcamp, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
