The Tree Dwellers aim to climb to the top

Published 4:00 am Friday, December 4, 2009

A band formed by local high school students has reached the semifinals in a national garage band contest, where band members hope their song “Destination: Unknown” will be chosen as the next great American road song.

Semifinal voting begins at 7 a.m. today on the U-Turn Garage Band Playoff 2009 Web site, where people can listen to songs and vote for their favorites.

The Tree Dwellers, based in Bend, is the only Oregon band to reach the semifinals portion of the contest, said Karen Munson, whose son Jake Munson, 16, plays guitar in the band.

Jake and bandmates Kyle Pickard, 17, and Ian Neubauer, 17, all attend Mountain View High School, while Forrest Grenfell, 17, attends Bend High School.

The band has a strong jazz influence that comes to the surface in “Destination: Unknown.” Ian said he, Jake and Kyle have played in school jazz bands since seventh grade. Kyle plays the drums, and Ian plays electric and upright bass. Forrest plays piano at his church, keyboard for The Tree Dwellers and keyboard and bass in his other band, The Snag.

“He’s been in a lot more bands, but we’ve been doing more school-based stuff,” Jake said of Forrest.

The U-Turn Garage Band Playoff is sponsored by U-TURN, a magazine that features stories and advice for teenagers who have insurance or other services from the company USAA. The band had already written the instrumental song “Destination: Unknown,” when Jake found out about the contest. The band laid down the song in a local recording studio and e-mailed the music file in to the contest, said Jake’s father, Bud Munson. The term garage band typically refers to bands that practice at home.

The grand prize is $2,500 cash, a photo and video shoot, and an interview on the U-Turn podcast, according to the contest Web site.

Fans who expect to find a meaningful story behind The Tree Dwellers’ name might be disappointed. The band formed in June without a name, and when they got their first gig, opening for The Snag in August, they realized it was time to settle on a name.

Forrest called Ian and “we didn’t have a name, so I just blurted out The Tree Dwellers,” Ian said. What started off as a temporary name will probably end up sticking, since the band members said their friends now know them as The Tree Dwellers.

According to the band’s MySpace page, their influences include The Strokes, Dirty Projectors, As Tall As Lions, Grizzly Bear, Dr. Dog, Deerhunter, Foals, Radiohead, MUTEMATH and Deceptive Bubble.

“Jake and Forrest lay down the chords and texture,” Kyle said. “Then Ian and I lay down some sick grooves.”

Karen Munson said The Tree Dwellers received about 61,000 votes in a previous round of the contest, but now they are competing against bands that received about 81,000 and 102,000 votes during the weeks they competed.

“You can vote an unlimited number of times,” Munson said. “It takes about 10 minutes to vote 100 times.”

The band members said they have received a lot of support from classmates during the competition.

“We have traded votes for cookies,” said Forrest, who used chocolate chip cookies to entice kids at Mountain View High School to vote for the band.

“It’s all happened so fast,” Kyle joked on Thursday. “We’re trying not to let it go to our heads.”

On the Web

To vote for bands in the U-Turn Garage Band Playoff 2009, go to the Web site www .garagebandplayoff.com.

To view The Tree Dwellers’ MySpace page, go to www .myspace.com/thetreedwellers.