Artist: Mini Trees
Album: Slow It Down
Producer: Jon Joseph
Mixer: Jon Joseph
Recording Location(s): Jon's studio in San Pedro, CA
Label: Independent
How long did this album take to create from the first idea to the final master?
The first idea goes back to a writing day Jon and I had in spring 2024, which eventually became “Spinning,” but we didn’t return to it or start tracking in a serious way until early 2025. At that point, I thought I was making a five-song EP, not a full album, but I kept writing throughout the year and eventually decided to just go for it and finish a full record.
It ended up being a bit chaotic, like building the plane while already flying it, because we were rolling out singles before the album was even fully written or recorded. The final song we tracked was the title track, “Slow It Down,” sometime in summer 2025, and I rushed to have everything wrapped and delivered in time for its November 7 release, and somehow we pulled it off!
What art/media were you consuming while writing it (not necessarily direct influences, but maybe subconscious ones)?
At the time I was listening to a lot of Oklou, ML Buch, Chanel Beads, Alex G, and I think gravitating to more guitar-based indie and alternative.
What was your go-to piece of gear during recording?
Jon’s studio is so dialed that it’s less about one specific piece of gear and more about how we tend to change up our process a little with each project.
One thing that was really fun on this record was how we approached drums. On a handful of songs, like “Close,” “On Repeat,” and “Spinning,” we used kick samples instead of tracking a live kick, so I was just playing with my hands, (which was definitely harder in some cases). But it gave us a lot more rhythmic freedom and helped us land on the hybrid programmed/live drum sound we were going for.
Is there anything on the record you would change now if you could?
I don’t think so. It still feels really close to me, and I tend to think of past work as a snapshot of what I was feeling and what we were into sonically at that moment.
Even if there are things we’d do differently now, I don’t usually have regrets about how something was captured at the time.
What sounds on this record do you think people won't notice but you'll always hear?
With Jon’s production, there are always so many little layers that can blend together or get lost in the sauce, and for me the background vocal layers feel especially important because they’ve become such a huge part of the Mini Trees sound.
A lot of them aren’t traditional harmonies; they’re more like pads or chordal textures. As a listener, you probably hear the stack as a whole, but it’s hard to make out each individual layer unless you’re able to isolate them.
Is there anyone (or anything) whose fingerprints are on this album but won't get credit?
Not really because it was a really small, scrappy team of mostly close friends to begin with. That applies not just to the music, but to the artwork, visuals, everything, and anyone who touched this record became a meaningful part of it.
What movie would this album be the soundtrack to?
I don’t have a specific film in mind, but I always imagine my music living in coming-of-age stories. There’s this balance I’m drawn to, where something can feel sonically hopeful but emotionally a little melancholic. That bittersweet space feels very true to life, especially when you’re figuring out who you are. I think this record would fit into stories that explore that kind of emotional in-between.
Is there a tempo, a key, a tuning, a texture that runs through this record?
Not really in a strict sense because we like to change things up a lot. But I did experiment more with alternate tunings on this record than I ever have before. A few songs were written in tunings similar to DADGAD, sometimes tuned down a half step or with an E instead of a D on the low string. That definitely opened up some chord shapes and progressions I probably wouldn’t have found otherwise.
Anything else you want to say about the album?
This is probably the most vulnerable thing I’ve ever written, and I’m really proud of how we pulled it off independently, without a label or a larger team behind it.
A lot of these songs came from processing things I didn’t fully understand yet; it felt like the writing was happening before I could clearly articulate what I was going through. In some ways, the album helped me catch up to my own emotions and realizations.
I hope people can find themselves somewhere in it too.
----------
Stream Slow It Down
Mini Trees Instagram
Mini Trees Tour Dates
Album: Slow It Down
Producer: Jon Joseph
Mixer: Jon Joseph
Recording Location(s): Jon's studio in San Pedro, CA
Label: Independent
How long did this album take to create from the first idea to the final master?
The first idea goes back to a writing day Jon and I had in spring 2024, which eventually became “Spinning,” but we didn’t return to it or start tracking in a serious way until early 2025. At that point, I thought I was making a five-song EP, not a full album, but I kept writing throughout the year and eventually decided to just go for it and finish a full record.
It ended up being a bit chaotic, like building the plane while already flying it, because we were rolling out singles before the album was even fully written or recorded. The final song we tracked was the title track, “Slow It Down,” sometime in summer 2025, and I rushed to have everything wrapped and delivered in time for its November 7 release, and somehow we pulled it off!
What art/media were you consuming while writing it (not necessarily direct influences, but maybe subconscious ones)?
At the time I was listening to a lot of Oklou, ML Buch, Chanel Beads, Alex G, and I think gravitating to more guitar-based indie and alternative.
What was your go-to piece of gear during recording?
Jon’s studio is so dialed that it’s less about one specific piece of gear and more about how we tend to change up our process a little with each project.
One thing that was really fun on this record was how we approached drums. On a handful of songs, like “Close,” “On Repeat,” and “Spinning,” we used kick samples instead of tracking a live kick, so I was just playing with my hands, (which was definitely harder in some cases). But it gave us a lot more rhythmic freedom and helped us land on the hybrid programmed/live drum sound we were going for.
Is there anything on the record you would change now if you could?
I don’t think so. It still feels really close to me, and I tend to think of past work as a snapshot of what I was feeling and what we were into sonically at that moment.
Even if there are things we’d do differently now, I don’t usually have regrets about how something was captured at the time.
What sounds on this record do you think people won't notice but you'll always hear?
With Jon’s production, there are always so many little layers that can blend together or get lost in the sauce, and for me the background vocal layers feel especially important because they’ve become such a huge part of the Mini Trees sound.
A lot of them aren’t traditional harmonies; they’re more like pads or chordal textures. As a listener, you probably hear the stack as a whole, but it’s hard to make out each individual layer unless you’re able to isolate them.
Is there anyone (or anything) whose fingerprints are on this album but won't get credit?
Not really because it was a really small, scrappy team of mostly close friends to begin with. That applies not just to the music, but to the artwork, visuals, everything, and anyone who touched this record became a meaningful part of it.
What movie would this album be the soundtrack to?
I don’t have a specific film in mind, but I always imagine my music living in coming-of-age stories. There’s this balance I’m drawn to, where something can feel sonically hopeful but emotionally a little melancholic. That bittersweet space feels very true to life, especially when you’re figuring out who you are. I think this record would fit into stories that explore that kind of emotional in-between.
Is there a tempo, a key, a tuning, a texture that runs through this record?
Not really in a strict sense because we like to change things up a lot. But I did experiment more with alternate tunings on this record than I ever have before. A few songs were written in tunings similar to DADGAD, sometimes tuned down a half step or with an E instead of a D on the low string. That definitely opened up some chord shapes and progressions I probably wouldn’t have found otherwise.
Anything else you want to say about the album?
This is probably the most vulnerable thing I’ve ever written, and I’m really proud of how we pulled it off independently, without a label or a larger team behind it.
A lot of these songs came from processing things I didn’t fully understand yet; it felt like the writing was happening before I could clearly articulate what I was going through. In some ways, the album helped me catch up to my own emotions and realizations.
I hope people can find themselves somewhere in it too.
----------
Stream Slow It Down
Mini Trees Instagram
Mini Trees Tour Dates
