From the ashes of his former self, Tree By Leaf frontman releases album

A few years ago, Garrett Soucy had some demons to exorcise. The record of how he did that is available for your listening pleasure on his new album, “Sunlight in Architecture,” officially released last week on Long Ago Light Records. It’s one of the best albums to come out of this state this year. But let’s get to the story behind it first.

Those demons came in the form of 10 songs, written during a period in which the Waldo County-based songwriter was doing things he now wishes he hadn’t. They’re not uncommon things – drinking, drugs, lying, cheating – but for someone like Soucy, they were hard crosses to bear.

“I had rejected my faith in God. I was in a really self-centered, dark place in my life. Those songs came out of that,” said Soucy, who is best known for fronting the alternative folk trio Tree By Leaf. “I guess I was thinking about that whole post-structuralist thing, that the artist doesn’t have to have any accountability for his art. I don’t believe art somehow justifies the bad things that you do.”

Soucy eventually rejected that lifestyle and the bad things that came with it, and returned to a way of being that was spiritual, truthful and much less destructive. A devout (but not preachy) Christian, he now explores and celebrates his faith through the music he makes with Tree By Leaf.

But those songs stuck around, like an albatross around his neck. Dismayed, he tried to change them, and put a positive spin on the often dark, cynical lyrical content. But that didn’t feel right either.

It took two people to help him work through it: his wife and bandmate, Sirii, and a new friend and collaborator, the Belfast songwriter, producer and all-around musical whiz kid Andrew Luckless.

“Sirii told me it’s a form of falseness to try to mask where you were then. It’s hypocritical to pretend you weren’t,” he explained. “Let it be a land marker. Let it remind you of where you were, and where you are now. Let it be a memorial, and a warning.”

Ready to let people hear those songs, it was fortunate that in 2005 he ran into Luckless at a party. Mutual friends agreed that the two should know each other.

“People had been trying to get us to meet each other for a long time. I hadn’t really listened to his music at that point,” said Soucy. “To really understand the brilliance of Andrew, you have to see him in full regalia, and see him write and create and produce. When I heard his album ‘Laundryfish,’ it was just, like, ‘Wow.’ It was like consciousness expansion.”

Soucy played his songs for Luckless, who recorded just his vocals and acoustic guitar, and then took the basic tracks into the studio. He then painstakingly arranged, mixed and fine-tuned them. For three years.

“I was struck by his ability to enter into songs that were so personal to me. It wasn’t like he was superimposing his creativity onto them. He was able to enter into it and make it the best that it could be,” said Soucy. “It changed my whole perception of how I make my own music.”

The end result is “Sunlight in Architecture,” an exquisitely composed, arranged and produced document of a man going through a spiritual and psychological crisis, and how he eventually escapes from it. Though it’s fraught with tension and cynicism, the music is bright and jangly, with Soucy’s crisp, crunchy guitar work and expressive voice front and center, and Luckless’ deft string arrangements providing dramatic counterpoint. It showcases Soucy’s greatest strengths as a songwriter – his ability to temper his seriousness about his beliefs with his innate sense of melody and gift for writing catchy songs.

Despite its dark lyrical content, with “Sunlight in Architecture” Soucy managed to take his pain and guilt and transform it into something else – something redeeming, and healing.

“There was so much construction going on with me when I wrote those songs. The term ‘sunlight in architecture’ refers to the intent of building something, with the desire to fill it with light,” he said. “I think that’s representative of my intentions, as far as art goes.”

“Sunlight in Architecture” is available for purchase at www.sunlightinarchitecture.com. Soucy will perform with Tree By Leaf at 6 tonight at 3 Tides in Belfast; at 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 31, in downtown Belfast at Belfast Summer Nights; and at 7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 10, at the Maine Arts Show in Presque Isle.

eburnham@bangordailynews.net

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