Tree Shall Overcome - Mark McCambridge Interview

If we can twist the hoary truism that someone can score great goals without being a great goal-scorer, then it’s really worth stating that Mark McCambridge is both a great songwriter and a writer of great songs.

This was clear during his time with Ballymena’s The Holy Innocents, and has only been confirmed since he left to form his own band, Arborist, with school-friend and noted producer Ben McAuley.
From debut single ‘Don’t Tell Me I’m Too Old For Christmas’ (“Most musicians release a Christmas single to end their career, we released one to start ours”), through the likes of ‘ Incalculable Things‘ up to new single, ‘Border Blood‘, there’s always been a  sense that this is someone concerned less with raising his profile, than constructing a formidable body of work.
While there’s a dreamy, barely-there quality to Arborist songs that motions towards escape and retreat, it’s the grounded, flesh-and-blood concerns of day-to-day living that lift the material. These are tunes made beautiful by the accumulation of care-worn details and also by the road-miles they’ve clearly travelled. Songs like ‘Twisted Arrow’ are evidently the product of a life, mid-stream, being fully lived.
“I was watching a BBC interview with Philip Roth,” says Mark, “and he was talking about how he was very successful early on, but to sustain that, he felt like he needed to move somewhere quieter, to filter out the noise. He described it along the lines of needing space to join the dots. I don’t really have the luxury of doing that. But that’s fine: I work around it. I write at nights when the kids are asleep.”
And you can’t half tell.
“Angsty-teen anthems aren’t really an option now,” he laughs. “That said – I’m not sure they were ever really an option for me. It’s all about daily life. Those are the types of songs that sit most comfortably with me.”
The unhurried, miracle-hour feel of the material suggests the songs are products of a long gestation (“there’s a tune on the album that’s 10 years old”). It also speaks volumes about the nature of his working relationship with Ben.
“Having Ben involved has been crucial,” he says. “Confidence is an important thing. I naturally have preferred to sit in the background. Starting Arborist has forced me to push myself out there. And knowing Ben so well, the two of us going back so long – there’s a short-hand there. “
Debut album, Home Burial, is almost complete (“we’re tweaking the choral section on one song”) and all available evidence points to it being one of the best records made on this island in recent years. And, more importantly, the first of many.
“There are certainly a number of reference points,” says Mark, “ Jason Molina of Songs Ohia/Magnolia Electric Co or Mark Mulcahy, formerly of Miracle Legion.  Both enjoyed mild success but the quality of their output was so consistently strong that they were continually supported and, at times, propped up by their more successful contemporaries.  Not necessarily something to aim for, I’ll admit, but it provides a certain reassurance if you focus on and sustain the quality of your work. “