It’s Good To Be A Tree is a new record label from Sergey Pushkin, and the imprint recently dropped it’s fourth release, which is an nine track various artists titled ‘G2B3:comp-01’.
G2B3:comp-01 is a fantastic organic house release with ambient textures and down tempo grooves that are full of enchanting atmosphere, but it still has all the ingredients to work on the dancefloor.
Sergey Pushkin closes out the release with one of his own tracks, and we decided to catch up with him for this interview, so we could learn more about It’s Good To Be A Tree…
– Tell us first, where did your name come from?
Actually, the label was at first going to be called ‘Level:tree’, because it’s an extension of our other record label Leveldva, and also inspired by my love of the Burning Man culturel. Our camp at Burning Man has the moto ‘it’s good to be a tree’, so at first, we thought about combining ‘Level’ and ‘tree’, but later we decided that It’s Good To Be A Tree was a stronger name. I love the metaphor behind the meaning of the name, and now couldn’t have imagined calling the record label anything else.
– Who makes up the label?
The visual concept is curated by my wife Daria Zotsenko. The musical idea is to unite our friends from different genres. The visual part is also following the same direction, as to do the cover of every release, we ask one of our artist friends to draw artwork that they feel connects with this music. All the sleeve art for the label was first made on canvas or paper before being converted into a digital format with photos of scanning.
– I see a clear Downtempo influence, which labels are you inspired by?
Downtempo influence came directly from the Leveldva, Serafin Audio Imprint and Urban Cosmonaut Radio, but there are many others that we listen to. It’s Good To Be A Tree also got inspiration from labels as Ninja Tune, which are known to combine elements from different genres.
– You are on your fourth release, what other artists can we expect in the future?
Currently we are working on five upcoming releases. The next one will be an EP from the band Buduchi who describe their music as afro-futurism. Also, we have a super beautiful one-hour electronic improvisation from NoMusicians and Dima Ustinov. There is also a jazzy release from our Mexican friend Sarmi who makes great house music. We also have another compilation made by label residents, and that features one guest track, which is a very big collaboration. There are a lot of people who say that it’s hard to run a label with a wide range of styles, but we prefer to be honest to ourselves, and just release the music we like.
– Will there be a Showcase in the future?
Absolutely, we prepare an event for every upcoming release, and a big showcase is already planned for this summer. Pretty sure it will be in the woods, as we think that’s the perfect setting for our music, and that’s another reason why we chose our name It’s Good To Be A Tree.
– And finally, what are some of the exciting things you have planned for 2022?
Our plan for 2022 is to put out the five releases I mentioned earlier, and to do 5 concerts connected to those releases. We also want to do a sixth event that will be our first big showcase. There are also plans to do our first vinyl release, which we want to be based on the concept of a musical fairy-tale. These times of COVID are still very unpredictable, so of course we might have to do less parties if there are new event restrictions, but we have our fingers crossed that things are going to continue returning back to normal.
