Name: Mark McCambridge aka Arborist
Nationality: British
Occupation: Singer-songwriter
Current release: The new Arborist album An Endless Sequence of Dead Zeros is out now on Kirkinriola Records, produced by Matthew E. White and featuring the house band of Spacebomb studio. Also, currently on an April-May tour in Ireland/UK
Recommendations: This is Memorial Device by David Keenan (book); Belfast-based artist Dan Ferguson’s striking paintings

[Read our David Keenan interview]
[Read our Matthew E. White interview]

If you enjoyed this Arborist interview and would like to know more about his music, visit Mark McCambridge's official website. He is also on Instagram, Facebook, and twitter.



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

Rarely with eyes closed. Music is always there, it’s just a part of everything I do. A lot of it is passive but that’s important too.

The question might be better answered by looking at what my happens when I’m not listening; there is definitely a sense of lacking something.

What were your very first steps in music like - and how do you rate gains made through experience versus the naiveté of those first steps?

We had an old piano in the house growing-up, passed down from a great aunt, so that informed much of my early experience of music. However, no one in the house knew how to play it and piano lessons were expensive for 5 kids so it was largely about experimentation and self-tuition.

My elder brother had a set of Technics turntables and dance records, so I was into those for a while but always the melodic ones, like remixes of classic songs.

It was all an influence in one way or another. But when I first heard the likes of the Pixies or Dylan it was like a lasso hauling you into the future, there was no going back.

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music meant to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

As I mentioned, it was largely self-tuition and experimentation for me at that age.

I think the first song I wrote was based on an idiom or quasi-proverb inscribed on a tea towel in our kitchen; “When you slide down the banister of life may the splinters point the wrong way” or something equally as kitsch (Oasis would’ve been proud). But that’s all part of it, my mind was open to it even when I didn’t know what ‘it’ was.

As you get older it can be harder to keep that pathway open, it has to be a conscious choice now, it won’t seek you out.

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools and how have they shaped your perspective on music?

That old clunking piano to my brother’s turntables to my first cheap guitar, I looked at them all in the same way. There was no one entry into music or one way to make music.

Late night long wave radio was how I listened to music then so the crackle and imperfect sound were a part of it. I think that feeling still persists when I listen to and make music, the imperfections are appealing.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and what motivates you to create?

All of the old cliches ring true with me; it’s a form of expression, creating something feels worthwhile and a sense that you’re leaving something for eternity - both the physical copies and the impact that the music may have on people, not the digital version sitting on a server in silicon valley or wherever.

And it’s unquestionably a form of personal therapy.

Paul Simon said “the way that I listen to my own records is not for the chords or the lyrics - my first impression is of the overall sound.” What's your own take on that and how would you define your personal sound?

I guess I understand that on some level. My judgement of a take during recording is almost exclusively based on feeling (rather than accuracy of the playing, timing, tuning, mix etc.). Of course many of these contribute to what can be defined as “the overall sound”.

Production is important, that’s for sure. I travelled to Spacebomb Studios in Richmond, Virigina because I loved the “sound” of the records made there.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?

I recorded an album of sea songs under the name M.CAMBRIDGE in a Curfew Tower on the Antrim coast a few years back.



It used to be a prison tower in the early 19th century and I stayed a week there with the wind howling through the walls, up from the basement dungeon and rattling the wooden doors. You can hear it on the record; there’s a ghostly air to it all with the occasional roar from the nearby sea. All of it music.

From very deep/high/loud/quiet sounds to very long/short/simple/complex compositions - are there extremes in music you feel drawn to and what response do they elicit?

Sure, from the cacophony of Irish acts like ‘My Bloody Valentine’ and ‘Gilla Band’ to the hushed introspection of ‘Songs:Ohia’.

It’s all an influence though I’m not sure my response to each extreme is much different, it’s all music.

From symphonies and traditional verse/chorus-songs to linear techno tracks and free jazz, there are myriads ways to structure a piece of music. Which approaches work best for you – and why?

I’m inherently drawn to repetition in a Philip Glass, Steve Reich kind of way. Folk music leans heavily on this too and I think that’s where the influence comes from for me.

Find the sweet spot - whether it be an ostinato, a lyric or chord progression – set it off on its way and build around it. There is lots of that on the new Arborist record.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of one of your pieces, live performances or albums that's particularly dear to you, please?

Strangely (or perhaps not), I remember very little about the creation of a song. Though I always try to keep those channels open so have lots of notebooks filled with ramblings that I can dip into to, I guess, ignite the creative process.

Take ‘Dreaming in Another Language’ from the new LP; often lyrics can come in bursts / one sitting which it did for this. So I had, I think, 9 verses that I didn’t want to tamper with and felt they needed to be the focal point of the piece. It was about finding a grid to fit them onto which required repetition.



There is a slow acoustic demo version of this song but it didn’t feel right so I came up with the single ostinato guitar riff that it is on the record and built around it. It has the right energy and chaos to match the lyrics.

Sometimes, science and art converge in unexpected ways. Do you conduct “experiments” or make use of scientific insights when you're making music?

I was always of a more mathematical bent at school and that definitely influences my approach to creativity. The album title comes from a couplet in a song, “I trawled through its meaning in binary code, Just an endless sequence of dead zeros” which is a slight nod to the world of coding which I’ve inhabited in the past.

There is a palindromic song on the first Arborist record The Broken Light and that was a conscious decision when structuring / writing it.  



How does the way you make music reflect the way you live your life? Can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?

I think my creativity is directly linked to my mood, which is not necessarily a healthy thing.

When I was younger I had a chronic case of OCD in an era without much recognition of such things, “would you stop turning that light switch on and off every time you leave the room!?” It seemed to largely disappear around the time I started playing music in my early teens.

Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

I think people take a similarly creative approach to many seemingly less creative tasks than writing a song and that’s a healthy thing.

Every time I listen to "Albedo 0.39" by Vangelis, I choke up. But the lyrics are made up of nothing but numbers and values. Do you, too, have a song or piece of music that affects you in a way that you can't explain?

There is an old Christmas LP called The Christmas Story: in six lessons with nine carols sung by The Choir of Westminster Abbey that my folks used to play every year.

I’m not religious or in any way sentimental about Christmas but the experience of listening to it is what some would deem transcendental.

If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?

A dismantling of barriers to creativity in society; from artists being given space to work in cities, to art taking a greater role in school life, to more boutique venues.