Mini Trees
Album: Burn Out [EP]
Release Date: 2024
USA
In the late summer of 2022, Mini Trees’ Lexi Vega was wrapping up an exceptional year. Her debut album Always in Motion came out while she was on the road supporting Julien Baker in 2021, and she launched into a busy touring schedule, supporting towering fixtures of the indie music world, like Death Cab for Cutie, Thao, Yumi Zouma, and Hovvdy. Suddenly, Mini Trees — a project Vega started on a whim in 2018 — had become a career. [More on Bandcamp]
Lyrics: Shapeshifter
You’ll always find your way back
If you retrace and follow your old path
Back pedal, pulling by my hand
Reverse and do it over again
Sewed together pieces of nothing
A tapestry frayed at the edges
Oh tell me when you start to see something
That I can’t see for myself
I’m bending over backwards
Shapeshifting acrobatic dancer
Tongue tied but I’m well dressed actor
And I’m over it and overdone
Turning around
And folding me inside out
Til I am a shell or myself
I’m always trying to keep the balance
Halfway and running up against myself
I struggle to convince
And in the end nobody wins
Tied together pieces of nothing
A tapestry frayed at the edges
Oh tell me when you start to see something
That I can’t see for myself
Turning around
And folding me inside out
Til I am a shell or myself
Finding out how
To put on someone else
It’s safe for now but
I’m running out
Tracklist: Burn Out EP
01. “Shapeshifter”
02. “Burn Out”
03. “Cave ft. Medium Build”
04. “Sabotage”
05. “Push & Pull”
The songs on the EP span a lot of different themes but I think they all tie back into this desire to find true contentment or fulfillment, internally or externally, and Shapeshifter focuses more on that internal piece.
Lexi on Shapeshifter
Growing up with Cuban and Japanese parents in California must have given you a unique perspective. A traveler friend of mine once said that Japan and Cuba had been the most unique places that he had seen. Did you grow up engaging with both cultures, or not so much?
I mostly grew up engaging with my Japanese heritage because there are so many more family members on that side and a lot of us live in the LA area. For as long as I can remember we’ve gotten together for potlucks, picnics, and holidays to eat amazing Japanese food and play Jankenpo, aka Rock, Paper, Scissors, but for money. On the other side, my dad and his family of four left Cuba and everyone they knew behind when he was a child. By this point everyone has passed away so there aren’t really any relatives to connect with or learn more from, though I do hope to visit Cuba soon as a way to reconnect with this side.
When I listen to your songs, I want to say I see literal, internal, darker, or philosophical evidence of this beautiful multicultural background. Would that be reaching?
Not reaching at all! A lot of my songwriting grapples with identity, and being biracial/multicultural plays a big role in that. Especially with the Cuban side… it kind of feels like a missing piece of myself which plays into some of the identity crises that I touch on throughout the EP.
One of my all-time favorite movies, Vivre sa vie, is broken down into twelve intertitled scenes. My favorite one suggests, “Happiness is not only fun.” This has been echoing in my head for so many years which had suddenly and eternally led to the reconstruction of the definition of happiness. What is happiness to you? Is it overrated?
I don’t know that I can define it but to me, the type of happiness that feels the most substantial is usually the happiness that lasts… like the happiness that comes along with really meaningful friendships and time spent with people I love. Pursuing a music career can bring about a lot of excitement but in my experience, it can be pretty surface-level and fleeting if you’re not grounded in community or have support. Over the years I’ve definitely learned that I’m at my happiest when I’m spending more of my time with and around people who I truly know and love, and who truly know and love me back. Definitely not overrated.
How did Mini Trees come to be? Can you please share a bit of your journey into music and how it has shaped you as an artist? Did art come to help?
I grew up playing music but before Mini Trees, I was usually just playing drums in other peoples’ bands. Mini Trees kinda came about by accident when there was a lull in activity with the bands I was in and I was itching to keep creating music. Once I started experimenting with writing my own music, I quickly found that it became a cathartic experience for processing emotional experiences or big life questions and since I was already plugged into the music scene, finding a way to record the music or finding band members came pretty easily. Everything since then has been a pleasant surprise though.
We break down a song in this series and Shapeshifter’s our pick this time. Can you tell us about the inspiration behind it?
Shapeshifter is actually a really good example of a song that touches on the identity crisis I mentioned earlier. It’s about desperately trying to fit in and find belonging somewhere, and about changing myself to try to blend in. Calling myself a “well-dressed actor”, “folding me inside out til I am a shell of myself”, and losing myself in the process of trying to look like everybody else.
It was such a mind-blowing day when I found out what ‘wallflower’ meant. The meaning is really sad in a way. I think one of the saddest things I can think of because I can 100% relate. Shapeshifter also, as a word, has such a strong impact. How do you think this song fits within the larger narrative of your EP and how do you hope your listeners to connect with it?
Yeah, the word “shapeshifter” felt impactful to me too because it seemed like it captured how I had gotten so good at adapting and changing myself to blend in that it was almost like a superpower. The songs on the EP span a lot of different themes but I think they all tie back into this desire to find true contentment or fulfillment, internally or externally, and Shapeshifter focuses more on that internal piece. Like all of my music, I hope that I left enough space in the lyrics to allow people to interpret it for themselves and attach their own meaning or experience to it.
I am sure they all do but are there any particular lines of it that hold extra special meaning for you?
“Sewed together pieces of nothing, A tapestry frayed at the edges, Oh tell me when you start to see something, That I can’t see for myself”
I really liked this analogy of looking at a tapestry that I’ve sewn together and not being able to recognize what it is, like I’m asking the listener to interpret it for me and tell me who I am for me. Kind of a way to opt out of the hard work that would come with learning how to accept who I am and who I am not.
You’ll be touring with Summer Salt in September. Can you tell our readers more about the tour before we close?
The set for this tour is going to be really different and fun. We’ll play a couple off of Burn Out but I’m also bringing back some older songs and trying out a new, unreleased song too. I tend to mix things up each time we go out on tour (partially because I get bored, haha) so if you’ve seen us before you’ll see a different set this time, and if you haven’t seen us yet I think this show will be a good little sample platter of the live version of Mini Trees.
