Behind The Tracks: Abrasive Trees - Carved Skull (Single) (2026)

Matthew: I demo’d much of this album at home on my own in 2023 and 2024, and this one ended up somewhere else entirely - although the central ​​arpeggiated riffs remained for the verses. The original demo sounds like it was played on synths and, like the studio version, was full of layered textures.

I added the chorus later and wanted it to have space so the message of the question could be revealed with as much clarity as possible. When it came to the studio version, we laid it down pretty quickly, and then Niall (our producer) encouraged us to add many layers of guitar and some synth parts too. Ben’s cello really added incredible texture whilst Jay’s guitar playing took it somewhere I hadn’t anticipated - but it really works, I think.

The lyrics are all about wishing for this horrendous time of collective gaslighting and deliberate division to be over, and how some kind of harmony could return. Maybe it’s a bit cheesy to say this, but deciding to live in the best possible way, to lead by example, to look after your own state of mind in order to help others, seems like the only life worth living.

It’s an audacious song in some ways, both lyrically and musically. But I kind of love that, however, the ethos behind this song is something I really try to live by. It’s something I believe in.

It was real fun evolving it with Jay, Will and Ben and felt so good when we played it for the first time with people seemingly loving it. When we played it last, Georgia had just joined on bass - she has I think brought another integral dimension to the song which people can experience in the upcoming live gigs.

Can we write a eulogy, for this current age?

And leave the lies behind

Our fears are carved upon our skull

Our pain upon our skin

Did you choose, a world where kindness reigns?

Can you find the love in your heart?

Our tears are formed, from the fact that we all care

Our bonds, our humanity

Are we divided?

What does it take to be your own best friend,

And reach beyond the walls?

Can you find, a reason just to be,

And create the peace you crave?

Are we divided?

Jess: Creating the Carved Skull video began with me mapping out the emotional rise and fall of the song, through really listening to every instrumental part and the lyrics. I knew early on that the journey needed to feel like a gradual ascension, something that starts soft, almost whispered, which grows into more expansive and shifting visuals.

I started with the idea of bird’s-eye imagery, calm, drifting shots that look down on the earth from above. These scenes became the visual heartbeat of the video, quiet, meditative, capturing the gentle pulse of the planet. I wanted viewers to feel held in those moments, suspended between reality and imagination. The softness of those aerial views acted like a breath in the narrative, grounding everything in something familiar and soothing.

From there, the video begins to shift, as the music intensifies, the imagery transitions into more textured, impactful visuals. I leaned into the movement, with the band also becoming part of the landscape. I enjoyed working with the rise and fall of the track, where the abstract textures blend and reshape. This became a way to mirror the music’s structure; layered, evolving, never static. The world bends, softens, stretches. I wanted the imagery to feel alive. It was important to me that the imagery felt like natural shifts, moments where the internal world of the song spills into the external world of the visuals.

Throughout the entire process, I treated each section of imagery as a chapter in a larger, flowing narrative, the quiet aerial beginnings, the emergence of the band as a visual anchor, the world morphing into something more dreamlike and expressive. I wanted the video to be a journey that mirrored the shape of the music, rising from stillness, moving toward intensity, and ultimately blending all its elements into something fluid and whole. My intention was to capture echoes of meaning behind the lyrics and the emotional landscape of the song.

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