About Soundserious
It was New Year's Eve 2005 when Tree Forest and Marilyn Hatfield first met, at a new year celebration in the Kootenays. It was there they did the rumba together."From the get-go it's been magic," says Tree Forest, who inspires all Soundserious guitar riffs and melodies. "Marilyn Hatfield is the greatest female percussionist on the planet," he adds. "Shortly after our first dance encounter we played guitar together, and I fell in love with her voice. Then came the drums. Wow. She can sing, drum, play guitar and dance; I was sincerely impressed! All I wanted to do was play music with her."
In the the spring of 2005, Tree was invited by his friend, popular reggae/soul artist Mishka, the first artist produced by Matthew McCaughney's production company, j.k. livin', to go on tour to the states to drive and do special vocal effects for Mishka. Tree invited Marilyn to join him on tour.
"The ride from BC to Montana was fun," Marilyn recalls. "As Tree drove, Mishka played his guitar in the back seat and sang. We were inspired to sing along. Mishka invited me to sing back up onstage while Tree provided the special effects. That was an inspiring experience."
After that we started building my drum kit and incorporated a kick, two toms, a floor tom, three west African dunduns and two bugaroo, hi-hat, cymbals, a Roland SPD-S and a vocal mic.
"I'd been studying west African drumming and dance for 10 years when I met Tree. I fell in love with Tree's guitar playing instantly; he had it," says Soundserious drummer and vocalist, Marilyn Hatfield. "We synced naturally. Playing music and writing songs together has been very fulfilling for us from the very beginning. . Like bread and butter..."
In the summer of 2006 Tree went on tour with Mishka, Nasio Fontaine and Gregory Isaacs, once again driving and doing special vocal effects for Mishka.
Before long Marilyn and Tree were setting up their sound system and playing their music everywhere they could including the Cedar Creek Cafe and Sleep Is For Sissies (Winlaw, BC), The Coastal Kitchen Cafe (Port Renfrew, BC) and festivals like Shambhala Music Festival (Salmo, BC, host to 13,000+ festival goers each year), Koots Roots Culture Fest, The Sinixt Barter Fair (solo and w/ Mishka), Winlaw Water Fest, Entheos Gathering and Conference, the War Child Benefit (solo and with/ Mishka) and other indoor venues such as Nelson, BC's: the Spirit Bar, the Fluid Lounge (solo and with Mishka), the Royal on Baker, Market Fest, Cottonwood Falls Market, the Bushwakker Brew Pub (Regina, SK), the Duncan Garage Showroom (Duncan, BC) and Salt Spring Island's Centennial Park to name a few.
The things that influence their writing are the every day goings on in life: experience, love, parenting, the state of the world, the headlines, the weather, snow on the mountain, the state of the planet, where our drinking water comes from, the things in life that matter..
Soundserious music appeals to a variety of age groups.
Soundserious is to begin recording the first studio album February 2010.
Marilyn M. Hatfield
Marilyn M. Hatfield"Play drums for the people to dance, and there shall be joy!"
I grew up in the boonies ~the middle of now here where you can see all the stars~ with no telephone and four older siblings to boss me around. And a single mom who provided everything by the sweat of her own brow. That was not an easy thing for her to do, but she did it gladly. My mom left for work at the crack of dawn and returned at dusk. As a child I spent lots of time alone, playing in the fields behind our home and dancing in my room studying my reflection in the mirror and singing along with the radio/record player. In fourth grade I asked my mom to invest in some dance classes for me. Because of finances, she resisted, but eventually I won. I was thrilled to take Jazz, Tap and Ballet for the first time. Ballet was boring, but Jazz and Tap rocked. I attended that school for only two years, but my love of dance was nurtured. I was always the dutiful child (with four older siblings there was no shock value in anything~i didn't even have a curfew to break!~), did well in school, ran cross country, graduated, went to New Orleans to college, but by then I had no interest left in the indoctrination. During the last semester I completed, I took a classical guitar class and several dance classes, one of which was a west African dance class. That class blew me away with the live drumming; it hit me deep! It felt right. That class changed my life so much that I left school, bought a drum (djembe) and hitchhiked to California in Dec. of 1994. In January of '95, I met Abdoualye Diakite, a true Bambara Master Drummer from Tambacounda, Senegal, who has taught me everything I know. Upon meeting him I began the journey of the magic of the drum and never looked back. My life became consumed with dance and drum classes most of the seven days of the week for the next several years. The year I met Abdoulaye was also the same year I picked up the guitar again, after recovering from the negative experience I had with a pompous, impatient teacher in said guitar class. This time choosing to learn on my own. I have always been very vocal, since childhood, and from the beginning I found it rather natural to sing to accompany my guitar playing and never felt shy about it. One day I was on the beach in Santa Cruz, CA, playing my dime store guitar (Seriously, it was only a $50 classical guitar!) and singing to the ocean. A young man sat near for some time, listening and enjoying before approaching me and offering to give me a steel string ovation electric acoustic. No strings attached, I gladly accepted.
When I wasn't dancing I was drumming; when I wasn't drumming I was playing guitar and singing. Music became my life, and it consumed my every moment. New Year's 2005, I first met Tree. We hit it off right away and began jamming guitars and singing together whenever possible. Next thing you knew he was playing guitar, I was playing my dunduns, and we were singing and writing songs together all the time. Thus Soundserious was born.
Since 2004, I have drawn on the inspiration and the technique I've acquired studying the traditional and am now creating the utterly original as lead vocalist, percussionist and, sometimes acoustic guitarist of Soundserious, a captivating World/Jam Band/Tribal Rock experience of pure delight. As i said, I've been in love with the art of dance since childhood, and I've dabbled in many dance forms in addition to west African like Congolese, Hip Hop, Flamenco, Belly, Modern, etc.~I love to Krump!~ and, in my heart, the only thing that compares to dancing is drumming. It is now my great honor to create original dance choreography to accompany the rhythmic compositions from my heart that I teach in my Afro Stylie Dance courses. From these courses is born Afro Stylie Percussive Dance Experience, a.k.a. Afro Stylie P.D.E. and, not only do the Afro Stylie P.D.E. dancers dance, they drum. Not only do they drum, they also dance and drum at the same time! Soundserious. Rocking the Earth peaceful.
Tree Forest
Tree Forest..... From the depths of your heart when You’re finding what’s real. Moments of truth turning the wheel. All that you give and it will take... Let’s find a way A way to solve the problems. ------------------------------ The multifaceted Tree Forest.... Precise with a pencil, Tree began drawing likenesses of his mother's house plants at age eight. Fascinated with the female figure, Tree took to popularity in middle school drawing these popular designs. He took to more geometric shapes in mid-1980's and maintained success through duplicating prints of his works. This success afforded Tree the ability to sustain himself while traveling across the US and Canada on numerous tours. In 1987, Tree first picked up the guitar and fell in love; 22 years later he is still at it. In 1992, Tree began to blow glass, and within three years was incredibly successful and renowned for his original style. Since the death of Jerry Garcia in '95, his life has turned toward all things musical. Upon arriving in the Kootenays, Tree turned an old barn into the well known Tea House, a place where numerous musical experiments/recordings, gatherings, weddings and other community celebrations have taken place. These experiences then led him to doing sound for many events, both local and beyond for the next several years. The Tea House is also where Tree began his friendship and work with popular reggae/soul artist, Mishka. In 2006, Tree went on tour in the US with Gregory Isaacs, Nasio Fontane and Mishka as Road Manager and special vocal effects artist for Mishka. Since 2005, Tree has been lead guitarist, vocalist, percussionist and sound designer for Soundserious. Check it out. 