Photo courtesy of Cascading Slopes

Cascading Slopes is a musical project of Jacob Graham, one of the co-founders of the Drums. On “Maple Trees,” the multi-instrumentalist favors a mellow approach with analog synths, and here he explores life behind the curtain. “On the surface it is about trees and nature but what it’s really about is how glorious solitude can be,” Graham says. “I was feeling a little exposed with my other band, especially in Europe. I found myself in a very public life that I hadn’t expected and never wanted. So this song is just me dreaming about getting away from all that.”

Listen closely and you’ll hear a juxtaposition between good ol’ fashion human longing and the electronic futurism — a move that’s quite deliberate. “The concept is to write very simple, personal, folk songs but to do it with only old, analog synthesizers,’ he says. “The themes one finds in Electronic music tends to be technology, the future, etc: A brilliant trend started by Kraftwerk ages ago but I wanted to do the opposite and bring back the human element, warm it up a little!”

Cascading Slopes’ new album, Towards a Quaker View of Synthesizers, is out this Spring on Plastiq Musiq. Stream “Maple Trees” below: