I WISH I WAS A BIG STRONG TREE
A CONVERSATION WITH MITZWOOD & THE CARBON FOOTPRINTS
Mitzwood & The Carbon Footprints is a brand-new indie band operating out of a secluded trailer-turned-recording studio on Toronto’s outskirts. Led by Eric Mitz, Joel Wood, and Alex Nguyen, the group has kept itself busy this past year releasing and recording new music on the regular and experimenting with new sounds.
With two new albums under their belt in 2024, it’s fair to say that this band truly began to take shape when the idea of purchasing a trailer and transforming it into a fully functional recording studio was born.
“We initially were looking at commercial studios but the price of everything in Toronto is just like so incredibly unreasonable,” says Mitz. “Then Joel texted me and he was like, ‘Just two words: RV studio’ and two or three days later we bought this, and we were able to park it here and we’ve been working outta there ever since”
Not only did this move solve some logistics for the group but it also laid the groundwork for their distinctive sound and DIY ethos, which can be heard on their latest project I Wish I Was a Big Strong Tree.
“The benefit from this place is just, I feel more inspired. It’s just kind of a space to chill, hang out, but also get work done. If you listen to some of our recordings, you know, it sounds pretty garagey but that’s part of the appeal with this space. I feel like the music takes on a different meaning here. I don’t know if you’ve been in those commercial studios, but it’s not exactly the most inspiring atmosphere.”
Nguyen also reflects “Yeah for me, like the other band I’m in, we have a kind of focus on what we wanna sound like, so there’s some restraints from that. With Mitzwood, I feel like there’s an opportunity, where if it sounds good, let’s just do it.”
Mitz continues, highlighting the looseness of the recording process. “It’s not like we’re fronting a bunch of costs for studio time with a producer. We are the producers. So, it’s just like an open-ended thing that we can just make what we want to make and we’re hoping that it resonates with some folks, and I think it will but it’s definitely not for everyone”
“No, it’s for everyone” Wood adds playfully.
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“It’s got a little bit of everything, yeah, but I would say it’s probably for people that are looking for alternatives to conventional music. I think it’s just a different sound that you might not hear,” Mitz says.
The band describes themselves as a group that thrives off having a sense of humour, and not taking themselves too seriously. This they believe is what yields the most memorable results.
“I feel like what inspired us was just to make music that was a musical shitpost. I would say funeral, the ending song was made purposefully just to make people cry because we have the cowbell, and we just turned the gain up on it really loud. A lot of albums have like super huge endings and we just kind of were like, what if we just ended it really lame?”
“There’s still just a charm to the lameness though.” Wood adds, “Like it’s over, go home.”
That crafty, self-aware mindset extends outside the trailer as well. Helping fund the band’s creative endeavours is Wood who spends his days working at a vinyl pressing factory where he is able to press all the band’s records himself.
“Being self-sufficient in this day and age is mandatory.” Says Mitz “We can make everything ourselves. We can go to the trailer, make the music, print the record, and then just give it out. Because you’ll spend an arm and a leg going to a studio with a producer and you know, you might not see any return from that.”
Staying true to their independent spirit, the band looks to the future with plans to branch out beyond just their own music.
“We’d like to turn this into something of a record label and we have a name for it. Trailer Park Noise. But our main goal is to really deck this place out, make it the place we want it to be. And just keep recording outta here and hopefully find some other folks as well who vibe with our style.”
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