song: mothertree
(© 2025 Gudrich/Gudrich)
Album: Exile from Mainstream
Based entirely on scientific research around communication amongst trees (mainly by Dr Suzanne Simard), this earthy rocker, featuring improvised guitar parts in true Mike McCready fashion, and with verses reminiscent of the RHCP, challenges the idea that evolution always favors competition and shows that ecosystems are actually places of collaboration. Listening to the trees should inspire a kinder, more collaborative and just human society!
Read more about the research here: https://e360.yale.edu/features/exploring_how_and_why_trees_talk_to_each_other
Lyrics
When the days get shorter and the leaves have fallen
feel the birch trees callin’
through the mycorrhiza callin’
‘cuz no photosynthesis means sun food starvin’,
it’s the sentiment in the sediment.
When the days are long and my cones have opened,
when my seedling firs are growing,
they need help with water flowin’
‘cuz their little root system’s too young for survival,
it’s the sentiment in the sediment.
I say thanks to the filaments at my feet!
They help me help all the trees that are in need. Transporting water and sugar, pulsating information, connecting ev’ry tree in this holiest location!
It’s the sentiment in the sediment.
They need their sugar, sugar!
They need their sugar!
We need our sugar, sugar!
We need our sugar!
MOTHERTREE!
MOTHERTREE!
Liner notes
vocals - Xavi | rhythm & lead guitars - Xavi | bass - Xavi | recorders - Sunny | backing vocals - Sunny |
Recorded at Catfish&Crow Studios, 2025 Engineered by Sunny Gudrich
℗ Gudrich/Gudrich 2025
Story
This is one of our more deliberate songs... We had planned to write a song about tree communication and that idea had been floating around for a while. Then Xavi played this beautiful bass line one day and Sunny said "Couldn't that be the tree song?" and then Xavi said "Yeah, I also thought so!" Kinda beautiful, how we both saw that possibility in this bass... And then we grew the song from there.
The research by Dr. Simard Simard explores the underground networks of forests characterized by fungi and roots. She studies how these fungi and roots facilitate communication and interaction between trees of an ecosystem. This communication includes the exchange of carbon ("sugar"), water, and nutrients. Simard identified "mother trees", which tend to be the largest trees in forests that act as central hubs for vast below-ground mycorrhizal networks. A "mother tree" can support seedlings by "infecting" them with fungi and supplying them with the nutrients they need to grow.