Your ideas, suggestions, photos, and letters to the editor are important!
Please talk with any J-Lab staff member or email hilltopnews@corban.edu.
J-Lab Advisers
Mrs. Christena Brooks
J-Lab Adviser
Mrs. Ellen Kersey
J-Lab Co-Adviser
J-Lab Editors
Shawnee Randolph
Hilltop News Editor
Chelsea Vincent
Hilltop Weekly Big Board Editor
Danni Strom
Hilltop Yearbook Editor
Stephanie Hallman
Hilltop Online Editor
Trees of Lyres singing toward the future
By Kate Schell
J-Lab Staff Writer
The future looks musical for Matt and Joanie Oakes. Their band, Trees of Lyres, which opened for Trace Bundy on Feb. 19, just released an EP, and a full-length album is in the works, to be released early this summer.
The harmonious couple met at Corban, and they have been married for eight months.
Matt, who graduated last year, “has been in a band since high school,” said Joanie, a senior music major, “and last spring, he asked me to be a part of it.” The other band members eventually went separate ways, “and it has been just the two of us ever since.”
The name “Trees of Lyres” references Psalm 137. “It talks about the people in captivity singing songs about their homeland and never giving up singing for the people who cannot sing,” Oakes said. “That’s what we want to do: sing for those who can’t.”
With a blended sound Joanie simply calls “indie,” Trees of Lyres plan to continue singing and playing music for people in the Salem area and eventually beyond.
“We’ve been praying and definitely think we’re going to be in this for the long haul,” Joanie said. “We want to play music and get out there. When I’m out of school, we’ll get out even more and hopefully get on tour with some people.”
“I see Trees of Lyres as being willing to go wherever it is that God leads them,” said Kelsey Shields, fellow musician and friend of the Oakes. “They have the drive and the talent to make it in the industry.”
Influenced by a diverse range of artists, Trees of Lyres defies industry classifications.
“They don't fit perfectly into any of the categories we try to place on musicians today,” Shields said. “They are way too good to be confined that way.”
Although it may not fit the usual Air-1 mold, the Oakes consider their music to be an act of worship and a catalyst of conversation. “We try to write about real life stuff people can relate to,” Joanie said. “We’re trying to reach out to people at a personal level. Our music doesn’t necessarily have the word ‘God’ in the lyrics, but we are trying to reach people who aren’t Christians and get them to ask questions.”
It’s a goal they demonstrate with their music and their lives.
“They have honest and original lyrics that are further communicated by the music itself,” Shields said. “Matt and Joanie are both very talented and well studied musicians, and it shows. Through their music, real relationships with Christ, and love for each other, Matt and Joanie are absolutely inspiring.”
For samples of their music, check out Trees of Lyres’ profile at www.myspace.com/treesoflyres.
