The Wahkiakum County Eagle - Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891

Giants in the Trees has a new album out.

Krist Novoselic, formerly of Nirvana, Jillian Raye, Ray Prestegard, and Erik Friend comprise the local band.

“This album is a year in the making,” Erik Friend, the drummer for the band said. “We started writing songs in March of last year. We recorded it in August, and we worked on it over the winter in post production. And then we were up in Seattle sitting behind a big mixing console with an engineer who mixed albums for the bands Foo Fighters and the Presidents of the United States of America. The files were whisked off to Jack Endino, who was responsible for Nirvana. He’s been putting the final polish on it.

The band is having 300 promotional discs manufactured, Friend said. They will be signed, numbered, and available on the band’s website, giantsinthetrees.com.

There are 10 tracks. The album is slightly shorter than the last one because they eventually want to fit it on vinyl. Meanwhile, the promotional CDs will become available first, then general distribution, then vinyl, and then the band will begin touring.

“I think we all came into our stride on this album,” Friend said. “The first album, we all brought our different musical influences and whatever happened, happened.

"On this one, we’re more assertive, we know how to work with each other. It is a heavier, more polished album, a bit more pop friendly, There are some singles on there that might actually get some attention. We think Krist might get more attention. One song already has a cult following because we played it at a festival and Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters) played drums on the track live. People wanted to know, what is that song? I had to get off the drum kit, so I picked up the mandolin, which is great to fuse this rock and electronic stuff and country folk instruments in this big heavy sound. It’s a new direction for the band.”

“There is a lot of variety on this,” Friend added. “Hopefully there is something for everybody.”