Bino Bames on “Cherry Tree,” Vegas, and the Songs That Survive the Year

Raised in Las Vegas, Bino has spent the past few years building a catalog that feels loose around the edges but completely intentional at its center. His debut EP Gathers No Moss introduced a songwriter pulling from the rawness of artists like Syd Barrett, Elliott Smith, Daniel Johnston and The Velvet Underground without treating the past like somewhere he needed to stay. Since then, he has taken the project through the UK and Europe, returned home for his US live debut supporting Arkells, and released his second EP, Starfall, Vol. 1.

Now, barely removed from Starfall, Vol. 1, Bino is already moving again.

“Cherry Tree,” out August 26, is technically a new release, but the song reaches much further back. It is one of the final pieces of music from his teenage years that he still wanted the world to hear — a strange little time capsule arriving just as the person who wrote it has started to become someone else.

The Last One From Back Then

When Bino talks about where “Cherry Tree” came from, there is no elaborate studio mythology behind it.

“I was living at my brother's house sleeping on his couch,” he tells Everyday Jams. “When he would go to work for the day, I would eat mushrooms and play piano until he got back. Cherishing that alone time.”

It is the kind of answer that explains a lot about Bino’s music without really trying to explain anything. His songs can drift into strange places, but there is usually something tangible underneath them: a room, a person, a period of his life that still has fingerprints on it.

“Cherry Tree” is especially rooted in that sense of looking back. Bino describes it as “one of/if not, the last song that I wrote during my teen years that I want to put out.”

Even the title carries its own philosophy.

“In some way I see a cherry tree represents life and the cherries are the sweet happenings that a life can produce,” he says. “Early pickings will be bitter, wait too long and it's rotten. You've gotta pick them at some point.”

For a song pulled from an earlier version of himself, the image fits almost too well. “Cherry Tree” is not Bino trying to recreate who he was as a teenager. It is him deciding that one particular thing from that period is still worth picking.

Everything Stays Connected

The timing makes “Cherry Tree” an interesting follow-up to Starfall, Vol. 1, but Bino does not seem particularly interested in drawing hard borders between eras.

“I feel all my music is connected no matter the period or theme,” he says. “I go through phases and I allow myself to change, shift, evolve.”

Still, he is clear that “Cherry Tree” exists separately from Starfall, Vol. 1.

“This song is a part of the most recent phases of my life. That being said, it is not a part of that album and is its own project.”

That willingness to let different versions of himself coexist might be part of what makes the Bino Bames catalog feel difficult to pin to one exact moment. His reference points reach backwards, but his relationship with them is less about revivalism than access.

“My generation grew up with iPods that could play any song from any era of recorded music,” he says. “There's so much music that already exists, I have no time to keep up with what comes out today. I'm still sifting through everything that existed prior. I think most of the best music has already been written.”

There is something almost anti-algorithmic about that approach. Bino is not talking about chasing whatever is happening around him. He is still digging through decades of music, deciding what stays with him, and letting those discoveries meet whatever he happens to be making now.

Vegas Made Its Mark

Bino grew up around a city that is practically built on excess, but the music itself often feels far more intimate.

For him, Las Vegas did not even register as unusual until he left.

“I thought growing up in Vegas was completely normal until I moved away at 16,” he says. “It was very uncomfortable at times and teenage ‘growing pains’ in Vegas are a lot heavier. You've gotta have a good head on your shoulders a lot sooner.”

Leaving also gave him a different version of himself to write from. After spending time building the project in England, Bino noticed how much place could change the material.

“In England I was finding myself in a sea of unfamiliar faces,” he says. “In Vegas I'm a version of me that has been established to my friends and family. Both of those circumstances impact the material.”

That makes his upcoming hometown return feel especially full-circle. This September, Bino is set to play his first official hometown show at House of Blues Las Vegas.

“It's my first time playing a show in Vegas since the band I had in high school,” he says.

The teenager who once played in a Vegas band is now returning with two EPs behind him, international dates under his belt and an increasingly recognizable world of his own.

100 Songs Later

Part of that world is visual.

The clothes, artwork and imagery surrounding Bino Bames do not feel like branding pasted over finished music. According to Bino, they are happening at the same time as everything else.

“They're always there,” he says. “I get dressed everyday, make music everyday. After a year I've got 100 songs and I pick the strongest ones to put out. The imagery and artwork is stuff I do in my free time in collaboration with other artists or on my own.”

That might be one of the simplest ways to understand the project: there is a lot being made, and what reaches listeners is what survives.

It also explains why progression for Bino feels less like a dramatic reinvention and more like accumulation. Asked what sounds most different when he goes back to the earliest Bino Bames material, his answer is straightforward.

“The instrumental ability. I've had a lot more performances and written a lot more songs since then.”

Playing live has opened up another direction too.

“I want to try something a bit more stripped back,” he says. “It made me want to do an acoustic album. I've also been thinking about putting together a 3 part band.”

For someone who can end a year with a hundred songs to choose from, the idea of stripping things down feels less like limitation and more like another experiment.

Cherry Tree

“Cherry Tree” will be followed in September by “Empty Home,” continuing a run that has already moved from Starfall, Vol. 1 into something separate.

Bino is keeping the details of what comes next characteristically short.

“I'm continuously pushing myself as a writer and performer,” he says.

And there is apparently more happening outside the music too. If “Cherry Tree” happens to be someone’s introduction to Bino Bames, he already knows where he would send them next.

“I would like them to check out High On My Own or the feature film I've been working on that isn't out yet.”

The film can stay a mystery for now.

What is clear is that Bino is not short on material, ideas or versions of himself still waiting to surface. “Cherry Tree” may have been written years ago, but its arrival does not feel like Bino looking backward. It feels more like one loose end being pulled into the present before he keeps going.

And knowing there could be another hundred songs somewhere behind it makes whatever comes next a lot more interesting.

Stream “Cherry Tree” by Bino Bames out now.

Photography: Jorge Foley