After a string of singles and a couple of EPs, London-born singer-songwriter Ella Smoker signed to Secretly Canadian for her proper debut album as gglum, The Garden Dream. It has her stepping beyond the bedroom pop of her previous work and exploring a bunch of different styles, from the bold, percussive “SPLAT,” to the shoegazey “Late,” to the poignant, pared back folk of “Pruning 2” and “Honeybee,” to the distorted electro blips of “Easy Fun,” to “Eating Rust,” which recalls stomp-clap folk with its driving rhythms. Smoker drew inspiration from a series of “graphic and violent” nightmares on these songs, which really comes across on the eerie and very effective “Pruning 1,” but also doesn’t feel out of place next to “Easy Fun,” which is just plain catchy. She also was inspired by The Microphones’ The Glow Pt. 2, which she says was “in the forefront of my mind the whole time” while writing. The two albums don’t have much in common sonically, but it does set up an intriguing possibility for where gglum could go next; with all the ground she covers on The Garden Dream, it’s just one possible direction of many.
Smoker told us about more of the influences behind The Garden Dream, and you can read her commentary, and stream the album, below.
GGLUM’S INFLUENCES ON THE GARDEN DREAM
The Microphones – The Glow Pt. 2
This has been my favourite album for years and years and years and will always be my number 1 inspiration musically. Karma Kid knows I love this album so he helped me keep that in my mind while we made this album. I know you may not be able to hear it being an inspiration because my album sounds quite different from The Glow Pt. 2 but it was in the forefront of my mind the whole time.
Watching Alex G play upstairs at The Old Queens Head
I went to see this gig with Alex Headford from Jadu Heart and we got absolutely hammered before we’d even got there. I was right at the back and climbed onto the back of a booth to be able to see anything. I was absolutely astonished at how intimate it felt and I think that informed how I wanted the album to feel if I played it live. I cried my eyes out the whole way home but that was probably because of the booze.
My dreams
At the time of writing the album I was having really graphic and violent dreams which I started struggling to differentiate with real life. When I write music I’m usually imagining a place so while writing the album I was writing in the eerie world that my dreams live in. I didn’t even notice I was doing it until about half way through the album.
The EBow
The EBow is this handheld electromagnet that vibrates the guitar string for you and makes the guitar almost into a synth. Karma Kid has one which I use with every chance I get which means it’s on a lot of the album. I don’t know how to explain but when you chuck a load of reverb on it, it sounds kind of like how dreams feel to me so it was a fabulous sound to use.
Baths
I LOVE BATHS. If I’m sad, I’ll be in the bath. If I’m hungover, I’ll be in the bath. If I’m bored, I’ll be in the bath. I have 2 songs on the album called Pruning in honour of pruned fingers from spending too long in the bath.
Requiem for a Dream
I watched this film a few years ago and it really stuck with me (which I think is the reaction everyone has when they watch it). I loved the eerie, surreal world it sits in and the chaos of it. I think it definitely subconsciously affected the album and how I view the album.
Going out
By this I mean almost clubbing but it’s not clubbing. It’s music nights that go on until 6am at places like ORMSIDE / Phonox / Venue MOT. Or even just nights out in London in general where you’re going home as the sun rises. There’s so many stories to pull from with nights like those.
Big Thief – Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You
Before we started making the album, Karma Kid and I made an inspiration playlist for us to refer back to keep the sound of the album consistent and there was loads of Big Thief on it.
Call Me By Your Name and the soundtrack
I know Call Me By Your Name is a controversial movie/book but the cinematography and setting of the whole film is so gorgeous and the emotion is so intense. The soundtrack to it is also insane and I think watching the way that film and music can compliment each other was a big inspiration. When I was younger I wanted to write music for film so I quite like the idea of making more cinematic music.
Quavers crisps
If you don’t know what Quavers are, they’re these cheesy crisps that look like giant toenails and smell like feet. In the studio Karma Kid and I ate a ridiculous amount of them. I think there was one day Karma Kid alone went through a 6 pack of them. Must have been a pretty musty room by the end of each day.
Nylon string guitars
I love to write on nylon string guitars which is what I did with The Garden Dream. I think what instrument you start writing the song on really informs how the songs will turn out. Each instrument massively carries its own vibe which will put you in whatever mood you’ll be in while you make the song.
“The Garden of Death” – Hugo Simberg
Hugo Simberg is my favourite artist and is also the artist who painted the album art. I go to Finland every summer and every year I’ll go to the Ateneum art gallery and spend ages standing in front of his art. His art is all over my home in various forms and his art was the cover art for the album even as I started making it. His paintings are another thing that remind me of the atmosphere of the world my dreams live in.