They are the first Gigstarter finalist from the UK ever: indie-rock band GARDEN! You can experience their show during the Gigstarter Artist of the Year final on Friday 13 December in the Melkweg, Amsterdam. It’s time to get to know these ambitious musicians who want to impress during their first gig abroad.
How did GARDEN arise?
‘The band started at school, we were around 15, and it started out of boredom to be honest. We never started wanting to be a huge band we just all loved playing music together and we almost fell into the band. Now it’s become such a catharsis that we could never do anything else.’
What are the musical inspirations for the band?
‘Our inspirations really fall on every side of the spectrum, from Pearl jam to Prince, to Wolf Alice to Phil Collins. We don’t have a set genre that inspires us, music that catches you and swallows you up until the only thing you can do is feel inspired. I think that’s why our music is so diverse and our sound is so ambiguous, we just love great music. I think that’s more common with most people nowadays as people have become less tribalistic in their cultural identity, genres aren’t cool anymore. I think we’re an example of that.’
How did you find out about Gigstarter?
‘I think it was just through hearing about other bands using it to help them get gigs and seeing stuff online about it.’
What can we expect of your performance during the Artist of the Year final?
‘In our live set you can expect a lot of sweat, some awful dancing and hopefully some good music. We are still developing into the live band we want to be but the only consistency we try to retain is we give everything to the crowd.’
GARDEN - Sad Smile AcousticIs this the first time playing abroad? And which countries do you want to perform in the future?
‘Yeah it is, we’ve never played abroad before. And I can’t wait to play in Amsterdam, just hoping we can stay sober long enough to play alright. I mean I don’t have much preference to be honest. I would be lying if I didn’t say I want to play in America, I think we’d fit in there.’
What are your plans in the future?
‘We've got a new EP coming out soon which will be the first release of music we have done for about a year so we're excited to get that. We've got lots of content coming onto our social media and YouTube channel soon too. Next year our aim is to try and release a song each month for the whole year to keep getting music out there for people to listen to.’
