Fox Reviews Rock

Introduction

The Spotify introduction for this bad is them saying “I’ve cut my tongue more than once just like you”. It serves as a lighthearted way to make the listener feel at ease , which the exact effect their music has too. The genre of Gardens is a tricky one with them describing it as “Dream Pop”. Regardless of what it is though , it is excellent. We caught up with the band prior to this years Orange Blossom Special Festival (OBS).

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Interview

The first thing that I think it is important to understand is what exactly is it about gardens that inspired you to call yourselves that?

(Luca) I think we all have an appreciation for nice gardens in this band, but in this case the name actually came up while me and a few friends tried to come up with a name for a different band project. Someone called out GARDENS and I loved it so much but it wasn’t a fit for that particular project. The others all agreed that I should take the name for my own project, which was just at the very beginning of taking form. So actually the name came quite a bit before the band came together. It set everything in motion and just fit the vibe I wanted to go for so perfectly.

(Peter) Luca loves greeeen!!

(Luca) Hehe he got me…

Within your music there is a distinct electronic feel. Can you name some bands that used similar techniques that inspired this particular flair you have?

(Peter) Maybe MGMT, Weyes Blood or Gorillaz? For one Laura brought a synthesizer into the band, which naturally shaped our sound. Also I was making electronic music for fun before even recording anything, back when Dubstep was still a new exciting thing haha so I was always drawn to tweaking knobs and now with Gardens I feel like whenever we get tired of guitars we pick up a synth and go crazy with arpeggios.

Can you introduce the band? Who plays what instrument?

(Luca) We switch around quite a lot since we’re all multi-instrumentalists but until now we’ve had Patrick play the drums, Laura plays synth, guitar and sings backing vocals, Peter plays bass, guitar and sings backing vocals and I play guitar, bass and sing. But at one point Peter or Laura might sit behind the drums, Patrick is an amazing bass player and I play the cello and the recorder haha so who knows what will happen in the future!

You have a European tour coming up! Where can people catch you playing? Also, what do you have planned on your travels between shows?

(Luca) We’ve just played our first ever UK gigs and are going to be playing a few festivals and headline shows in Austria and Germany scattered around the next few weeks! Whoever’s in the driver’s seat/ riding shotgun gets to pick the music so there’s always loads of good albums that we get to listen through on the long car rides.

I (Fox) am thrilled to say that I will be catching your set this year at the Orange Blossom Special Festival! It’s our first time at the festival… Would you be able to let us know what to expect to see from your live performance? More importantly, what does it feel like to be playing the festival?

(Luca) We can’t wait to play as well! We’ve fallen in love with big festival stages and feel honored to be the opening act for the festival, we’ve only heard the best things about it! 

While we are on the topic of Orange Blossom, what other bands announced on this year’s bill do you think we should check out?

(Peter) I’d love to see Smile play!
(Luca) I was getting really excited when I saw King Hannah on the lineup hehe

Your debut album “Flaws” was released towards the back end of 2024. What has the reception been like for the record? Also, I’m going to be rather evil and ask you to pick your favourite song from it too and why?

(Peter) I think mine is Shift, simply because it was the most exciting to produce, tapping into a sound that felt quite dark but fresh for us at the time. Flaws is great as well, I love the mix of drum and guitar sound. I feel like we nailed that in the mix. 

(Luca) Flaws turned out to get great reviews across indie music blogs all over Europe and a lot of people have listened to it and have personally told us how much they love it plus some amazing radio stations like KEXP have picked up on it so we couldn’t really ask for more! And ugh that is an evil one haha but I also think I’ll have to go with Shift! As Peter says it felt really refreshing to make a song that has a bit of a darker vibe and feels more driven.

Sticking with Flaws, what is the one flaw that you think currently exists in the music industry and how would you go about fixing it?

(Peter) Wow, what a question! I think the main issue is that giant corporations make it harder and harder for small networks to work and survive. Major acts sell out stadiums within seconds but a lot of bands with a strong fanbase can barely cover the cost of their tour.

(Luca) YES!

I have previously been to Austria skiing, but if someone was to visit the country what activities would you recommend?

(Luca) Ohhhh yes I personally love skiing as well, I guess going hiking or exploring in the mountains is quite amazing, I miss it a lot when I’m in Vienna, but Vienna has a great underground music scene, so exploring around the Gürtel as soon as it gets dark might make you discover some new hidden band gems!

(Peter) Yes, the mountains are beautiful! I often miss them in Vienna. Austria has some beautiful lakes as well.

The bass in “Shift” draws me in like a magnet! I was wondering if you would mind breaking down the song for us, what inspired it / what is the song about?

(Peter) I was super excited to record that bassline but when we were in the studio my Höfner bass was super wonky and out of tune which wasn’t really fixable at the time cause there was a dent in a string as I found out later. I actually don’t remember how we ended up with a take that wasn’t completely off. But I like how the outro fades into this dark disco line. I think that just happened while jamming the song in the beginning.

I was struggling to put your music into a subgenre of rock, thankfully others have done this for me. Would you be able to describe in your own words what “Dream-Pop” is? Also, why is this the style of music that you chose to make?

(Luca) we ourselves have a hard time putting our music into a specific genre, we also keep more or less with what other reviews have called it haha! I really couldn’t tell you what Dream-Pop is without using the word dreamy…

(Peter) Don’t call the genre police on me but I’d guess it’s the atmosphere of springy guitars and dreamy synths that sets us apart from a typical rock band. Although we do have a bunch of guitar heavy songs.

(Luca) What Peter says!

I noticed that two singles you released prior to your album “Waves” & “Talk” were not included on your album. What was the reasoning behind this as they are both excellent tracks?

(Peter) Those were our kick off songs, recorded in my studio. We didn’t have the album masterplan at the time. We just wanted to put something out as a “Hello labels, here we are”. When we finally went into Rene Mühlbauer’s studio for the album we wanted a cohesive sound and that turned out to be quite different than our already released singles. But that’s great, Flaws is a chapter for itself. And now Good This Way sounds not quite like the album either.

The album artwork features a pair of deer. What made you feature this as the image to go alongside the music?

(Luca) I don’t know but at one point I just had this vision of having deer alongside me on the artwork, I guess since the whole album kind of puts me in a vulnerable spot, sharing my flaws with everyone, posing with these tender, innocent put yet powerful animals felt like a good juxtaposition to me. Also nobody thought I could find a spot where I could just pet deer but somehow I did and had a magical afternoon making my dreams come true haha!

Finally, what can fans expect from Gardens for the rest of 2025?

(Peter) More music of course! But only little snacks. We’re gonna retreat back into the kitchen to see what we can cook up with the new songs that await us and we might just share tastemakers for what will be served next year! Excuse me, I’m eating while I am answering this.

All rights to the songs in this interview are retained by Gardens. This site claims no rights over them. The photos for this interview were provided by Gardens and taken by Laura Spes & Nikolai Nordmann.