gglum, the moniker of rising London-born songwriter Ella Smoker, has released her remarkable debut album and first for Secretly Canadian, The Garden Dream .
“It feels so good to finally have my debut album out in the world,” shares Smoker, “I made it over a year ago now so it’s been a long time coming and I’ve been so desperate for people to hear it. I’m super proud of all the music I’ve released till now, but The Garden Dream is the first body of work I’ve made that feels like the perfect music embodiment of what gglum is so far. It’s almost like the gglum mission statement, I managed to make exactly what I wanted and it feels so good. I love that I’ve got tracks that sound deliberately wrong and imperfect like ‘Eating Rust’ alongside more pop adjacent tracks like ‘Second Best’ and yet they both feel right at home on The Garden Dream.”
The 13-track collection feels like a deep moment of realization for Smoker, opening up space for Smoker to reach out to her past self and confront the ill ease that still lingers there. Though she wouldn’t call it a concept album per se, she describes the narrative as a kind of fever dream, toeing the line between potent memory and repressed imagination.
“At the time of writing it, I was having so many nightmares, just straight-up graphic and disturbing stuff. I think it was my subconscious telling me I had shit I needed to deal with, a lot of the mistrust I’ve had since I was a teenager. It was weirdly good timing, because I’m at a point in my life now where I’m actually pretty happy, and am in a good place to look back.”
In learning how to open up to herself, gglum ended up finding a kindred spirit in producer Karma Kid (Maisie Peters, Shygirl, Connie Constance), pushing past her natural bedroom-pop introversion to find joy in the process of collaboration.
WATCH ‘SECOND BEST’ VISUALIZER
The 21-year old Ella Smoker first broke out with 2020’s viral pandemic-era hit ‘Why Don’t I Care.’ Inspired by the likes of Alex G, Phil Elverum and Adrianne Lenker, gglum’s music positions Smoker as an artist who can wield atmospheric disturbance at her fingertips, crafting soundscapes that allow her to reconcile with a tumultuous coming-of-age. With flickers of electronica, dream pop and discordant garage-punk, her acoustic guitar becomes a sturdy ally, the base of a versatile, lo-fi sound that manages to feel simultaneously escapist and immersive.
Raised on everything from rockabilly and soul to MTV-era emo, she was drawn to music that offered a sense of safety, a feeling of being held within the layers of detailed instrumentation. But when she tried to write herself, she wasn’t quite sure how to conjure this sense of comfort, to make music that could adequately deal with the issues bothering her subconscious at night.
“At the time I was 17, going out all the time, bunking school, feeling really rubbish about myself,” she says. “I think that’s what helped with writing a song I liked for the first time — I just started being honest. It was basically just me pouring my misery into a song, and that’s why I called myself gglum. At the time, I was just being all angsty teenager.”
WATCH VIDEOS FOR PREVIOUS SINGLES “SPLAT!,” “EASY FUN,” “DO YOU SEE ME DIFFERENT?,” “GLUE” & “EATING RUST”
Praise for gglum:
“A bold new vision of indie-pop” –Billboard
“A dashing, noisy fit of emo-inspired garage rock with tints of TRL-obsessed pop hooks” –Paste
“Ominous, mischievous” –Stereogum
“Smoker opens up about a rush of emotions jarring with naivety” –The FADER, Songs You Need In Your Life
“a testament to gglum’s songwriting chops” – Under the Radar on “Eating Rust”
“The spunky younger cousin to (PJ) Harvey’s Down by the Water” –Exclaim! on “Easy Fun”
“A pillowy dream of electronica & lo-fi pop” –Bandcamp
Tracklist:
- With You
- SPLAT!
- Late
- Pruning 1
- Pruning 2
- Easy Fun
- Glue
- Second Best
- He Laid His 97’s Neatly By The Door
- Honeybee
- Do You See Me Different? (Feat. Kamal.)
- Eating Rust
- The Garden Dream
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