January 08, 2021.
The second New Music Friday of 2021 is here and today I have for you the debut EP by Garrett Langebartels, aka Kingflower, based in Indianapolis. Last year I had the pleasure of discovering this artist around December and listening to his debut single Where We Are (released in May 29). His sound, a mix of Folk, Americana and Indie Rock, and talent were so enjoyable I added this artist to the Debut Bands (Off The Radar) playlist.
Now that we can listen to a new release of his, I contacted him to know more about the artist and the behind the scenes process he goes through before dropping a single or EP. Luckily for us, Garrett was kind enough share the details about his creative process in the making of this work.
“This record sort of emerged from the ashes of another idea. When I first started demoing the album I thought it was going to be a solo/self produced project that was mostly acoustic guitar. I had studio time penciled in at a local studio.
As I was getting started, I asked my friend Sam LoCascio to give me a few pointers on recording, because I had basically no experience. That conversation resulted in us doing a song together, Wild and Woe. That track was one that I wasn’t even sure I was going to use on the record. I went to Sam’s home studio and cut the scratch tracks one week and came back a week or two later only to find he had totally changed the song and opened it up to what it could be. After that, I basically dropped the idea of doing a self-produced project and we became a creative team. Together, we took my simple folk songs and started carving out ideas for what it could be sonically.
We were both big early/mid 2000s Indie Rock kids, so a lot of our conversations revolved around bands like Death Cab for Cutie, the National, Wilco, etc. We both love music so we definitely blew a lot of time just talking about sounds and searching for the right sound for each tune. Between that, us both having to hold other jobs, and me playing in another band at the time(the Pinkerton Raid), it took us just under two years to get to the point where we are now. Grant Hustleman, an old friend, did the mastering. “
He also shared some context behind how he and LoCascio decided which tracks would go into the EP.
I write a lot but for some reason, these songs kind of found each other in the mix. They were 6 of probably 50 mostly finished acoustic arrangements that I was throwing around. Sonically, they felt right together and lyrically they all had a similar theme. They all seemed to point towards these small interruptions that the universe seems to regularly put in front of me. I tend to be quite a cerebral person, caught in my own thoughts. Each of these songs explores an event or moment that disrupted that thought pattern and allowed me to come down to earth and experience the moment fully. The working title for the project was Here early on for that reason, but it was a little too on the nose for me ultimately. I felt like Wild and Woe encapsulated the journey of finding presence and vibrancy in even the simplest of moments.
For example, an interruption could be the scenery on a week in the backcountry (Wild and Woe), a friendship with an addict (Valleys), a mocking bird outside my front porch (Where We Are), hurricane Florence (Hurricane), a night in Chicago with random people I didn’t know all that well (Skyscrapers), or a fox in my parents yard (Young). Each song was sort of a rumination on what those interruptions caused rise to in my psyche.”
Here you have the whole EP for your enjoyment on Spotify and all streaming services as well.
If you want to support Garrett’s band you can stream their music or download, go to their Bandcamp Kinflower and follow, or even better: buy their music, which really helps them. In case you’re more of a Youtube user here’s the link to their channel SUBSCRIBE!!!
Remember that you can always find me at Linktree Jpgchief for all my social media and collaborations.
I hope that not only can you enjoy this EP but also support this band by streaming and sharing their work, which obviously you can find in the Playlist Chill – Folk – Acoustic, and Less Than 1,000 Followers
P.S. If you enjoy discovering new artists and fresh new music you can subscribe to this blog Less Than 1,000 Followers!!!