Track By Tracks: BACK GARDEN LIGHT - BACK GARDEN LIGHT (2021)

“Our eponymous album "Back Garden Light" is the result of more than 2 years of work. We concentrated all the experience accumulated during these 5 years of existence and our desire to create a "BGL" sound that will give you various emotions and give you the strength to get up in the morning. The melodies are nostalgic, the choruses catchy and the breakdowns energetic. We wanted to create an original experience with a 100% homemade album. The instruments were composed and recorded by Louis Seguin. The vocals were produced and mastered by Mathieu Kirby, for a result that resembles what the BGL spirit is to us: a pop punk, core and electro mix as powerful as it is emotionally moving.”

Tracklisting and Quotes

1. Breach:

It's a song that we conceived for live at first, because we composed half of it in rehearsal. There is a more developed "intro" version of it that we opened our sets with so we thought it was a natural fit for the opening track of the album. Like a lot of sounds on this album, it's about love and a disappointment that doesn't really get better with time: "Can't you ruin, someone else". Musically it's very Pop Punk, and we wanted to invite our buddy Enzo Capucci, the singer of Why Everyone Left, an excellent Italian Pop Punk band with whom we played a lot in the past. Shout out to them!

2. The Right Side:

We released The Right Side a long time ago as a single, we were a bit ambitious thinking we could release the album in the following year, and we preferred to take our time rather than releasing quickly something that did not 100% make us happy. On this song, we wanted to have a very "Djent" or progressive metal aspect in the guitar playing. Personally I find that it quickly sticks in your head, and we even managed to make people sing along to in concert especially on the outro!

3. Hitting The Road:

Probably one of our favorite songs of the album, the story is a kind of ego trip where we imagine ourselves at the wheel of a convertible on road 66 with a pretty not so smart girl on our side. With such a light subject we wanted to make an easy going, no-fuss summer sound. The bridge is quite delirious with an electronic part that marks a pause before the last part, which almost sounds like the soundtrack of an American TV series.

4. Such A Shame:

AH! We call it the hit among us because it's probably the one with the most hit-like elements, and it's been the subject of a music video with our usual Van Espen team. The song is in ternary which gives it an indecent groove for a pop punk song! The topic is quite classic, we call out TV fans or people easily influenced by the media. Special mention for the pre-break bell which was influenced by Futurama.

5. On My Own:

On My Own is maybe the most emo song on this album. It depicts a dark time for Max who was still in love with his ex. The song even sounds a little bit emo trap at times, which was a pretty new influence but also pretty obvious from what we listen to.

6. A Story Of Someone:

Topic-wise, it is an answer to On My Own, but completely distinct musically. It's a lighter song, which we've modified several times along the way, adding a few breaks and a more nostalgic vibe. Originally composed acoustically on a very folk chord grid, we wanted to transmit our British pop influences by composing this track as we would compose a ballad. We then reworked it with our usual studio process to give it the BGL touch that signs all our tracks.

7. Miss The Boat:

You may have recognized it if you listened to our EP, it's an electronic retake of Overtaken! Why? Why not!

8. Live and Learn:

It is the song that musically tells the most story in our opinion. It's very well structured with very specific parts, it's the first song that brings real scream parts in the album, which also announces that the second part of the album will be a little more violent.

Here is Kirby on vocals, our former guitarist, now producer of the band with Louis. The electro bridge was also composed by Kirby and John from The Sunday Sadness.

9. Never Felt Before:

We now enter the core part of the album!

NFB is one of the songs that has undergone the most changes since its first demo, and also one of the oldest. We can hear Kirby in the voice, and for the record, the vocal takes are 2 or 3 years old, and are the originals of the demo because we didn't succeed in recording better or more naturally. It has a little touch of old school metalcore that we love!

10. Offensive Part. II:

The official sequel to "Offensive" from our EP Life's A Game. We wanted to call it that because the theme is almost the same, and the feeling too. It's violent, a little bit gratuitous, but it's also part of the identity of the band! We hope to be able to play it live one day, considering the success Offensive Part.I gets each time.

11. A Perfect Storm:

APS was super cool to compose, it was quite natural and we really wanted to give a lot of attention to the vocals, with pre-refins that could remind MCR. It's again a love song, BGL are lovebirds. 12 - Coma Coma is an acoustic song that we really wanted to write. We have always been attracted by the more "raw" and natural aspect that a folk guitar and a voice can bring. In fact, we often just jammed the song and composed this way. So we kept the accompaniments to a minimum in order to highlight the vocals that tell a story of anxiety and uneasiness. 13 - Jumping Fences We wanted to place it at the very end of the album, because it's clearly a goodbye, or farewell song. It's one of our most nostalgic songs, and it's full of memories for us because we shot its music video in Japan, and also incorporated Japanese elements into the song.