gglum, the moniker of rising London-born songwriter Ella Smoker, has shared another preview from her Secretly Canadian debut, The Garden Dream, out March 29th.
“Eating Rust” channels her blustery, intimate sound into an understated break-up anthem. It “was the first song I made while writing the album that felt like it summed up the album’s sound for me,” explains Smoker, “It’s all about a period of my life where I was desperate for one person’s love and approval which I would never get (yet i’d keep on trying anyway). It’s about what inspired the dream that inspired the album.”

The Garden Dream feels like a deep moment of realization for Smoker. Coming after previous, formative 8-track projects Weak Teeth (2022) and once the edge has worn off (2021) it has opened up space for her 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 of her full debut, The Garden Dream, 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 s 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.