In late 2021, Garden Home released postmortem. The two-track EP showed the post-hardcore project pulling no punches as it earnestly addressed feelings of remorse, confinement, and helplessness brought on by both the pandemic and the planet’s ongoing environmental collapse. The EP rules. The only complaint we could register with postmortem is its brief runtime.
Sure, a raw and punchy Samer Ghani-directed music video for one of the EP’s singles and a semi-steady diet of live performances—most recently at last weekend’s Locust Street Festival—have helped hold over listeners, but we’re not alone in wanting to hear some more Garden Home. Thankfully, the band heard our call and released a brand new single today.
“Past Life” reprises postmortem‘s introspective elements, as the band explains the song’s overarching theme of perseverance “through traumatic and depressive periods in our lives,” and the role that time and change have in personal growth. The emotion is hammered home artistically through heavy riffs, pounding percussion, and shouted vocals.
“We all have hard times in our lives, but it’s those moments that we can learn from and remember that there is more to experience and to love,” vocalist Dylan Mazurkiewicz says in a press release. “I wouldn’t have grown to be who I am today without those hard times.”
While the subject matter is serious, the accompanying music video for “Past Life” is decidedly lighter. Once again directed by Milwaukee videographer, photographer, and local music champion Samer Ghani, the video finds the Garden Home guys “breaking into” Music Go Round Greenfield after hours to browse the suburban music store’s massive selection of instruments and amps before setting up for an impromptu and illicit live performance of the new song.
“Past Life” is the lead single off a forthcoming Garden Home full-length. Thumbs Up Records—an independent label that has released music from Milwaukee’s own Honey Creek and Madison-based Excuse Me, Who Are You?—will put out the album, but a release date isn’t public knowledge quite yet. As we await that full-length record, we urge you to watch the “Past Life” music video now and stream the song anywhere you listen to music.
