Green Gardens: 'It takes you through the emotions'

“I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet,” says Cracknell, “but it’s nice having something permanent that will probably be there even in little fragments long after we are.”

Seven years on from the band’s formation, when they were freshers at Leeds Conservatoire, Green Gardens have very much made their home in a city DIY scene that also includes bands like Far Caspian, Sunflower Thieves, Crake and Carpet.

After a string of digital and cassette releases, Aitchison is delighted to add This Is Not Your Fault to his own vinyl collection. “To be able to sell it at the merch stand is such a nice thing as well,” he says. “It very much feels like a physical representation of all the work we’ve been putting in for the past two years, and five years or longer that have been leading up to it.”

Cracknell and Aitchison write independently, but do discuss the themes that they’ve been exploring to “keep things cohesive”, Aitchison explains. He adds: “Generally because we have a lot of the same interests in literature and art, and there’s a lot of crossover between out tastes, I think it kind of naturally happens anyway. The things we want to write about manifest independently and then just tend to work really nicely together.”

While making this record, Cracknell says: “We had a couple of trips away as a band to work on the songs and arrange them, which was a massive part of it, it was really when they came together. Then there’s another process when we take it into the studio, and another process where we record over it again at home.”

The eight songs on This Is Not Your Fault deal with bereavement and shared grief. “Looking back at the record now, I don’t think we really had a conversation about it until the recording process, but it actually feels quite linear, that’s one of the things I really like about it,” Cracknell says. “Step-wise it takes you through the emotions, the process of grieving. I suppose it is intentionally reflective, but it was not intentional from the start. It was bubbling in a way but we never sat down and explicitly talked about it. It’s not an accident, but we didn’t mean for it to happen.”

Aitchison believes articulating grief helped the four of them as a band. “Personally, I think the band has been such a respite and just a nice safe space. They’re probably the people that I’m closest to in my life, making this vulnerable and fairly heavy music. Obviously we go to the pub and have a laugh, but when we step into the rehearsal room it’s got this air of something quite serious about it. At base level, we do it because we enjoy it so much and we get so fulfilled by it.”

The pair are full of gratitude for the support they received to make the album from HelpMusicians, Launchpad, Music:Leeds, Hanglands PR, Come Play With Me and EMI North. “There’s a lot of people that have been literally supportive and financially supportive, we wouldn’t have been able to do the stuff without them,” Cracknell says. “We all work full-time, we’re all just pulling pints or doing what you’ve got to do as a musician, which is fine, but it’s important to take note of the fact that it’s completely impossible to do it without people like HelpMusicians, and Launchpad​​​​​​​ who help us with our publishing and general advice​​​​​​​, and then Come Play With Me/EMI North​​​​​​​, Hanglands. We couldn’t have done it without any one of them.”

This Is Not Your Fault is out on Friday August 18, when the band play a launch show at the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds.