About.

Gardening, Not Architecture is an “electronic-tinged ethereal powerpop” collaboration between singer/songwriter Sarah Saturday and engineer/producer Beau Sorenson that started as a side project in 2004, with a few songs they recorded at Beau’s apartment in Madison, Wisconsin. In March of 2007, the duo recorded their first official release at Smart Studios in Madison: a four-song ep entitled “The First EP,” which Sarah self-released for free through the G,NA website, and for sale in online stores. The only physical copies of “The First EP” were 49 signed and numbered CDs with handmade paper sleeves and inserts — made by Sarah — as well as a limited run of handmade tour edition CDs, which included the music video for “If You Only Knew.”

The project was intended to be a studio-only collaboration, with no plans for touring. But as the music began to spread online, requests poured in from new fans all over the country for a Gardening, Not Architecture tour. In September 2008, Sarah booked two Los Angeles shows, experimenting ways of translating the recorded songs to a live show. Then, to re-establish herself as a working musician, Sarah (who been working in the music industry since her old band broke up in 2004) completed a three-week self-booked west coast tour in March 2009 (19 shows in 21 days). The live performance featured Sarah as the sole performer, singing and playing bass, with a laptop for backing tracks. The show revolved around a handmade LED “light wall” — built by Sarah — that was programmed with choreographed lights for each song. The response was overwhelming, and the duo began making plans to take the project to the next level.

Sarah and Beau returned to the studio in May 2009 to record the duo’s first full-length album, “First LP.” The duo recorded nine new songs over the course of eight days in Chris Walla’s (Death Cab For Cutie) Hall of Justice studio in Portland, OR, and Sarah self-released the album in September 2009 (almost a year after the first live performance). The first full-length album includes three remixed songs and one rerecorded song from the first EP, for a total of twelve songs. The physical release of the album again features a handmade aspect, with screenprinted hand-sewn canvas sleeves that Sarah makes at the shows.

In support of the new album, and in an effort to launch the project nationwide, Gardening, Not Architecture completed a 65+ day self-booked tour as part of the first-ever “EIY Tour” — in congruence with Sarah’s philosophy-based independent music community website EarnItYourself.com. The tour featured “EIY” artists from all over the country, and was booked primarily through the website’s tour booking tools and resources.

In the time since Sarah played the first live show as Gardening, Not Architecture (in Los Angeles in September 2008), G,NA has: spent over six months on the road, including a Canadian tour in 2010; moved into storage and becoming homeless to tour full time; opened for artists such as Black Francis, onelinedrawing, Rx Bandits, Facing New York, Sebastien Grainger; been featured on AV Club, CMJ, About.com, Reax Magazine, RKCNDY, Pollstar, Beatcrave, and many more online and print publications and blogs; and been invited to play at every date of the Vans Warped Tour on the Kevin Says Stage.

The buzz surrounding Gardening, Not Architecture has grown organically since day one, as was intended for this project, and fans have fallen in love with the music and the honesty behind the project. As the name suggests, this is a project that will flourish in its own time, in a natural progression, without anyone forcing it to be something it’s not.