A Dirty Dozen with SECRET GARDENS – February 2025

According to a recent press release: “NYC based Secret Gardens, aka Greg Almeida, is a guitar driven post rock project that has worked for years on a simple goal: create an album that sonically represents each season. Carving its own niche in the progressive rock world, Secret Gardens aims to give listeners a meaningful soundtrack to each season of their life. With the tetralogy now complete, Tundra (winter), Everbloom (spring), Verão (summer), and their newest release, The Impermanent Amber (fall), listeners can be immersed in diverse soundscapes that ebb and flow between a variety of genre influences in accordance with the inspired season. Having been described as a fusion of Death Cab For Cutie, Explosions In The Sky and Plini, notable collaborations include Andrew Wells of Dance Gavin Dance/Eidola, Ella Meadows of Transit, and Joe Arrington of Royal Coda. Greg is also the live guitarist of post hardcore band A Lot Like Birds.” We got Greg to discuss new music, influences, and more…

1. Tell us a little about your latest release.  What might a fan or listener not grab the first or second time they listen through?  Are there any hidden nuggets you put in the material or that only diehard fans might find?

The Impermanent Amber is my final installment in a tetralogy of record sonically representing each season and my experiences / emotions through them. There’s a lot of hidden nuggets among the entire tetralogy as a whole! Lots of songs borrow melodies from each other, the records flow into each other. Can’t give them all away but I’ll give a few; the end of “a tragic tale of stars” on the new record flows right into “Tough Conversations” on Tundra – like Autumn flowing right into winter. “Skydeck” from everbloom and “Skyisland” are related and share melodies too. Lyrically in “Pleasant Valley/Milner Field” there’s a reference to “Tough Conversations” too. Theres just a lot of things drawing points between all 4 of the records sonically. Also, all 4 albums end with the same musical cadence.

2. What got you into music, and can you tell us about the moment you realized you wanted to be a musician?

I think I had so much fun learning songs on my first guitar and connecting with music in that extra special way. It already was like, deeply embedded into my brain when I started listening to music by myself for the first time, and getting to learn how to PLAY it was an even cooler level that I had no idea would change my entire world, but it did.

3. Building on that, is there a specific song, album, performer, or live show that guided your musical taste?

The Fall of Troy is a band that really broke me into any sort of progressive type of music. Something about hearing them just cracked a code in my brain for the first time.

4. If you could call in any one collaborator to do a song with, who would it be, and why?

Kacey Musgraves. That would be…… so freaking cool.

5. What is your favorite activity when out of the studio and/or not on tour?  What do you like to do to unwind?

I do a lot of hiking! National parks, or when traveling overseas. Hiking and new restaurants are my favorite. Video games are amazing too.

6. How would you describe your music to someone who’d never listened to you before? What is the one comparison a reviewer or fan has made that made you cringe or you disagreed with?

This is tough, because it really is like a highly focused project of emulating each season, with an emphasis on depth and ambience. The main genre I pull from is post-rock, but I play with lots of other genres in there. Hmm, everyone has been really nice so far honestly. Although some dude on Instagram yesterday said that my music sucks because of a meme video I made on social media, which apparently dictates how music is, lol.

7. When your band is hanging out together, who cooks, who gets the drinks in, and who is first to crack out the acoustic guitars for a singalong?

Reese cooks, my partner Holly (photographer / videographer) usually makes banging cocktails, and Jarryd will absolutely start playing guitar first. I love them all.

8. When was the last time you were starstruck and who was it?

When I met Carly Rae Jepsen. That was crazy.

9. What is the best part of being a musician? If you could no longer be a musician for whatever reason, what would be your dream job?

The best part of it is most of the time not having to wake up at some ungodly hour of the day, and if I need to take a day off, I usually can, and just recharge.

10. What is one question you have always wanted an interviewer to ask – and what is the answer? Conversely, what question are you tired of answering?

Definitely tired of answering the “who are your influences” flat out question, I’m more prone to asking follow up questions ABOUT my influences once an interviewer has done their homework, you know? I’m not sure, I guess I’ve always wanted an interviewer to be really musically adept and ask me about any weird time signatures / etc. going on in the music or how to go over it specifically. Or like, nerdy guitar/mixing questions.

11. Looking back over your career, is there a single moment or situation you feel was a misstep or you would like to have a “do over,” even if it didn’t change your current situation?

Yeah, I would probably have gone harder a little sooner with some aspects of the band – like marketing, promoting my releases correctly etc. But it’s okay, things happen, and I can get there eventually!

12. If you could magically go back in time and be a part of the recording sessions for any one record in history, which would you choose – and what does that record mean to you?

Fuck, this is a great question. I’d love to be a fly on the wall during the writing/recording of Threads by Now, Now, but I wouldn’t want to be a part of it necessarily. It would be really cool to be a fly on the wall for some of these records that were made before video/content etc. was such a thing. Like, the 1st American Football record, Sufjan Stevens Michigan, a lot of the early Death Cab records. Those are so formative and great.

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Category: Interviews