Central Indiana progressive rock act Nothing If Not is preparing to release its debut album, *Gutter Gardens*, on October 30. Led by singer-songwriter David Maginity, the record is the first of three conceptually linked albums the band plans to issue, and according to the source material, most of the three are already complete.
A Story Told Across Three Albums
The three records share a narrative built around a protagonist who is a background character in a plotless film. The film's setting serves as the story's antagonist, a cold environment described by Maginity as built only for production and extraction. The protagonist tries to escape that reality by forging a plot of their own, a theme the band says will recur across its future work.
Songs Spanning Nearly a Decade
Maginity describes the album as drawing on folk, psychedelic rock, jazz and orchestral prog. According to his account, the material was assembled over roughly two years of recording, but some songs date back as far as eight years. "The Background Character," for example, was one of the first pieces he wrote after learning guitar, and it evolved over time into its current form. A newer track, "A Flag Half-Mast (Still Flies)," was written after most of the album had been recorded and was first performed at house shows before a student at Indiana University recorded it for a project.
Development Path and Recording Details
The band's roots, according to the source, trace to 2018, when Maginity was writing solo acoustic songs. Early performances took place at house shows in Muncie and Indianapolis. *Gutter Gardens* is the first of the three eleven-track albums to be recorded with a full band, tracked at Welcome to 1979 in Nashville. The record includes real orchestral strings and closes with only an acoustic guitar and a full choir.
Themes and Limits of the Available Information
Maginity says the album and the broader project touch on existentialism, spirituality, individualism versus collectivism and societal critique, and that the lyrics were first written as poems before being adapted into songs. The available information comes largely from the artist's own comments, so independent assessments of the music and the completion status of the two follow-up albums are not yet part of the public record.