Between 2019 and 2023, Lindsay Reamer travelled to various national parks across America as part of her work as a field scientist, making a temporary home and collecting data from the surrounding environment. But while her official role had her surveying visitors and counting vehicles, Reamer used the period to collect data of her own. Observations and experiences carefully noted and trapped in a jar, preserved in order to become part of Natural Science, her forthcoming album on Dear Life Records. It’s an album which sees Reamer push her folk sound to curate these specimens into an exhibition on the ever-changing American landscape. Where it is now, how the past has come to shape it, not to mention the consequences it will face should we refuse to acknowledge the mutualistic relationship we share with the natural world.
Lead single ‘Figs and Peaches’ hints at the depth of Natural Science, as Lindsay Reamer weaves a set of what might appear to be disparate threads into a nuanced picture of humanity’s relationship with the environment. “I wrote ‘Figs and Peaches’ after reading a trail sign about invasive plants somewhere along the Natchez Trace in Mississippi,” Reamer explains. “I learned that Japanese Stiltgrass was first introduced to North America because it was used as packing material for shipments of fragile porcelain in the early 20th century. Stiltgrass is now found pretty much everywhere east of Texas.”
But the stiltgrass is only one such example within this song alone. Reamer offers a wider picture of an environment constantly changing according to human development, something notable for how inadvertent it often proves to be. Like the stories of tropical fish gathering around the recently demolished B. L. England Generating Station in south Jersey. “It’s rumoured that the warm water surrounding the plant attracted fish that might usually migrate south which made it an excellent fishing spot. This all got me thinking about unintended consequences, which is a heavy theme within environmental history,” Reamer continues:
On an individual level, I think there’s something oddly comforting about knowing we can affect the things around us… for better or worse. In this song I’m focusing on the former. This framing makes me feel less hopeless. So, I think this song is about me trying to remember that in my own little life; to be less passive. To reach out, pick my own fruit, and own the consequences instead of waiting for it all to come to me.
A variety of collaborators bring Lindsay Reamer’s sound to life, with Tyler Bussey (guitars, banjo), Artie Sadtler (bass), Lucas Knapp (synthesizers, percussion), Juliette Rando (drums), Will Henriksen (fiddle) and Eliza Niemi (cello) all lending their talents, and appearances from Victoria Rose (vocals), Michael Cormier-O’Leary (drums), Peter Gill (guitar), Frank Meadows (bass) and Jon Samuels (vocals) on specific tracks too. What results is a sound evocative and malleable enough to chart these environmental changes. And, fittingly for a lead single searching for a more active disposition, ‘Figs and Peaches’ seizes the listener immediately with what might be the loudest track on the record.
Gardens on the land
Castles on the beaches
I trust my hand and
Pluck my figs and peachesIt’s what I want, it’s what I want
Watch the video below by John Mitchell and Reamer herself below:
Natural Science will be released on the 16th August via Dear Life Records and you can pre-order it now.
