Down by the Garden || Official Lyric Video by Halfy & Winks

Down by the Garden is out on all streaming services! If you haven't, make sure to watch the Cardinal Garden animation for it on Halfy's RUclips channel! Keep reading if you'd like to read my rant on the making of this song:)
Down by the Garden grew from a very tiny idea that I came up with in the small moments of spare time while serving a full time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (where Halfy and I have been for the last 2 years). Originally the song was called Down by the Water, and had very vague lyrics. I wasn't sure what the song would be about, but I knew it was created for a reason and had a lot of potential. With my dinky ukulele and the few hours of free time I had on Mondays, I sent Halfy the idea, and she knew that it would become something bigger one day too.
Since being home from our missions, it has been more difficult than we suspected getting back on our feet. Hence the 5 months it took us to come out with a song. We wanted the first song we came out with to be just right. We wanted our comeback to be exactly what it needed to be. So, knowing us, we needed a story to tell. Something to keep our music alive! Halfy and I decided to focus a majority of our future projects on an original story we created called Cardinal Garden.
We knew we wanted a song to introduce Cardinal Garden. We wanted something that could shape the world, set the scene, and introduce the characters for everything else we had planned for the future. So, we got to work on Down by the Garden!
Down by the Garden, while based on the story of Cardinal Garden, is also heavily inspired by the creation of the very world that we live in.
The song starts with mysterious, low hums. The sound of space. The sound of nothing- perhaps life before this world was. The lyrics introduce an eternal realm, "bound beyond time", "gateway"s, and "new life". Curiosity and color fills the instrumental as the world is created. "Light spread through the veins of the trees". Different mystical beauties of the world are mentioned such as deserts, oceans, mountains, streams.
The people in this world are told that if they mess up- if all "burns and fades to gray", they must remember that they have been given a way to fix it. That way is down by the garden. The garden is symbolic of many things. In Cardinal Garden, the Garden represents a place of connection to another world, a new beginning, and a chance to restore what was once lost. What does the garden represent to you? It's left to your interpretation!
Well, soon these people choose to rebel. They become prideful, rebellious, and angry. All the things that the God of the world promised them are now lost because of their choices, and now they are left to "wither and decay". Angrily, the "sky", also known as the Supreme Being of this world, throws down its wrath on the people. The people, searching for riches, for temporary pleasure, "treasure" if you will, fall to their "demise". The "Thunder" tells them all that that treasure they are seeking is right before their eyes, they simply must go down by the garden.
The words begin to explain a person in this garden. Someone who is "born of the mud" and "saved for the fight". Someone who was sent for this very purpose: to save the world from its fallen state. Now, where is that person? Who are they? The song finishes by carefully explaining gates opening, a hidden grove, and a golden child sent to bring and restore new life.
If you made it to the end of that, congrats! Now you know what this song means to Halfy and I and to our story, Cardinal Garden. The beauty of music is that it's able to reach people in every corner, in every part of life. I'd love to know what this song means to you, personally, so feel free to leave a comment or reach out to me on Instagram. See you next time!