Florist

Florist coalesced around the delicate compositions of multi-instrumentalist Emily Sprague. The band’s initial lo-fi approach, marked by both quiet closeness and layered introspection, surfaced with the 2013 EP We Have Been This Way Forever. Their first widely praised full-length effort, The Birds Outside Sang, followed in 2016. Sprague issued the band’s third album, Emily Alone, as a solo endeavor shaped by loss in 2019. She reunited with her bandmates for the 2022 release Florist, an album steeped in natural imagery.

Sprague captured her debut Florist EP, We Have Been This Way Forever, alongside guitarist Jonnie Baker and bassist Rick Spataro in her native upstate New York. A split cassette with Eskimeaux titled 6 Days of Songs appeared the next year. Once based in New York City and working alongside similarly reflective indie groups such as Bellows and Told Slant, the project aligned with Double Double Whammy, which put out the EP Holdly in 2015.

After drummer Felix Walworth of Told Slant joined the official roster, the four-piece outfit delivered The Birds Outside Sang in 2016. The album appeared on several year-end lists from independent music publications and earned a spot among the New York Times editors’ favorite releases of that year. Florist continued with If Blue Could Be Happiness on the same label in mid-2017.

Personal challenges, among them the end of a relationship and the passing of her mother, led Sprague to relocate to Los Angeles, where she began tracking material independently at home. Under the name Emily A. Sprague she released the ambient synth record Water Memory in December 2017, followed by Mount Vision in September 2018. Returning to songwriting under the Florist banner, and with bandmates unavailable due to scheduling, she handled the third album entirely on her own; Double Double Whammy released Emily Alone in mid-2019.

By the time that record emerged, Sprague had returned to New York, prompting her, Baker, Spataro, and Walworth to secure a house in the Hudson Valley for the next project. Captured largely on the dwelling’s screened porch, where outdoor sounds were deliberately incorporated, the resulting group effort appeared on Double Double Whammy in mid-2022.