A message from the young and angelic singer/songwriter Sarah Gargano pulled me back into the sea of mystery that revolves around Nico’s life and work and how it still permeates the present.
follow our Today’s Song(s) playlist
Stream: “garden grow” – Sarah Gargano
Sarah Gargano, a New York City native, turned Nashville resident, sent me a message out of the blue on LinkedIn.
She’s releasing one last song under her birth name, before beginning a new era of music with the stage name Paper Girl. Her final song, “garden grow,” is partly inspired by Nico’s “These Days.” The song was released on Friday, August 29th on all music streaming services.
garden grow – Sarah Gargano
“ I mainly was inspired by the sound and vibe of These Days,” Gargano said. “When we were recording [‘garden grow’], [we] kept listening to find elements from [‘These Days’] to put into the recording of mine. When I was writing it, too, it was very stream of consciousness. I was just candidly writing about being in my twenties and the struggles of that. I feel like it’s similar in being very contemplative.”
Listening to both songs, I’m struck by Gargano’s youthful lyrics. “These Days” is reflective, someone looking back on their life, while “garden grow” sounds as if Gargano’s life is just beginning, but she’s held back by insecurities and self-doubt. The lyrics in “garden grow,” “I’m only stable when I sprout alone,” create conflicting imagery. When I imagine a garden, I envision plants and flowers intertwining, growing together. The idea of growing alone, being stable alone, to me, is a self-protective illusion.
Sarah Gargano “garden grow” © 2025
“I feel like there’s a weird combination of already being very independent and enjoying being alone, then also being like, oh, well, when you let people in, you just get hurt, which is a trauma response, but it leads to constantly feeling that way,” Gargano said.
Nico also plays into illusion, but more so with her image. Constantly reduced to her looks and hindered by misogyny throughout her career, it’s difficult to see Christa Päffgen (Nico) clearly. Her legacy was built on the crude stories of her male bandmates.
“‘Nico’ was not just a name but a new persona, a mask for a shy, lonely girl to slip on,” Brian Dillon wrote in an essay in the New Yorker. “It is hard to find the facts, and even harder to find the shape of her artistic intent. The question remains: What did Nico want, or want to say?”
The kindest biography of Nico, by Jennifer Otter Bickerdike, is fittingly titled You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone. Bickerdike writes, “In 1966, [Andy] Warhol proclaimed her a ‘Superstar’ simply for being ‘Nico,’ yet it is Nico’s determination to be an artist in her own right, regardless of commercial success, pop accessibility or societal norms, that has made her posthumous legacy authentically iconic. The real story of Nico is one of determination, self-destruction and belief in one’s artistic vision, at any cost.”
Sarah Gargano “garden grow” © 2025
Despite a legacy clouded with sexist stereotypes, Nico is still inspiring young artists like Gargano, 37 years after her death.
Jared Corder, a music producer, songwriter, and musician with over 17 years of experience produced “garden grow.” He and his wife, Kristyn Corder, formed their own band *Repeat Repeat, and run Polychrome Ranch, a music studio in Hartsville, Tennessee.
Corder also produced Gargano’s new emo Midwest rock album, which will be released soon under the new stage name, Paper Girl – a reference to her song “Paper Girl” from her first EP. A song with an upbeat and happy melody masking a serious desire to not be “diminished or romanticized,” into a 2D, flat version of herself. Gargano’s first single as Paper Girl, “Roll With The Punches,” is coming out at the end of September.
— —
:: stream/purchase garden grow here ::
:: connect with Sarah Gargano here ::
— —
Stream: “garden grow” – Sarah Gargano
— — — —
Connect to Sarah Gargano on
Facebook, 𝕏, TikTok, Instagram
Discover new music on Atwood Magazine
© courtesy of the artist
:: Today’s Song(s) ::
follow our daily playlist on Spotify
:: Stream Sarah Gargano ::
Comments are closed.