Ljubljana's Buddhist Bubblegum debuted in mid-2020 with two well-received demo singles before following them up with Dreaming of the Desert, a split album with Wiggly in May 2022. The album was released by New Jersey's Cavern Brew Records and even saw a CD release; it was promoted by two singles, 'Paper Ridges' and 'Merry-Go-Round'. A third single, 'Seems Like Yesterday', followed in July 2022, appearing on Cavern Brew's farewell compilation album.

Now, about a year later, Buddhist Bubblegum are back with their full-length debut, What We Know and What We Believe, officially (self-)released on the 26th of June 2023.

It has been a long time in the works. The first song written for the album, 'The Flowers', was already conceived in early 2021, while the final, 'Memory and Desire', sometime in early 2022. The bulk of the recording took place in the wintery months of late 2021 and early 2022, with further recording throughout the first half of 2022. It then stayed in production limbo for a handful of months before being mixed, mastered and quickly set for release.

What We Know and What We Believe is a stylistically diverse affair, with songs ranging from the nostalgic indie pop Buddhist Bubblegum have made their name on ('Some Time, If Not Forever', 'The Flowers'), to Dylanesque folk ('Curse at the Branches'), to neo-psychedelia ('Summer Sky', 'A Place Where We Can Go'). In one moment, we'll hear echoes of the garage rock of the heavier moments of Dreaming of the Desert ('Invented Games'), then a Beach Boys-esque piano ballad ('What We Believe') in the next breath.

Lyrically, too, the album covers everything from biting satire ("I have my books I hide behind / that tell me how to change the world / but sometimes I feel no one ever even listens anymore" - 'The Flowers') to heart-on-sleeve earnestness ("where are all the friends / who we were sure would stick around? / where is all the time / we used to think would not run out?" - 'Some Time, If Not Forever') to political commentary ("look what you’ve done, you created all this / you cast the first stones, now you rally for peace" - 'Curse at the Branches').

Buddhist Bubblegum have played live only a handful of times, and so far exclusively in Ljubljana, in the form of solo performances by singer/songwriter Wiktor Szotowski. The project is, in fact, chiefly a home recording outlet for Szotowski, who, with the exception of some experiments in electronic music (indebted to artists such as Tangerine Dream and Aphex Twin) in his teenage years, started recording more prolifically and seriously in 2017. From the very beginning, his output has encompassed a wide variety of musical styles, from jangle pop, to folk, to hypnagogic pop and neo-psychedelia, to the electronic music he got his start with. Only a relatively small selection of these styles have been reflected in Buddhist Bubblegum's music so far, but that is certain to change as more comes out.