San Francisco’s Magic Fig has announced their debut full length album Valerian Tea due out November 21 via Exploding In Sound Records. A swift follow-up to their 2024 self-titled EP, the new collection is a meticulously arranged sonic voyage with impeccable musicianship, color and creativity. Lead single and title-track ‘Valerian Tea’ is a psych pop Broadcast-esque blend of warmth and detachment. Inna Showalter’s vocals dance alongside a backdrop of shuffling percussion, shifting time signatures and gloriously choppy keys & guitars. “Valerian root extract was a popular remedy for anxiety and insomnia in Eastern Europe where I was born,” Inna explains. “The song is an exploration of how I was shaped and influenced by the experiences of my maternal lineage. This one was really fun and effortless for me and gave me the chance to experiment and take some risks.”
Composed of Inna Showalter (vocals/mellotron), Jon Chaney (keys), Muzzy Moskowitz (guitar), Matthew Ferrara (bass) and Taylor Giffin (drums) the psych-pop supergroup features members of The Umbrellas, Healing Potpourri, Almond Joy, Whitney’s Playland, Blades of Joy. Built from a swirling mass of sonic exploration and instrumentation, which includes piano, synthesizers, glockenspiel, organ, 12-string acoustic and electric guitar, the new project is the sound of a band building a bold new world.
With lyrics touching on memory, myth, and melancholy, Valerian Tea feels like an unlocking, a deep-dive down the rabbit-hole into a world that feels altogether more vivid and flamboyant. It’s an album of absolute balance, a glowing adventure to get truly lost in – and we probably all need a big dose of that.
Valerian Tea:
- Flammarion
- Walking Shoes
- At the Garden’s Gate
- Percolations
- Valerian Tea
- Riders at Dawn
- Sensation Seeker
- Splinter
- Goblin
- Sleep of Reason
