Daisy and the Deadheads examine ulterior consciousness with debut single ‘Strawberry’
Daisy and the Deadheads have released their debut single, ‘Strawberry’. Fronted by the Hackney Wick-based artist Daisy Tortuga, also of London’s psych-rock outfit Platypus Complex, ‘Strawberry’ marks Tortuga’s first foray into a promising solo career and is out on Strong Island Recordings today.
Noting the influences of early Angel Olsen, Vashti Bunyan and Kurt Vile, ‘Strawberry’ evokes the lo-fi dreamscapes of summer days gone by. Shimmering vocals rest comfortably atop a half-arpeggiated, half-rung-out chord progression across two delightful minutes of sleep-inducing bliss.
The track is effortless in its simplicity and was recorded on a four-track tape machine earlier this year. As with the evident shades of Bunyan, there are also glimmers of everyone’s other favourite folk freak, Devendra Banhart, particularly on the gorgeous vocal melodies that never stray from where they undoubtedly ought to be placed.
Tortuga said of the new single, “‘Strawberry’ was written from an experience I had after taking a large amount of ketamine. I used to have these hallucinations where I was, in fact, a strawberry in a strawberry patch. I was surrounded by other flowers and strawberries, imagining a pink sky in the middle of a meadow. The song is written from the strawberry’s perspective, the idea that its only purpose is to exist in that meadow, in that patch.”
“The song was then not recorded for about a year, during lockdown when there was that strange February snow, I borrowed a friend’s four-track tape machine and had a go at recording,” Tortuga added. “This song is the only song to make it out of the tape machine, all the rest sounded pretty awful, and the song hasn’t been edited much since then, and I think listening to it really creates a world of its own.”
Daisy and the Deadheads will launch ‘Strawberry’ this coming Saturday (November 12th) at The Baths in Hackney Wick, London, supported by Clementine March, Katy Pinke and Cherry. Advance tickets are just £5 and £8 at the door. This is one you should not miss out on!
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