Introducing: Lavender Fields

By in Features Music

Meet Laven­der Fields, a musi­cian and pro­duc­er from Long Beach, Cal­i­for­nia, mak­ing spir­i­tu­al­ly and envi­ron­men­tal­ly con­scious psy­che­del­ic music.

Lavender’s music stems from a ver­dant cock­tail of influ­ences and impuls­es. She fus­es dub, reg­gae, elec­tron­ics and psy­che­delia togeth­er in ways that are heavy on cox­ing the part of your brain that switch­es things to automatic.

“A cos­mic jour­ney through the fields of laven­der-heal­ing fre­quen­cies,” is how Laven­der – real name, Anya – describes it.

“When mak­ing music, I intend to ele­vate the listener’s mood and bring well­be­ing through music. I have done a lot of research on cer­tain fre­quen­cies and how they affect the human brain and body, and I incor­po­rate all of that knowl­edge into my music-mak­ing process.”

Heady stuff, no doubt. Lis­ten to the mind-expand­ing ‘Waver­ly’, a kalei­do­scop­ic thrill-ride that shifts in usu­al and stir­ring ways, and you’ll get a sense of where she’s com­ing from.

“A cosmic journey through the fields of lavender-healing frequencies” – Lavender Fields

Through her music, Laven­der says she wants to bring “much need­ed aware­ness to our gor­geous plan­et that is suf­fer­ing right now from all the pol­lu­tion and ani­mal extinc­tion”. Her song ‘7th Gen­er­a­tion’, which appears on her recent­ly released debut EP, Laven­der Fields For­ev­er, address­es just this, ask­ing repeat­ed­ly, “Do you think about the future?”

“In Native Amer­i­can cul­ture, they talk about liv­ing your life in a way that the 7th gen­er­a­tion ahead can also enjoy the beau­ty of this plan­et as much,” says Laven­der. “But, sad­ly, with the cur­rent way of life on the plan­et, we are leav­ing a very dam­aged place for the future generations.

“I don’t know if peo­ple even think about it, but it both­ers me a lot. So, I’ve decid­ed to ded­i­cate my music and art to bring­ing atten­tion to con­serv­ing our plan­et and bring­ing har­mo­ny into the world.”

Though versed in piano, gui­tar and ukulele, the most promi­nent ele­ments of Lavender’s music are her pro­duc­tion and singing. Reg­gae is one of her guid­ing influ­ences, as is the music of Bob Mar­ley, Alice Coltrane and Fly­ing Lotus.

You get a sense of this in the afore­men­tioned ‘Waver­ly’ and her four-track debut EP. Her rework of The Bea­t­les’ ‘Straw­ber­ry Fields For­ev­er’ is espe­cial­ly good. The wonky, warped-sound­ing pul­sa­tions in her sound bring drum and bass pro­duc­ers, such as Shy FX to mind, while, depend­ing on the mood of the song, her vocals leap between the lan­guid cool of an island girl and urgency of MIA or Thao Nguyen (Thao & the Get Down Stay Down).

Laven­der is cur­rent work­ing on fin­ish­ing her debut album for release lat­er this year. But her debut EP and clutch of ear­ly tracks have already land­ed her a fea­tured appear­ance at Cas­ca­dia Fes­ti­val in Seat­tle last month. Next, she will be going on a nation­al US tour with Brook­lyn band Moon Hooch, per­form­ing 17 shows in major cities between Sep­tem­ber 24 and Octo­ber 20. She is also plan­ning a Euro­pean tour for spring 2018.

What does she want to achieve with her music?

“I want to give voice to those who have no voice, to sing songs that open people’s hearts to the world around them, and per­haps inspires them to take a bet­ter care of our plan­et and pro­tect all the amaz­ing land and sea crea­tures that inhab­it it. My inten­tion is to bring har­mo­ny into the world through music.”

Select­ed discography

  • Laven­der Fields For­ev­er (EP, 2017, Dome of Doom)
  • Waver­ly (Sin­gle, 2017)

File next to: Alice Coltrane, Bob Mar­ley, MIA, Matisyahu

Web­site: www.lavenderfieldsmusic.com

Social media: Face­book, Insta­gram, Sound­Cloud

Laven­der Fields’s next sin­gle is due to be released on August 22, 2017, and her first full-length album is due lat­er this year.

Image: Mekael Daw­son

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