Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Sam Valdez introduces her brand-new single/music video, “Unwind,” a track lifted from her forthcoming EP, Crush.
Valdez explains, “‘Unwind’ is a song about intimacy. I pictured it like a stretched-out day where you stress and run through all of these inner conversations and obstacles to be closer to someone, only to change your mind and prefer to be alone.”
Made in collaboration with, and produced by, Grammy-nominated Gianluca Buccellati (Arlo Parks, The Marias, Biig Piig, Lana Del Rey), Crush displays Valdez’s flair for evocative lyricism, as well as her alluring sound – a blend of shoegaze, lo-fi indie-rock, pop, and Americana.
Talking about the EP, Valdez shares, “The songwriting became a way to escape from the darker headspace I was in while writing it. I talk about friendship, sexuality, and thinking about life on other planets. It was a way to get out of my typical thoughts and expectations and fantasize.”
Originally from Las Vegas, Valdez grew up playing the violin. Pulling from the poetry she writes, she touches on personal subjects and memories. Echoes of her childhood amid the stark beauty of the Nevada desert can be heard in her music.
“Unwind” opens on a low-slung, stripped-down melody topped by Valdez’s haunting vocals, at once hollow and portentous. Austere layers of lo-fi shoegaze form intertwining filaments that merge into a luscious visible disturbance, at once raw, mysterious, and affecting.
Valdez’s dreamy voice imbues the lyrics with hazy, mist-filled tones that are simultaneously hypnotic and eerily magnetic.
The video, combined with the minimalist, visceral music, delivers a surreal, Tarantino-like audio-visual experience.
With “Unwind,” Sam Valdez displays her enormous talent, offering an entrancing song infused with luscious transient qualities.
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