"have some tea today, turn the latch key and open up the gate..."
As I got lost in soothing and trippy taste of "Tea Time" by The Soft Hills, it occurred to me that in movies when someone is slipped a hallucinogen or even a poison it is usually in a cup of tea. I don't know why. It is never in a cup of coffee, sometimes in an alcoholic drink but usually in tea. Maybe it is because tea has throughout history and many cultures been given a medicinal or spiritual persona. Coffee hypes you up and tea soothes you, let's your guard down and so in the world of Agatha Christie and Stephen King, that soothing cup of tea might have something in store for you.
And, of course, in reality many teas have been used, on a basic level, to act as a healing potion that works on your head and heart if you allow it to. The Soft Hills is an LA based project that steeps as well in soft psychedelia that songwriter Garrett Hobba started in Seattle way back in 2007 and ever since has been a collective of sorts with an ever changing body of talented friends and musicians.
Of "Tea Time" Garrett shares:
“Tea Time” was one of the first songs I wrote following the three day ayahuasca retreat in the Netherlands. I had been going through a very difficult time. Leading up to the retreat, I was suffering from a ‘spiritual sickness’ which was debilitating me and making it difficult to find joy and purpose in life. In a lot of ways, the ceremony marked the beginning of a new life. I felt reborn and vital again. It was truly incredible what had happened. The ‘tea’ represents the remedy or plant medicine used by indigenous people for healing and connecting to the spirit world. The song is my way of expressing the shamanic experiences of death and rebirth. My love for the music of Pink Floyd and The Kinks may have influenced me in writing this song.
I am digging the percussive nature of this song as well as the garden rock guitars. Love the intertwined dance they partake in and when the gentle vox drop in like sugar cubes it feels even better. I am listening while drinking my pomegranate green tea.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
https://thesofthills.bandcamp.com/track/tea-time
https://open.spotify.com/track/2bVyZnfIpok98kSEQreqMh
https://music.apple.com/us/album/tea-time/1621332839?i=1621332841
https://www.facebook.com/thesofthills
LA-based project The Soft Hills create a visceral take on soft-psych indie rock, calling to mind the hypnotic melancholy of the Red House Painters as well as contemporaries like Grizzly Bear or Radiohead.
Songwriter Garrett Hobba started the project in Seattle in 2007. The band, which involves a rotating door of friends and musicians, has toured several times through the US and Europe.
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We get by with a little help from our friends
The Soft Hills, soft psychedelic, visceral, music collective, avant pop, folk indie, alt folk, indie rock, "Tea Time", Los Angeles, Seattle,
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