Listen to the Premiere of Valley Queen’s ‘Chasing The Muse’
By Chris DeVille
Last we checked in with Valley Queen was two years ago upon the release of “In My Place,” a song that fulfilled a fantasy I didn’t know I had: Florence Welch fronting a retro rock band with traces of Jefferson Airplane, Fleetwood Mac, and the Pretenders. Welch doesn’t actually front the LA combo, but lead singer Natalie Carol exudes a similar powerhouse intensity, one that continues to course through new single “Chasing The Muse.”
The song, our first preview from a new album coming later this year, tackles the fallout from a separation with hearty roots-rock that unfolds like rolling terrain. Valley Queen build from delicate verses (“I fear I’ve made a terrible mistake”) to a huge, cathartic chorus in a way that feels pleasingly organic. Carol explains the song’s background:
I was very raw, at the beginning of a separation, and started seeing a therapist that was not very helpful — just continuously asking me “how does that make you feel” and wanting to divide my life into parts of a Venn diagram on a dry erase board. She never really went deep enough with me for real radical change to happen but that “parts” exercise did conjure the beginning words to this song. I left that therapist soon after this song got written and sought healing elsewhere.
Mackenzie Howe from the Wild Reeds came over not too long after I had written the lyrics and wrote that lead guitar line you hear me playing throughout the song, playing through my amp in my living room. I love that she is weaved into this song through that line.