Natalie Carol

Today, Daniel welcomes Valley Queen front-woman singer/guitarist Natalie Carol on the show! Valley Queen has released music that receives much critical praise, with outlets like Rolling Stone, Stereogum, and the LA Times praising the band’s electric energy. Perhaps Bob Boilen of NPR Music said it best, “Singer Natalie Carol possesses a stunning voice that can rattle the walls and stir the soul.” Valley Queen has shared the stage with Laura Marling, Social Distortion, St. Paul & the Broken Bones, Ruston Kelly, Jonathan Wilson, and many more.
Natalie shares with us some tales of her psychedelic experiences & how it helps to inspire & shape her creative process, especially in regards to her bond with nature. Natalie shares her positive experiences with psychedelics & how their use can portend broader positive cultural changes.
For Natalie, sympathy & empathy guide her connections to people via her songwriting process, helping her “make music of the heart…we’re ALL invited to speak the love language of music.”

Quotes:

Natalie: My first time eating mushrooms, I’d just moved to L.A. from Little Rock, Arkansas. I was 18 & I found myself at Coachella, suddenly eating an entire handful of mushrooms! I underestimated their power & didn’t speak for like twelve hours. That was my first encounter & I came away from with great awe & respect for the medicine.

Natalie: With mushrooms, I feel that they open your heart, they help you tap into your love reservoir. It can be so overwhelming! When you see everyone as the children of the universe that they truly are, with everyone in their own dance & within the storylines of their own lives.

Natalie: I’m drawn to the mystical experience because of how it’s beyond the symbols of ordinary language. When I try to use language to describe my mystical experiences, it’s like they go away. The transience of everything is overwhelming & that’s why using words to describe this is so hard!

Natalie: Psychedelics have really changed my relationship with sound, learning how to use sound as like a tonal conduit. I’m a lyricist, a songwriter and my spatial awareness of sound has gained an acuity from mushroom use.

Natalie: We’re living in a secular age, we don’t have a common myth anymore so we have to create our own spiritual scaffolding.

Natalie: It’s sending music out for everyone as a sonic love letter. It’s thru my 🍄 experiences.