Los Angeles-based musician Adrian Acosta was trained as a mariachi singer by his father, an established noreeńo musician, but after finding his older brother’s electric guitar, wound up getting into indie rock and shoegaze. Acosta started the rising electro shoegaze outfit Draag as a solo recording project, but the project expanded into a full-fledged band when he brought together local musicians — Jessica Huang, Ray Montes, Nick Kelley and Eric Fabbro — from the disparate musical worlds of underground punk, experimental jazz, no wave and classical to flesh out the project’s sound.
The band initially set about reviving songs from a karaoke tape deck that Acosta recorded when he was 10. They quickly became a buzz-worthy local act, playing shows with Wednesday, Reggie Watts, Mint Field and a lengthy list of others. Then the Los Angeles-based shoegazers released two critically applauded EPs, 2018’s Nontoxic Process and 2020’s Clara Luz.
Building upon a rapidly growing profile, Draag’s full-length debut, Dark Fire Heresy is slated for an April 28, 2023 release. Featuring arrangements built around Nintendo-era synths, lush guitars and warped tape samples played in reverse, the album thematically is reportedly a cathartic portrayal and release of religious trauma informed by Haung’s experience of using therapy to process her upbringing in a religious cult. Some songs act as vessels of healing and forgiveness and others became a revenge fantasy. Ultimately, the album holds space for a deeply familiar sentiment — the things you could have said, done or knew, while acknowledging a bittersweet nostalgia.
Built around dense layers of scorching guitar fuzz paired with relentless, staccato thrash punk-styled drumming paired with ethereal vocal harmonies mosh pit friendly hooks and tape hiss Dark Fire Hersey‘s latest single “Demonbird” sees the Los Angeles-based shoegazers adding their name to a growing list of acts boldly pushing the genre’s sonic boundaries as far as humanly possible — while ripping extremely hard.
Draag is currently on a US tour with US tour with Cryogeyser the includes an April 22, 2023 stop at Elsewhere’s Zone One and an album release show at The Echo on June 17. Tour dates are below. Ticket information can be found here.
2023 US Tour Dates:
April 15: Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle*
April 18: Toronto, ON @ The Drake*
April 19: Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz*
April 22: Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere (Zone One)*
April 23: Philadelphia, PA @ Milkboy*
April 24: Washington, D.C. @ Pie Shop*
April 25: Durham, NC @ The Pinhook*
June 17: Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo (Album Release Show)
*with Cryogeyser
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