LA electro-shoegaze quintet Draag announces their debut album Dark Fire Heresy, out April 28. Dark and dreamy first single “Mitsuwa” is accompanied by a cinematic narrative video merging the band’s lush synths & guitars with a cathartic portrayal and release of religious trauma. Draag’s Jessica Huang visited the Mitsuwa Japanese market in LA with her grandparents right before Covid, writing the song during lockdown and solitude when she was finally able to reflect on the spiritual abuse of her past. 

“The process of making the music video was a way for me to indulge in what used to be forbidden, but that I inherently loved as a child – the goth aesthetic, Buddhist altars and traditions that the video touches on,” Draag’s Jessica Huang explains. “As I discussed the concept with friends, strangers, and collaborators, I was so unaware of how many still struggle with religious trauma and how similar our experiences are.”

It was through therapy and processing her upbringing in a religious cult that Huang along with members of Draag were able to create the sonic world, story and visual elements of Dark Fire Heresy. Some songs act as vessels of healing and forgiveness and others became a revenge fantasy. Full of lush guitar, Nintendo-era synths and warped tape samples in reverse, the album holds space for what you wish you could have said, done or knew, while acknowledging a bittersweet nostalgia.