Andrew Veeder on April 17th, 2015

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Sarajevo-born Valida is best known as a DJ on local favorite KCRW, and has spun records across the globe throughout her career, but has also been a musician and performer since she was 4. In addition to remixing Foster The People and Milo Greene, among others, she has also released some original material, beginning first with the track “Mine To Take” a couple years back. Her latest effort is “Wild Heart,” a Stevie Nicks cover — not of her second album’s title track, but instead the demo version she sang at a Rolling Stone photo shoot — which Valida produced herself, enlisting guitar and vocals from Justine Bennett, as well as mixing from Ken Rangtuky of Keenhouse. It is a lush and lovely take on the song, built slowly over a piano melody, then filled in with Bennett’s soulful voice, gentle percussion and shimmery synth to give it an angelic and atmospheric sheen. The accompanying music video was shot in the Joshua Tree, lensed and produced by Teresa Flowers, and features trippy visuals from Denny Bales of The Blind Spot Project, as Bennett and Valida frolic in the desert like they’re in a beautiful, hypnotic, and kaleidoscopic fever dream. “Wild Heart” is part of an ongoing project Valida is working on that should bear more fruit later this spring, so stay tuned.

||| Stream/Download: “Wild Heart”

||| Live: Valida plays The Standard in West Hollywood every Wednesday evening for Desert Nights.

Photo by Teresa Flowers.