HERBAL TEA

BIO:

British artist herbal tea's debut album Hear as the Mirror Echoes drifts in and out like a half-remembered dream. Shaped slowly by songwriter/producer Helena Walker from late-night demos that gradually bloomed into expansive arrangements.

Drawing on dream pop, ambient folk, and lo-fi production, and citing influences from Sparklehorse to Sharon Van Etten, there's an otherworldly quality in the way it softly reimagines the familiar. From the ethereal slowcore of "Seventeen" to the 70s folk-inspired "Driving Slow", each track belongs to its own distinct world. The songs swell with ambient textures and bursts of distortion, building into cinematic crescendos before folding back into quiet moments of sparse piano and lo-fi dissonance. Helena's vocals, often recorded at the time of writing, are ghostly with an undercurrent of gravity, submerged within layers of rich harmonies. Themes of impermanence, dissociation, and emotional transience run throughout, with lyrics lifted from dreams, old diaries, and moments of stream-of-consciousness.

Co-produced with longtime collaborator and childhood friend Henry C Sharpe, the record was mixed and mastered entirely DIY in makeshift setups in living rooms and bedrooms, though a few details were finalised in the basement studio of Bristol’s The Louisiana with entrusted friend Jonny Allan (of Happyness).

Over time, herbal tea’s music has spread quietly, passed between artists and listeners without much promotion. She has been personally invited to open for musicians she deeply admires, including Gia Margaret and Ex:Re, and her music continues to find an audience through word-of-mouth, admired for its emotional weight and rare sense of atmosphere. “I’ve always felt like a bit of an outsider, and making music is my escape.” Helena says. “I hope this album can be that escape for someone else.”