salvia palth

Emerging from out of nowhere in 2013, salvia palth captured the imagination of indie-pop fans in search of something different. The name is a riff on poet Sylvia Plath, and it’s the most famous of New Zealander Daniel Johann Lines’ musical aliases. He was only 15 when he recorded the album Melanchole at home on beat-up and borrowed instruments in late 2012. The next year, he shared it online, where it went viral and made him an instant cult phenomenon. Soaked in canyons of reverb and purposefully applied layers of audio grime, Melanchole suggests an alternate universe in which my bloody valentine was an alienated teenage bedroom-pop solo artist. Since its release, the reclusive Lines has only very occasionally returned to active duty, racking up a couple of releases under his own name and as Adore, 1996—and nothing else as salvia palth until the arrival of a couple of stray tracks in the 2020s.