Biography
Crystal Dorval channels her solo work through the White Poppy project as a Vancouver musician and multimedia artist who characterizes her sound as "therapeutic pop." Her compositions layer ethereal vocals across guitar fuzz and anchor them with rough drum-machine beats, creating warm, soothing pieces. Much of her early material appeared on cassette, while several full-lengths came out on Not Not Fun Records, among them Natural Phenomena in 2015 and Sound of Blue in 2023.
Dorval first began recording under the My Friend Wallis name in 2009, an Afro-pop-inflected indie pop effort in which she handled ukulele, guitar, bass, and percussion, sometimes alongside percussionist Danny Costello and bassist Kristian North. That project issued a handful of EPs and split 7"s before concluding in 2012. She introduced the White Poppy name the same year via two cassettes—Song a Day on the Canadian label Green Burrito and I Had a Dream on Los Angeles-based Not Not Fun—plus the one-sided 7" single "Mirage Man" on Vancouver's Kingfisher Bluez. Dorval recorded all three at home, presenting hiss-covered dream pop tracks shaped by Krautrock and shoegaze.
Constellation Tatsu brought out Drifters Gold on cassette in 2013, marking White Poppy's most drifting and spacious statement at the time. Later that year Not Not Fun issued the self-titled debut album, her first professionally mixed and mastered effort and her most expansive recording to date. Dorval teamed with fellow Not Not Fun artist Samantha Glass the following year for the self-titled Dorval & Devereaux cassette on Moon Glyph. She devoted nine months to tracking the next White Poppy album alone inside a Vancouver Island farm; the largely instrumental Natural Phenomena surfaced on Not Not Fun in mid-2015. A cassette of more song-oriented material, The Pink Haze of Love, followed in 2017. Paradise Gardens, which Dorval called "new age shoegaze bossa nova," returned her to Not Not Fun in 2020. Sound of Blue, a tranquil collection exploring inner paradise, emerged in 2023.
Dorval first began recording under the My Friend Wallis name in 2009, an Afro-pop-inflected indie pop effort in which she handled ukulele, guitar, bass, and percussion, sometimes alongside percussionist Danny Costello and bassist Kristian North. That project issued a handful of EPs and split 7"s before concluding in 2012. She introduced the White Poppy name the same year via two cassettes—Song a Day on the Canadian label Green Burrito and I Had a Dream on Los Angeles-based Not Not Fun—plus the one-sided 7" single "Mirage Man" on Vancouver's Kingfisher Bluez. Dorval recorded all three at home, presenting hiss-covered dream pop tracks shaped by Krautrock and shoegaze.
Constellation Tatsu brought out Drifters Gold on cassette in 2013, marking White Poppy's most drifting and spacious statement at the time. Later that year Not Not Fun issued the self-titled debut album, her first professionally mixed and mastered effort and her most expansive recording to date. Dorval teamed with fellow Not Not Fun artist Samantha Glass the following year for the self-titled Dorval & Devereaux cassette on Moon Glyph. She devoted nine months to tracking the next White Poppy album alone inside a Vancouver Island farm; the largely instrumental Natural Phenomena surfaced on Not Not Fun in mid-2015. A cassette of more song-oriented material, The Pink Haze of Love, followed in 2017. Paradise Gardens, which Dorval called "new age shoegaze bossa nova," returned her to Not Not Fun in 2020. Sound of Blue, a tranquil collection exploring inner paradise, emerged in 2023.
Albums
