Q&A: Valley’s exploration of authenticity and vulnerability within their latest single, "SOCIETY’"
JUNO-AWARD NOMINATED VALLEY’S LATEST RELEASE “SOCIETY” ENCAPSULATES A SHARED FEELING OF VULNERABILITY, ORIGINALITY AND HONESTY OF OUR LIVED EXPERIENCES.
The Toronto-based group synchronously fuse an upbeat melody, juxtaposed against a backdrop of stark realism, creating an anthem that yearns for an authentic space for the artists and listeners alike. Characteristic of Valley’s previous songs, an introspective narrative resides powerfully at the core of ‘SOCIETY’. Crystallized by the instrumental’s dreamy guitar riffs, layered vocals and solid bass, ‘SOCIETY’ permeates a lyrical narrative in which our blues are celebrated and solidified against an electric rhythm of indie pop.
Paying homage to artists such as The New Radicals and Wheatus, ‘SOCIETY’ has firmly positioned itself amongst a plethora of melodies that channel a unique and captivating style that epitomises unification and collaboration within their diverse artistry. Not one to shy away from topics surrounding mental health, ‘SOCIETY’ is illustrative of a meaningful example of Valley’s poignant destigmatization of an open and honest conversation of the raw and personal sentiments prevalent amongst our generation.
With plans to partake in the ‘Rainbow Dreamland’ North American tour in 2021, we sat down with Valley to learn more about the process behind the group’s latest single, ‘SOCIETY’, and their upcoming projects for the year ahead.
LUNA: So how are you guys doing? What have you all been up to?
ROB: It’s been pretty nuts, I mean the past year, it feels like we’ve done more during covid as we ever have as a band. It feels like we were kind of forced to come together, so you know we put out the EP Sucks to See You Doing Better, set up a studio, and we’ve had to do videos outside, figure stuff out and that’s been pretty exciting. So, other than live shows, we’ve written like, thirty songs, and we’ve just been constantly writing and working on the next project and that’s how ‘SOCIETY’ came about. So yeah, it’s been really nice, and with the pandemic having some kind of hope with vaccinations and stuff, I feel like the summer will be really fun.
LUNA: Cool, so are you guys still in lockdown in Toronto?
MICKEY: Yeah, we’re nearing the end of it though. We’re just doing our best, but with our second vaccine appointment, all of us got moved up the list, so a couple weeks after that hopefully we’re going to sort of be regular humans again.
LUNA: That’s great to hear, especially when you guys are touring and stuff!
ROB: Yeah, I mean I’m still scared to be in a big festival crowd for the first time, it's just odd; it's going to be weird after a year, so getting back into that mindset is gonna be fun because I feel like we’ve all gotten so used to being so sheltered from each other. It’s going to be the complete opposite soon!
LUNA: In the bridge of ‘SOCIETY’, you seem to beautifully encompass all of the feelings that a lot of listeners can relate to with the pressures of trying to navigate the world in which we live. If you could define the ‘society’ that you are addressing in the song, what or who do you define it as?
ROB: I’ll let Karah touch upon this because she brought a lot of inspiration from the song. But for me it came from an obsession, sonically, from songs growing up that kind of, again, do that beautiful combination of happy melody, sad lyric, and a lyric that’s a little bit more intentional and kind of stating something, and stems from something real and passionate. There are songs like ‘All Star’ by Smash Mouth and when you break down the lyrics, when you understand what he’s really trying to say it’s kind of funny. And it’s the same with ‘You Get What you Give’ by New Radicals, you know, it's uplifting but when you break down the lyrics, there’s frustration there and I think that’s like such a cool way to present something you’re passionate about.
So with ‘SOCIETY’ it’s that same thing, it comes from that obsession where you’re like okay, we’re out on this writing trip as a band and we kind of had a bad co-write with somebody. Karah came with this really beautiful concept, and her friend was going through something and she wanted to write about something really serious and the writer was like “it’s too dark, not accessible, people aren’t going to care about that, they won't listen to that, let's write about something that anyone can digest,” and I think that just kind of rubbed us the wrong way. Unfortunately, you do see that as you go through this industry and stuff and situations like that happen so when we say ‘SOCIETY’ it's kind of tongue and cheek; ‘society’ on a whole doesn’t suck, but, you know, sometimes you’re just like, “society sucks”.
MICKEY: To clarify it's like the snapshot of a moment of frustration. I wouldn’t say it’s representative of an overall jadedness it's kind of like, you know, writing a song when you’re in the moment of that frustration or like, that worry, that you might be going down a rabbit hole that you don’t necessarily want to go down, but then at the end of the day you learn a lesson from it.
ROB: Karah brought that whole bridge, which is crazy.
KARAH: I mean I think you guys said it, the only thing I would add is like, I think the general ‘society’ in my mind is sort of like, I think sometimes as an artist or someone who is creating something whether it's writing a book or you’re an artist or a visual artist or whatever, you’re creating from an emotional place, not from a place with like an agenda or a product, or money. I think a lot of the time you battle this internal narrative in your head where sometimes I’m thinking that people don’t always want to know about my emotional turmoil.
Sometimes people want an escape instead; it is like this internal narrative of like, how do I know that it is okay to talk about this thing? Sometimes it’s just a balancing act: there’s that one line in the chorus where it says, “when you get what you want but it’s never enough” and I think that’s just the overarching narrative of the song, where you’re asking, why are we sacrificing things and moments in time for money, for fame, for whatever? It will never be enough, so make the art that you want to, because all the tangible things aren’t going to make you happy at the end of the day.
LUNA: I would say that really comes through in the song and I feel, as you say, it is trying to find that balance as you’re going through the process, trying to grow up, and trying to figure out what you want to write about. Do you think you would have seen yourself making a song like this back when you first started or was the message behind it something you always kind of knew?
ROB: I think we were afraid to, I think, well maybe not ‘afraid’ to, but starting out, to come into a room and be like “I want to write a song about this particular thing, about something that we’re frustrated with” even though we are a part of it, is a bold thing. I think a few years ago we’d be kind of like “oh but what if someone is offended if we say that” and you know we have a pretty clean filter of what we can say but yeah, I think a while ago we would have been like “this is too intense for us right now.”
ALEX: I think the tipping point too of all of that is the fact that the president of our label was like “I think this is my favorite song, I think you should put this out next” as the satirical side of it, and we were like “yeah, okay, alright!”
LUNA: I guess it always pays off to be as authentic and honest with what you want to say; it kind of links to what you were saying about trying to find that balance between being so truthful and also being able to provide an escape for your listeners. But I really like how throughout your music, you still have that introspective narrative that is carried throughout all of your songs. So why do you consider this narrative to be such an important aspect for your music to embody?
KARAH: I think we crave depth as artists, even if it is for our own satisfaction, not trying to be deep or anything, but sometimes we just like to write a song about nothing. But then I think emotionally we gravitate to the deeper side of songs because I guess we’re just existential, overthinking, philosophical people at the end of the day.
ALEX: We’re all crazy!
ROB: Something I like to live by lately, is that if you are afraid to talk about it, that’s probably the thing that most people are going to want to hear. That is how you really get that depth because it's just honesty, people want to read your journal, they want to read your diary.
MICKEY: Honestly, although I think a lot of what this song is triggered by is the inner turmoil that people have, a lot of artists have the inner turmoil of like, “am I writing for other people? Am I writing for myself? Am I doing this because I want to?” The other day I had this really interesting conversation with my roommate, and their family friend works as a doctor. We sat there and had this moment of reflection where we were like “damn, it feels like we’re not helping the world at all”. And then I had this realization of like, it is kind of our civil duty to write songs for people who need to relate to shit, because there have literally been songs that have changed my life and saved my life.
So, if we can do that for other people, I think that is maybe not quite as honorable as being a doctor, but you know, its serving other people and the world and giving music that the doctor can listen to; in other words, the doctor might need escapism but the person who is having a mental health problem might need something to relate to and know they’re not alone. So, keeping in mind the balance between writing for your own artistic fulfilment but also speaking your own true self so that people can relate to it and know that they’re not the only one feeling that pain, or happiness, or connectiveness.
LUNA: I wanted to ask as well, I noticed in ‘SOCIETY’ you have this catchy, upbeat instrumental that we as listeners can really get lost in. Yet, contrasted to that there are these deep, personal, profound lyrics, that potentially aren’t so upbeat. I know you touched on this before, but would you say this contrast is deliberate, and how did you come up with the instrumentals for songs like ‘SOCIETY’ in particular?
MICKEY: You just made Rob really happy!
ROB: That is all I’ve ever wanted to hear about this band and that is exactly it. We’ve grown up listening to music like that; a lot of the music we grew up with were really heavily contrasted. It’s inspired by such beautiful band-orientated-chemistry-made music, but some of the topics are so sad and heart-breaking. We’ve been obsessed with that ideology since we started the band, and that’s how ‘SOCIETY’ started.
LUNA: So, Valley will be taking part in the Bottlerock Festival line-up which is super exciting. Do you have any other upcoming plans for the year ahead that you would like to talk about?
KARAH: We’re doing some shows this summer, some festivals and stuff which is exciting. And in terms of music, we will be releasing some more tracks after ‘SOCIETY’ comes out.
ROB: There are a lot of different songs, and the year is going to be crazy. We’re going to have more tours planned and maybe work towards an album, but we have a bunch of stuff to put out before that. Constant, constant things over the next couple months.
LUNA: Anything else you would like to add?
ROB: ‘SOCIETY’ is out so please go stream it, show it to all your friends, play it to all your friends, send it to everybody, that would be awesome! We’re just very thankful for the support. And keep your eyes peeled, there’s going to be so much happening in the next couple months and it's going to be great!
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