“Trust your gut: if you hate the song you’re working on, you’re probably right.”
That’s how drummer Karah James, along with bandmates Rob Laska, lead vocalist and guitarist, and Alex Dimauro, bassist, described Valley’s old-yet-new philosophy.
I got the chance to attend an °1824 press conference with Valley this past week where the Toronto-based indie-pop band spoke on the band’s journey to their newest album “Water the Flowers, Pray for a Garden.” Released on Aug. 30, the band’s third full-length album returns to the roots that their fans — adoringly named “ValPals” — fell in love with during the band’s early years.
The band rushed onto the scene with their debut album “This Room Is White,” headlined by the single “Swim.” This successful introduction was followed by the sophomore album “MAYBE” and eventually the roaring alternative single “Like 1999,” which brought in new listeners and ValPals from all across the world. “Water the Flowers, Pray for a Garden” brings back the flavors of the original sound Valley had in their debut, contrasting the bigger productions of “Like 1999” and the following synth-heavy album “Lost in Translation.”
When asked if they felt they had changed since their 2016 debut, Rob responded that they had “not changed, [but] matured” as a group. I noticed how the band spoke fondly of their previous work. Instead of rejecting or dismissing the sounds and themes they had previously explored, they acknowledged that each part of their artistic past contributed to the creation of their newest album.
Despite treating where they came from with care, James, Laska and Dimauro admit that they did things differently this time around. Produced in tandem with COIN’s frontman Chase Lawrence, this recording session was “authentic and unfiltered.” Laska mentioned again and again that Chase always set the standard.
“There were no expectations — no attachment to the outcome,” Laska said.
Laska described a surreal moment where out in the mountains of Tennessee, they hit a rut while recording and Lawrence encouraged them to break open the “normal” process of recording and just play all together in the cabin room.
“It was like playing in your parent’s basement, just kind of vibing,” Laska said. “I remember we plugged in, put our headphones in and started the click track, and right away I saw a smirk on Chase’s face. It was like, ‘Oh, we cracked the code.’”
For Valley, this “back to the basics” philosophy paid off and now lives in their mind as a “happy memory.”
Each of the three took time to reflect on 10 years of being bandmates and mentioned the work they had to do to maintain a healthy relationship with one another, not just as part of the band, but also as friends.
“We established a deeper understanding of what it feels for us to hold each other in that space and to really feel life changing in front of us — figuring out ‘Oh, this is the one constant we can tend to and protect,’” Laska said.
Their evolving and growing care for one another shows in their music, clear as day. As they say in their new track “Crawlspace” — my new personal jam on my walk to class each day: “People change, yes, they do / The second you don’t want them to / If you need space, I got room / Someplace you can crawl into / I’ll be around.”
As a huge fan, I had to ask about my favorite quality about Valley: how carefully they craft and create layers of sounds in all of their tracks. It’s the most wonderful thing as a fan and listener to discover a new sound and a new layer hidden beneath the ones you already discovered on your seventh or eighth (or in my case, 30th) listen through.
As the band laughed, recounting recording a book rippling in New York or Chase Lawrence panning a buzzing sound back and forth on the new track “Mosquito,” they shared a wonderfully unconventional Easter egg to listen for on their closing song “Cocoon.”
“The snare sound is Karah’s dog Cosmo, and the high hat is my dog Cooper’s collar if you really listen closely,” Laska said. “It’s stuff that no one knows, but we do it because we know.”
“It’s for us,” Dimauro said.
Laska smiled and agreed with his bandmate.
“It’s for us, and then maybe for someone else if they listen closely,” he said.
Truly, this album is for Valley — where they’ve been and now where they’ve arrived in 2024. For fans, we couldn’t be more thankful to meet them there, and you can bet we’re listening closely.
Valley’s upcoming tour will stop in Nashville on Oct. 6 at Cannery Hall, along with other tour dates listed on their website.
