The Valentinos interview
Pharaohs interviewThe Scare interviewDardanelles interviewSince their first live show in 2005, The Valentinos have been tearing up the musical landscape, having released two EP’s, one of which sold out in its first week of release, and garnered them major national radio play. Constant gigging including support slots for the likes of Johnny Boy and The Church, has resulted in a loyal following both in Australia and overseas, with tracks even appearing in a Kitsune compilation and a write up in NME. It seems The Valentinos are quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with. Lifelounge caught up with the band to discuss effective methods for face melting.
How and when did you guys meet?
On a train from Paris headed for London while eating Gozlemes – on a school excursion. We then poached Daniel from another band and found Jonno perched in a tree making noise. That was about one year and a bit ago …
Your new EP, Damn and Damn Again is a dark and heady blend of new wave, prog and dance, where do you guys draw your inspiration as a band?
We listen to a lot of German techno. Then we go out and buy a lot of schisser porn while listening to horror movie soundtracks. Once we are all in the right headspace … we get into a very small room with really loud speakers and a lot of instruments and see what happens..
That and driving through mad villages listening to Liars while bunnies, dears and a whole lot of mist surround the car (true story) …
How would you describe your music?A dark and heady blend of new wave, prog and dance …
Who would you say are some of your biggest influences musical or otherwise?Definitely the pill called Ecstacy. That, along with the Stone Roses, My Bloody Valentine, German rave, and my personal favourite (Daniel) The Pixies.
Do you have a clear vision of where the Valentinos are headed musically, or is the creative process more organic for you guys?It’s pretty organic. I think it’s cool if your music reflects where you are at that time, leaving you free to innovate and grow and get weird if you feel like it. It’s a bit contrived to know exactly what you’re going to be doing musically down the path. It’s like those chilling dudes at school whose five-year plans included ‘stable jobs’ and ‘marriage’ and irrelevant shit like that. You can’t force life to happen, or music for that matter.
You have had some dance remixes done of your tracks, do you guys dabble in electronic production yourselves?Jonno and Pat DJ and produce as The Knife Machine – they have heaps of remixes coming out soon … We love faceless techno – it’s definitely a big part of who we are. When you’re touring you always end up looking wasted like Michael Jackson’s face …
The Bang Gang and Van She guys did a remix for us that’s amazing … Also Headman and the Bagraiders have done some remixes – it’s all out on vinyl. (The Bagraiders one is out on Kitsune soon.)
What do you think of the state of Australian music right now?We’re in the middle of a musical renaissance in this country. There are loads of great bands and producers around who are pushing the boundaries and creating world class music. The best part is that people are getting it, which makes it all worthwhile.
How hard have you had to work to get your music out to the masses?Really fucking hard. Being in a band is hard work, there’s no way around it, but I can’t imagine anything being more amazing than travelling the world with friends playing and making music. It’s possible to talk about lots of bad things and difficult things that bands need to do, but fuck that, we’re having the time of our lives.
What’s the response been like overseas?It’s weird – we haven’t done that much over there yet but the response has been amazing … We’re doing stuff with Kitsune, Rallye in Japan has released our EP and we’ve gotten a few reviews – like Vice UK gave us a 7/10 for our 7”. We’re going over in October/November to Europe/UK/Japan …
Things are starting to heat up for you guys with radio airplay and some huge shows, how far can you guys see yourselves taking the band and how far do you want to go?Well we’ve all lost our jobs – so I guess this is it! We’re just going to keep playing and melt peoples’ faces off – forever. Full stop.