Words: Matt Taylor
We were lucky enough to finally catch up with Reading-based rockers Valeras, after their most intense summer yet! Their latest dynamic single ‘Playing With A Gun’ follows their sonic 'Your Honey' from May, and landmark festival appearances at Mad Cool in Madrid and last week's Sziget Festival in Budapest. With their Reading/Leeds appearance set for the coming weekend, I started by asking how they were feeling about their busiest and most exciting summer so far.
It’s been our busiest - and it's also been the most fun one yet. Being able to play all of these wonderful festivals is all that we were hoping for and more. In previous years the indoor festivals seemed to take to us but this year we definitely got our fair share of fresh air. Some torrential rain too and some sweltering heat! We’re feeling energised and hungrier than ever for more gigs to spread our sound.
You have played a couple of cool European festivals this year, how would you compare these festivals to what we have in the UK?
Both of those shows are strong contenders for favourite gigs of the year for us. Spain was so special because Rose spoke Spanish to the audience. Her family also managed to be our friendly faces at the front too, it was magic. Trying to follow her between song spiel was difficult with broken to little Spanish.
We all felt a bit in the deep end at Sziget with the language barrier and the crazy currency that makes you feel either like a rich man or that you’re spending way too much. Again though we felt right at home with support from the wonderful crowd, but also the hospitable nature of those European festivals. We were well looked after and everyone was so helpful. Our experience of the UK is a bit less flash, but I’m guessing once you climb the ladder a bit more the lap of lavish buffets and springy beds are waiting.
Your latest single ‘Playing With A Gun’, has been hitting the waves hard, having been featured in Spotify’s New Music playlist and on Jack Saunders Radio 1 show. Can you tell us a bit more about the single and what the inspiration was behind it?
We’re so grateful to Jack Saunders for pushing our sound. Yes, we’re definitely feeling the Spotify love this time round too. The single was an old idea we’d only paid attention to recently. We took it and moved it in a rockier direction and wanted to bring an unapologetic rock song with a soaring solo and anthemic drums. The song itself is about Roses’ experience as a gay woman. Plainly, it’s telling the sad truth that gay people are often used as a romantic experiment with little regard to their feelings. It’s risky and dangerous to play with people's emotions.
Is this the first time you’ve worked with producer Larry Hibbitt? How was his style different to the previous producers you have worked with before?
We did our entire first EP with Larry. We’ve built up a trust with him and he did the song a huge justice. His pursuit for perfection is something we admire a lot. 100% dedicated to every part of the process. Tuning the drum kit between takes, squeezing out every ounce of passion we’re capable of. An enthusiastic force we feel incredibly lucky to work with.
We recorded the drums at the Octagon in Brixton as well as the guitars in his studio in the same building. We even got to try out some fun ideas with LCD Soundsystem esque synth bass and capturing natural reverb from the hallway. We had a similar synthy experience with Tarek [Musa, producer and ex-Spring King], but this time round we ended up putting it on the track and we feel it took that section up a notch. Tarek was incredible to work with on our dancier track ‘Intentions’ while Larry is brilliant at getting a rockier sound out of us.
Do you have any plans on making an album?
An album is certainly on the cards. It’s the dream of every band to release a debut that sums up them and their journey in a way that moves others and ultimately shapes their sound. For a band of our size we’ve been very focused on keeping up with the single after single release culture to keep it fresh and moving forward. Now it feels like it’s time to take the plunge and give an album our best shot. It’s stupidly exciting and we can’t wait to begin the process. We’re spending this summer writing like mad for it. We want to go in knowing we’ve given it everything we have.
What live dates have you got coming up?
We have a charity gig in London on the 28th. It’s in the name of ‘Our Body Back’ which is a charity that helps female victims of sexual assault. Also our October tour is coming round quickly. Post festival season we’re going to some of our favourite venues in the south.
07 October - Heartbreakers - Southampton
08 October - The Louisiana - Bristol
10 October - Esquires - Bedford
11 October - The Old Blue Last - London
12 October - The Facebar - Reading
The date in Reading is looking to be particularly special as we host our ‘Valeras Presents’ night in which we bring out the best our local scene has to offer. It’s always a great time. We’ve got some big ideas. Be sure to be there!
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