It’s been a semi-sweet moment since Valley has been on tour, but so much has happened since then for the pop/rock quartet. From working on two EPs that complimented one another to being met with the lovely surprise of a viral moment on TikTok, it would simply be unfair to say that things haven’t been eventful for the group.
Or perhaps, it would also be unfair to say the group hasn’t hit the bullseye. As drummer/vocalist Karah James said, “The entire time has been a moving target. One day you think you’re rehearsing for the show and you’re like ‘damn, we’ve got this. I’m stoked! We have all these rehearsals, we’re killing it!’ Then, the show gets cancelled… and you’re like a deer in headlights for a second. I feel like that target was moving so much for us and everyone.”
As a band, Valley tried their absolute best to shift their attention away from things they couldn’t personally control. Making music together was indeed something they could control, and the group released their sucks to see you doing better EP during the thick of the pandemic. In a way, the project reflected many of the feelings of uncertainty that were floating around in the air. But the times have changed, and as the imaginary clouds surrounding Valley started to clear, they channeled their new emotions into a brand new EP.
Last Birthday is all about unconditional love, and being there for someone you’d ride or die for without thinking twice. Valley opted to stick to their beloved minimalistic sound, and made sure to amplify everything they loved about their previous EP with this project.
Lead singer Rob Laska spilled, “sucks to see you doing better was like on one side of the glass, and the Last Birthday EP is like, we’re on the other side of the glass looking back with having a few personal breakthroughs. But everyone knows that new breakthroughs in life come with a whole new set of problems. They might fix those three or four things you always wanted to fix by yourself, but then another six arise… because something else happens! I think this EP is very much reflecting upon that EP.”
Since Last Birthday was also meant to be a reflection of Valley’s growth, the group wanted to try a few new things out thematically. Rob elaborated, “A lot of the conversations we were having around writing these songs was like, how do we touch on things that we haven’t touched on in the past? (Either because we weren’t ready, or we didn’t find the words to say it properly.) I think with this EP, we managed to put pen to paper and explore the concept of love a little bit more, infatuation, and even dove a little bit deeper into the mental health narrative that we kinda started with in our lyrics.”
In other words, Valley wanted to keep it real with Last Birthday, and their excitement to be able to play these songs in person was even more real. In fact, Rob confessed that the idea of them playing shows again was one of their main driving forces during the pandemic. He said, “I think there came a point where we were in lockdown, and there was word on the street that shows would open up in a few months. I think hearing those little things coming through the pipeline being like, okay, we have something to work towards… and that sparked the last fire up our butts to just keep going.”
Mickey Brandolino spilled, “I think before the pandemic happened, a lot of our followers and fans and everything came from playing shows. I think when the pandemic hit, we went… okay shit, I think this is time. We still have the internet, we need to figure out how to utilize that, because we can’t play in front of people. I think we grew a lot on that side of our career. The TikTok thing happened with ‘Like 1999,’ our followers have gone up on every platform and on Spotify and everything… which we were really worried was going to actually decrease because of the pandemic, because we couldn’t play in front of people. There was this other side of us that we hadn’t really explored yet, so it was a good time to kinda push our boundaries a little bit and push us into utilizing it a little more.”
Whether you’re a long time fan or just joining the party, Valley invites you to join in on this new chapter of the band’s history. The quartet just joined COIN on their North American tour, which kicked off on October 26. There were plenty of intense discussions about assembling the setlist, but Valley managed to create a collection of songs they think you’ll fondly enjoy.
“There’s so many new songs, and every one we love equally,” says Rob. “It’s tricky. That’s one of the hardest parts about coming back. We’ve been rehearsing all year, we’re pretty confident in the live show now, and we’re really happy about how things are going… but it’s just picking the songs! We haven’t even been able to fully tour the sucks songs, and now we have a new EP.”
Finally being able to be back on the road? Yeah… Valley is all about it!
Listen to Last Birthday below, and grab your tickets to see Valley on tour at thisisvalley.com/#tour.
