Today, we sat down with The Valley to discuss their inspiration to write music, heroes, and much more!
Interview:
What is your inspiration to write music? Is it your surroundings?
EROS (SINGER) When it comes to lyrics, inspiration can come from anywhere. What really matters to us is the concept we want to communicate to the listener, because meaning is more important than just imagery. We can be inspired by literature, cinema, photography, or simply by personal thoughts and our own way of looking at the world. When I write lyrics, I try to build a poetic language that stays coherent with our vision and works with the music, but also goes beyond just words that sound good together. It’s not easy, but with The Valley we want our music not only to sound a certain way, but also to say something meaningful.
What type of music did you listen to growing up?
MATTIA (GUITARIST): the first memories of me listening to music come from my childhood. My father actually plays guitars since those days, he has a great passion for listening and playing music, so I have always had some songs playing in the background from songwriters and 70s rock. But it was around 12-14 years, when I finally picked up a guitar myself, that I started choosing the music I wanted to listen, starting from bands like Metallica, Pantera and Sepultura. Later I discovered and loved other declinations of metal, that were more melodic and contaminated with other genres – I think about Tool, Deftones, Incubus or Faith No More. Growing up I then started to go back to the music that, in some ways, was the base from which rock and metal took their inspiration, so I discovered (or I should say re-discovered, since I already listened to a lot of that as a child from my dad) bands like Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin. And it was from that very “archaeological” interest toward older music that I discovered progressive rock music – Jethro Tull, Yes, King Crimson to name a few – that was the spark that finally brought me to contemporary prog bands like Porcupine Tree and Opeth, that were the soundtrack of my adolescence and still are these days.
Is there someone you looked up to as a hero?
MATTIA (GUITARIST): Talking about music, when I started playing the guitar when I was a teenager, I soon started to be fascinated by guitarists from the band I loved. But for some reason, I’ve always been more amazed by groovy and powerful rhythm guitarists than by soloists. So my heroes were guitarists such as James Hetfield from Metallica and Diamond Darrell from Pantera – sure, the latter was also an incredible soloist, but when I think about him I hear riffs in my head like Cowboys from Hell or A New Level, groovy tunes that you can’t be stand still when you listen to them.
If you weren’t a musician, what would you be doing today?
Not being a musician would mean not being the person I am today. Music has shaped who I am, and I can’t imagine a life where music or art in general isn’t part of my existence. I do many other things in my life, but writing songs is essential to who I am. Without it, I would have to be someone else.
What advice do you have for fans out there that want to create music?
MATTIA (GUITARIST): The best advice I can give is what I’ve learned from a lot of different artists that I deeply love such as Steven Wilson or David Bowie. Their lesson is to always be true to your artistic vision, ignore what other people want from you or ask you to do in order to gain fame and success, and instead follow your ideas, instinct and taste. I strongly agree with these words, and I always try to follow this attitude when I create new songs with the band. Those moments should be a way to express yourself and your personality, and if you are lucky enough eventually an audience will like what you are doing. But this is only a happy accident, so to speak, and not a goal to pursue at any cost. So, follow your heart, your ideas and transform them into music.
