Following a streak of dazzling new singles, performed live for fans first on a North American headlining tour, alternative-pop band Valley – comprised of Rob Laska, Mickey Brandolino, Alex Dimauro, and Karah James – release their anticipated, sophomore album Lost In Translation today through Capitol Records/Universal Music Canada. James describes, “Lost in Translation is a tribute to our relationship over the many years as friends and bandmates, working through misunderstandings, and finding our way through the radio noise” – Stream.
The 15-track record follows their debut album MAYBE (2019) and collects the band member’s individual reflections over the past three years of creating the project. Laska reflects, “It poses more questions than answers which has been an accurate description of our lives since releasing our first album. It’s been a maze to figure out what this all means, why we still do it, what’s been found and most importantly, what’s been lost along the way.”
Lost In Translation comes together like glimpses of a journal, drawing from pop-culture references, inspired by iconic bands through the decades, rooted in personal experience and laced with hints of distinctive Valley soundscapes. James notes, “’Evenings & Weekends’ is one of my favorite tracks on the album. I remember waking up that day in our little A-frame house in the Hollywood Hills wanting to write an ABBA-like song. We started with a tempo like ‘Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!’ and went for the same dark 70’s pop vibe that song has. It’sabout conditional love and how it feels to be disposable to a person.”
Where the title track off the album, “Started off as a tribute to Otis and Maeve from the show Sex Education. It was about star crossed lovers who misunderstood each other,” says James. “’i thought I could fly’ was written as a love letter to an inner child,” Laska reflects, “this is me accepting the reality that I am no longer a kid. I miss when believing I can do something outrageous felt normal. Like running everywhere felt like a superpower. ‘i thought I could fly’ is me just saying goodbye to the Rob that looked around and didn’t recognize anybody or anything.”
The final track on Lost In Translation, “Fishbowl,” peeks into Valley’s core motivations; a drive to remain present at all times and how continuing to make music keeps the band ambitious. Brandolino expands, “At times, life can feel like you’re living in a fishbowl – watching it pass you by as one big blur. If you’re lucky, someone or something will break you out eventually and you can be present again. No matter how hard we try not to, we often end up back in the bowl at some point in our lifetime for whatever reason, but our fascination, longing and searching is never lost when we know we’ll break out again. Music always breaks us out, when you see it take on a million different soundtracks of a million different lives, it’s the energy we use to keep going.”
Alongside the album release, Valley shares the official music video for a standout track “Natural” today. The video is co-directed by Karah James alongside Oliver Whitfield-Smith. On her directorial debut the band’s drummer and vocalist, James explains, “I had specific scenes in my mind for this, like where the lead is in the bathroom, I took influence from a scene in the 1991 film ‘Thelma and Louise’ where Louise is in the bathroom after shooting Thelma’s attacker. She is calmly looking into the mirror as all the chaos is happening around her.” “Natural” was crafted from a “realization that it’s okay to express how effortless being in love truly is. When you’ve found the one, your sidekick, your partner in crime, your Jim and Pam love story.”
The lead character in the video, played by Kris Grzella, represents that sense of effortless joy, a freedom from internal insecurities and external pressures. Talking about the vision for the video, James explains, “The video concept first started when Rob and I were and talking about how fun it would be to do something country themed and intentionally campy sparking from the lyric ‘like country and Nashville, baby we’re natural.’ As time went on, the concept morphed into what is it now, taking influence from ‘Saturday Night Fever’, the concept is set in a middle American honky tonk bar, where a young man feels the most in touch with his true self when he can unchain himself and just dance.
” Watch the music video for “Natural” HERE.
