By Kieran Webber
It seems as every week passes another amazing band emerges out of Australia. It’s an exciting time for music in the country. One said band joining the ever expanding list is Valley Onda. The four piece caught our attention with their latest single ‘Gold’, a euphoric, psychedelic yet somewhat haunting single. The use of a variety of sounds and genre bending instrumentation creates a far out soundscape.
After getting hooked on their latest single we were eager to find out more about the band. We caught up with them to chat about their music, life during a pandemic and much more.
Kieran: Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions! How have you all been and how have you been during these crazy times?
VA: We’ve been well! Obviously it’s a time of great and unscrupulous change, so it’s been filled with a bit of anticipation but has also been quite refreshing.
Kieran: How did Valley Onda start and how did you all meet?
VA: It started by the meeting of Jordan and Galen at a restaurant where they worked together. Jordan by this stage had experienced a lot of aspects of the music industry with his duo Georgia Fair, and was looking to focus on a more authentic expression of music that the industry had previously quashed, and Galen was looking at producing whoever he could get his hands on haha. Ben, the other half of Georgia, was obviously a natural fit for the project given Jordan and Ben’s synchronicity. Michiya and Galen ran a studio together at the time as well, so it was inevitable that Mich got thrown into the too.
Kieran: What bands or artists influenced you growing up and how do they affect your music today?
VA: It’s funny, all 4 of us have very different musical backgrounds. Galen is influenced by a lot of RNB, house and techno, Jordan and Ben more folk, rock, indie and a sprinkling of country, and Mich came from a classical background. So naturally Galen informs a lot of the drums and percussion, Jordan doing vocals and rhythm guitar, Mich doing piano and synth lines, and Ben playing bass and lead guitar!
Listen to the new single ‘Gold’ here:
Kieran: Have you found during these times you have been more creative or less?
VA: More creative, but in different ways. Mich has been on the ball with some of his projects, pushing a lot of releases out in the last few months. Jordan and Ben have had a lot more to write and work on they’re in pursuits too. And Galen has been learning guitar and making his own stuff too. So it’s really pushed us all to explore our own musicality again, which I think it’s important to keep things interesting and not too homogenous.
Kieran: How has the pandemic affected you as artists and as a band?
VA: Yeah all events were put on hold. Some people did some real creative things like streaming, ice skating DJ sets etc, but for the most part it’s grind to a halt. Now we’re starting to see it come back to life a bit more and it’ll be interesting to see what happens in the next few months.
Kieran: How do you feel the creative world is going to look post Corona?
VA: That’s a big question, ‘post corona’ is a long way off. I’m assuming a lot of venues will have closed and the global scene will have suffered. But humans are adaptable and resilient, it won’t be long before we’re back to where we were. Creatively I think it might be good, you know, before the internet, there were these bubbles of musical developments around the world that were isolated from heavy handed influence, so we might start seeing local scenes developing unique sounds again. Who knows? . Less dance music being made probably haha .
“Humans are adaptable and resilient, it won’t be long before we’re back to where we were“
Valley Onda
Kieran: What is one thing you cannot wait to see return after this and one thing we’re probably better off without?
VA: Better off without… Hmm…. CO2? Haha, it’s been incredible to see some of the pictures of China and India with less smog etc. The natural world has benefited slightly from this.
Kieran: Lastly, what is the plan for you guys in 2021 and beyond?
VA: 2021 will be about producing more songs. We enjoy playing live, but our interest is in making great records, so I think will be focusing on generating ideas and recording.