Describe your music in 3 words

Energetic, Groovy, Nostalgic (at least to us anyway)

 

Has the lockdown period varied the music you’re choosing to listen to or create?

Definitely! We’ve both had more time on our hands to listen to new music and also re-connect with old favourites to find comfort in them. All of it has inspired our new music as well as having more time to focus on the writing. We’d be lying if we said we didn’t struggle to keep up creativity all the time though, it was tough at times. 

 

How has the break from normality changed band life or the way in which you reach your audience? 

Social media is such an important tool for artists and one that we have always used since the start but with no gigs and very little opportunity to create content we’ve had to think of innovative ways to engage with our audience on our socials. Overall the pandemic has made us be more consistent with our social media activity by doing things like covers, livestream gigs, clips of new songs. All of which we plan on keeping up with even when everything is back to normal because we saw a lot of good results and were able to connect in that way.

 

What do you most miss about gigging?

The buzz we get from a loud energetic crowd, there is honestly nothing like it

 

What’s your favourite Reading music venue & why? 

I think some of our fondest memories of playing our hometown would be at the Facebar when we would put on our own gigs there, mainly cos it was great to see a safe place for young people to come out and watch live music as other venues in Reading are 18+. We’ve also seen some great shows at Sub 89, Oakford Social and of course had some fun nights at Purple Turtle too.

 

How important do you think the local music scene is to the community?

Extremely. Reading has a lot more to offer than people think with some great venues and so many talented people in the scene. It’s a very musical town and a great place for any band or artist to start up in.

 

What’s been the most memorable gig you’ve ever played? 

Our entire summer last year was really exciting for us, we played some incredible festivals like Lollapalooza, MadCool and Sziget but the highlight was probably Reading Festival 2019, it was the most memorable hometown show so far.

 

What are your favourite new releases from 2020?

Collectively our favourites of the year would have to be the ones from Haim, Georgia and The Strokes they’re all amazing albums and we are heavily inspired by them all.

 

Can you tell us about your plans for 2021

We are gonna be releasing a lot new music that we have recorded with Tarek Musa, which feels like the best music we have made so far as a band. Working with Tarek has given the band a great new dynamic and has made us so so excited for 2021

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New release 'Hear Me Out' Is out now!  Check out Valeras facebook or instagram pages for live videos.

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Photo by Khalil Musa

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