S Patrick Brooks Interviewing Valley Of The Sun. Photo by Andrea Thomas
It was a hot-as-fuck Friday night in Denver, I don't mean that metaphorically, although I could have, considering the name of the band I was about to see, Valley of the Sun. It was truly hot, mid 90s all day and the venue, HQ in Denver, was doing what it could to keep it cool, but Valley of the Sun took the stage and turned up the face melting heat. The band ripped out old and new sonic crushers during an energetic 45 minute set. Despite the heat, brutal travel schedule, and a late start to the show in Denver, Valley of the Sun was gracious enough to take some time to sit down and chat with me, S Patrick Brooks from the Heavy Underground Farm Report, for this exclusive interview.
The HUFR: You told me earlier, Ryan, that you guys only planned to initially be on half this tour and that you were going to play in Australia.Ryan: Yeah. And so that fell through unfortunately.
The HUFR: You guys are pretty happy to get on the rest of this tour?
Ryan: Yeah, I mean I just asked, we share the same agent with Heavy Temple and we had already discussed doing half the tour and then we were gonna go to Australia and then when that felt through I was like, can we do the whole thing? (Ryan and I had discussed the excellent relationship between VotS and Heavy Temple, they share some equipment on stage and they are friends off stage as well).
The HUFR: So did you guys record your new album before you embarked on the tour?
Ryan: Yeah, we did the first half in April? First half was in April of this year. And then the second half we just did a few weeks ago.
The HUFR: Let's talk about the first half because you told me an interesting story when we spoke earlier about the coincidence of beginning recording on the day that we had a full solar eclipse.
Ryan: Yeah. I'm super into astronomy and astrophysics and all that crap. I'm like, really big, big into physics. I've always been into that stuff. (Johnny: I'm into alchemy). But it got a lot deeper during COVID when I just had a lot of time on my hands and I got really hard into particle physics and astrophysics and cosmology and everything. And so things like a Solar Eclipse is what I look forward to, right?
And we booked the studio time and it slipped my mind that we were booking for, our first day was gonna be the day of the full Solar Eclipse, which was gonna be in totality in Cincinnati...and I went and screwed myself out of seeing that because I had to go to New York to record the record. But when I realized that that was going on, to Chris, I said, hey, here's our theme. Here's our concept for this record. And yeah, so the first day of recording was during the eclipse and we...set up and started recording and then we took a break to go out and watch everything as it went down from New York, so it wasn't total, but it was noticeable.
Ryan: Yeah
The HUFR: When we were talking about the first song (on Quintessence) earlier and you told me how...why don't you just tell me what that song and those lyrics mean to you?
Ryan: So that's Terra Luna Sol. It's kind of a combo of like astronomy stuff like, in one way it's talking about the lock between the earth and the moon. But then it's also a love song.
The HUFR: You talked about that, that it is a love song to your wife.
Ryan: Yeah. There's just some things about, clear the path, there's a lot of things about being locked together. The chorus, "I think I'm floating away a little more each day". That's in part this thing, you know, the distance that kind of comes to pass between partners over the course of years from the beginning, your honeymoon phase, right? But then there's also the fact that the moon is receding from the earth. Like a few, is it, a few meters a year or whatever? There's all this dual meaning in all of it.
And then there's the one (lyric), "As the sun slowly fades, keep this bond with me". So, the amount of time that it will take for the moon to leave the Earth's gravitational influence is greater than the amount of time that it will take for the sun to turn into a red giant and probably eat the Earth. Right? They don't know yet whether or not it will, but it's at least going to burn off the atmosphere and the oceans. So as the sun slowly fades, keep this bond with me because it's predicted that the moon couldn't just go flying off until well past the time that the sun goes low.
The HUFR: So that being together forever, an eternity kind of idea?
Ryan: Yeah, like, just like, we will endure all of this shit through timelessness. It's a lot of silliness.
The HUFR: So that being together forever, an eternity kind of idea?
Ryan: Yeah, like, just like, we will endure all of this shit through timelessness. It's a lot of silliness.
The HUFR: You guys are on a long tour? Is the time that you spend on tour difficult? Being away from your wife? Being away from other relationships?
Ryan: I'm used to being away from my wife. She lives in Germany.
Johnny: These guys don't really have the same thing I do, it's hard to explain what that is, because it's very rocky. I love her very much. And yeah, being away from her, it's hard for me, but it's also very hard for her. She's a (fan) of the band, she has a full -time job, family and kids. It's hard. It causes a lot of issues.
Chris: I'm happy to be here. (Laughs)
The HUFR (to Chris): Do you have that kind of situation going on?
Chris: No, I'm a lone rider. Lone rider, Sean. (laughs)
(The HUFR chuckles): Fair enough.
Johnny: You're not alone, you got us!
The HUFR (to Ryan): So your relationship has obviously driven a lot of your writing on the new album as well as your interest in astrophysics. Do you guys write together as a band? Do you, Ryan, take the forefront of the art or do you guys all contribute to the songs?
Ryan: I do all the lyrical crap but everything on the new album has been pretty (collaborative). We did it up pretty well, I think actually Chris has come up with most of the most epic riffs because he's all into the really good like super Sabbathy stuff. He's been throwing all those (riffs) down because we spent the whole year since John joined in September (discussion amongst the band about the actual date Johnny joined the band ensues) It was like late October, early November. But John also played in a redo of my old band, Blacklight Barbarian, that we were trying to get going again. So we had played with John before. It was during the pandemic.
We had already jammed before, and we knew what he was capable of, and at that point, was all super psychedelic. And Chris was on guitar and organ. And then our other buddy, Chris Owens, who was the original member for Valley, the original bass player for Valley, and he was the bass player in Blacklight, he was on bass. Yeah, we did that for a minute in my basement. I loved it. It was so good. So good. I wish that it would have developed into something.
The HUFR: Who played the fuzzed out guitar solo The Late Heavy Bombardment?
(Johnny and Ryan point to Chris)
Ryan: It was Chris. And our producer played guitar on the album too. And our buddy Pete played guitar on the album. And I did a guitar solo on Where's the Squish (The HUFR - reference to Where's This Place, I believe). He played it, yeah. I mean like it was - very Jerry Cantrell.
The HUFR: John, it's interesting that you mentioned Jerry Cantrell. The last track on the album, when i listened to it I really got some grungy feelings from that, some Alice in Chains and Soundgarden especially in your vocals, you don't sound exactly like those guys but it was the same kind of presentation. Maybe that's just what I'm hearing.
Ryan: I'm an old soul you know, Chris is an old soul we're all old. Several years ago, people would start making these kind of grunge references to us. And I was like, what? But I've grown to accept it because, yeah, the roots of my influences. Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam.
The HUFR: I can hear it in there.
Ryan: I mean, dude, I was 16 years old in 1994. I was right there when it went up. And you know what? I always feel like such an old, like a grandpa when I say it, but I really do think that we had this music movement in the mainstream, like this mainstream music thing that hasn't really happened since. You had everything from Sonic Youth to like...you know, Nine-Inch Nails. Everything in between, and it was all in the mainstream. And like, like really, like ever since the late 90s, early 2000s, it kind of got homogenized into this dude bro, new metal shit, and indie rock.
The HUFR: I love this music and that's why I'm here to see bands like your band and there is a constant question I ask myself, "Why isn't this music bigger? Why aren't there a thousand people here tonight to see absolutely amazing bands?" What are your thoughts on that? Why do you think this music doesn't have a bigger audience?
Chris: I do believe these things are cyclical and we're due. I think we're due! People want to hear other people playing the instrument and they want to see that. We were just talking about that recently about younger kids suddenly, I didn't know about this, getting into 90s music again, 10, 12 years old listening to Nirvana and stuff like that.
Ryan: It's so weird because also when you look back at the time of it, you know when you actually like section out the timeline, in the 90s when I was high school aged you know I was digging on Zeppelin and Hendrix and all these things and at this point the 90s shit is that level of distance in the past to these kids. Which makes me just feel really old but they're still also digging Zeppelin and Hendrix.
The HUFR: I felt some Zeppelin influence on the instrumental Red Shift, the softness of the guitar, but still with that modern fuzziness.
Ryan: Yeah I don't know. It was just what we had, a couple of ideas, for the second half of the album. Quintessence is seven and a half minutes long and Theia is six and a half minutes. Do you know what Theia is?
The HUFR: I looked it up but it's escaping me right now.
Ryan: I'm still wrapping my head around that. The definition of... Theia was a Mars sized body that collided with the Earth four billion years ago. It was like a glancing blow and it like fucked everything. And Theia pretty much destroyed everything but it also combined with Earth. And then there was this... There was this orbit of shit that coalesced into the moon because the moon is part of the earth. So we named the song Theia.
The HUFR: The concepts on your album are deep. The lyrics are smart. It's a real pleasure to listen to your album. It's a pleasure to listen to your music in general guys. I know you guys have stuff to do. I really appreciate you taking the time and talking to me.
The Valley of the Sun: Absolutely. Thank you very much.
Much like Theia itself, Valley of the Sun is crashing into the scene and destroying any preconceptions of what the Heavy Underground brings to the table. The debris from the collision of the heavy underground with modern mainstream music is forming a new moon of amazing heavy music, lead by bands such as Valley of the Sun that aren't afraid to push the boundaries of HEAVY ROCK.
Photo by Andrea Thomas
(Johnny and Ryan point to Chris)
Ryan: It was Chris. And our producer played guitar on the album too. And our buddy Pete played guitar on the album. And I did a guitar solo on Where's the Squish (The HUFR - reference to Where's This Place, I believe). He played it, yeah. I mean like it was - very Jerry Cantrell.
The HUFR: John, it's interesting that you mentioned Jerry Cantrell. The last track on the album, when i listened to it I really got some grungy feelings from that, some Alice in Chains and Soundgarden especially in your vocals, you don't sound exactly like those guys but it was the same kind of presentation. Maybe that's just what I'm hearing.
Ryan: I'm an old soul you know, Chris is an old soul we're all old. Several years ago, people would start making these kind of grunge references to us. And I was like, what? But I've grown to accept it because, yeah, the roots of my influences. Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam.
The HUFR: I can hear it in there.
Ryan: I mean, dude, I was 16 years old in 1994. I was right there when it went up. And you know what? I always feel like such an old, like a grandpa when I say it, but I really do think that we had this music movement in the mainstream, like this mainstream music thing that hasn't really happened since. You had everything from Sonic Youth to like...you know, Nine-Inch Nails. Everything in between, and it was all in the mainstream. And like, like really, like ever since the late 90s, early 2000s, it kind of got homogenized into this dude bro, new metal shit, and indie rock.
The HUFR: I love this music and that's why I'm here to see bands like your band and there is a constant question I ask myself, "Why isn't this music bigger? Why aren't there a thousand people here tonight to see absolutely amazing bands?" What are your thoughts on that? Why do you think this music doesn't have a bigger audience?
Chris: I do believe these things are cyclical and we're due. I think we're due! People want to hear other people playing the instrument and they want to see that. We were just talking about that recently about younger kids suddenly, I didn't know about this, getting into 90s music again, 10, 12 years old listening to Nirvana and stuff like that.
Ryan: It's so weird because also when you look back at the time of it, you know when you actually like section out the timeline, in the 90s when I was high school aged you know I was digging on Zeppelin and Hendrix and all these things and at this point the 90s shit is that level of distance in the past to these kids. Which makes me just feel really old but they're still also digging Zeppelin and Hendrix.
Photo by Andrea Thomas
Ryan: Yeah I don't know. It was just what we had, a couple of ideas, for the second half of the album. Quintessence is seven and a half minutes long and Theia is six and a half minutes. Do you know what Theia is?
The HUFR: I looked it up but it's escaping me right now.
Ryan: I'm still wrapping my head around that. The definition of... Theia was a Mars sized body that collided with the Earth four billion years ago. It was like a glancing blow and it like fucked everything. And Theia pretty much destroyed everything but it also combined with Earth. And then there was this... There was this orbit of shit that coalesced into the moon because the moon is part of the earth. So we named the song Theia.
The HUFR: The concepts on your album are deep. The lyrics are smart. It's a real pleasure to listen to your album. It's a pleasure to listen to your music in general guys. I know you guys have stuff to do. I really appreciate you taking the time and talking to me.
The Valley of the Sun: Absolutely. Thank you very much.
Much like Theia itself, Valley of the Sun is crashing into the scene and destroying any preconceptions of what the Heavy Underground brings to the table. The debris from the collision of the heavy underground with modern mainstream music is forming a new moon of amazing heavy music, lead by bands such as Valley of the Sun that aren't afraid to push the boundaries of HEAVY ROCK.
I want to thank Valley of the Sun for taking the time to talk, for letting Andrea Thomas get some great pics and for being good human beings. The hallmark of the Heavy Underground is access. Valley of the Sun were great to their fans in Denver, I hope they come back soon! If you are on their tour route DO NOT MISS VALLEY OF THE SUN!
Interview by S Patrick Brooks and pictures by Andrea Thomas for Outlaws of the Sun
Quintessence is available to buy digitally now with CD’s being released in September 2024 and Vinyl’s released in October 2024.
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