VALLEYS

Valleys is a Canadian band that specializes in unorthodox pop arrangements, ample fuzz, melancholy melodies, and guy-gal vocals that are more Ida than Mates of State. (We could abbreviate that and, copping an anonymous journalist, call it "synth-infused fear-folk.") They're quietly beautiful without ever verging on cute and cloying. But rather than take our word for it, just buy their debut full-length, Sometimes Water Kills People, which also features some of the most moodily awesome cover art we've seen in a while. Band mates Tillie Perks and Marc St Louis weighed in on inebriated performances, the eternal excellence of Montreal, and the comfort level of their therapist's couch.

Valleys plays Bruar Falls in Brooklyn on October 8th.
- Anthem

"This wise and wonderful duo takes a different tack, undercutting every swooning harmony and desperate (and sometimes self-parodying) lyric with tinny percussion, stabs or sheets of guitar feedback and the occasional left turn that keeps your first run through this album a particularly inviting challenge. In many ways it's a nod to the shoegazer movement, but one that builds on their influences rather than trying to mirror them completely."
- GHETTOBLASTER Magazine #23 Late Fall 2009

...They utilize any instruments (and collaborators) at their disposal to create haunting, dreamlike mood music [...] it is Perk's whispery, goosebump inducing coo that is especially beguiling and soothing throughout, as demonstrated on the Mazzy Star-ish "Slow Path," and comforting, hypnotic tracks such as "Tan Lines" and "Silent Woods." - The Big Takeover #65 December 2009

By the end of their set, I realized I would crave their sweet noise forever. The first song, with lyrics about going to Santiago, began slowly and quietly, with lead singer/guitarist/keyboardist Matilda Perks' lilting voice rising above an increasingly pervasive drone. By the second song, as Perks bent and looped a tinkling Casio keyboard line over an already-looped guitar line, the bleak music was peppered with small explosions. The entire band's eyes were closed and it seemed like no one was really breathing. People in the crowd clustered forward and nodded their heads slowly, their eyes also shut. After some sweet, polite banter (in which the Montreal-based Perks revealed she had once lived in Halifax) she introduced a song called "The Heavy Dreamer", which streamed over our heads and into my blood, as the quiet, black guitar lines weaved in and out of a faint beat. Then the guitarist screamed and screamed and screamed. Valleys are an amazing revelation—a band that makes me imagine what it might have been like to see The Swans back in their heyday, if you replaced Michael Gira with a ethereal young female with a deceptive, awesome power. Valleys make lullabies that quickly become nightmares—but it's the kind of nightmare you're welded to, waiting to see what's next and whether you could possibly survive it. - Soundproof Magazine

Montreal's Valleys seem like they make music at night. All three members of the band have an extremely shy stage presence, and one almost gets the feeling while watching them that they're voyeurs at a starry jam session. Thus, Valleys are humbling to watch, playing so succinctly that they give off the type of aura that only a true collective can, working together through an unexpected juxtaposition of chaos and tranquility. Tranquility is an appropriate word, too - at one point all three members of the band played guitars, getting rid of percussion, their respective finger-picking transforming into a cohesive mass of slow sound that led the crowd out into the night. - Exclaim

Haze pop outfit Valleys' "Ordinary Dream" unfolds more like a film with a volcanic climax mid-way through. Grab the cinematic number from their November 9 release, Stoner EP, on Semprini. - Pitchfork.com

At Bruar Falls tonight (10/8) is a FREE show with some good bands. Montreal's Valleys have just released Sometimes Water Kills People, which falls somewhere between early '70s Island Records folk, and the Saddle Creek scene. Think hushed vocals, layer upon layer of acoustic guitar, with some droney fuzz in the background. Really nice stuff. They're on MTL label Semprini, which released last year's underheard Pas Chic Chic album, and will be putting out the first major platter from Red Mass in November. Valleys also play Shea Stadium tomorrow (10/9) with German Measles and Blue Jungle.
- Brooklynvegan.com

There Were Valleys: Soft, slow and troubled, this local unsigned duo conjures delicious melancholy with "synths, guitar and broken things," so they say, ie. ornamental glockenspiel, mournful strings and the Volvo station wagon they often call home. Colorado gal Tillie Perks and Québécois guy Marc St. Louis got together in 2005 and released their debut album, Night War, last year. Expect previews of their impending follow-up. (Lorraine Carpenter)
- Montreal Mirror

L'écoute des maquettes du second album de ce trio, qui paraîtra au début 2008, ne nous a pas seulement permis de croire en l'avenir de l'indie-rock noir et langoureux à la Low, elle nous a aussi forcés à lui remettre la dernière bourse Pop NIGHTLIFE, attribuée au meilleur enregistrement artisanal local lors de la plus récente édition du festival Pop Montréal. (Olivier Lalande) - Nightlife Magazine

] Montreal’s Matilda Perks and Marc St Louis have been playing and writing together in There Were Valleys (and now just Valleys) for some time now.

Their creative kinship has produced beautiful music: vocals that feel like faded photographs and acoustic guitar parts that play like nostalgia and heartbreak while earnestly looking forward. Layered with noisy electric guitars and thumping drums, Valleys rush with the energy of a rock n’roll band and the sensibilities of a humble folk duo. We chatted via email as Perks and St Louis were in the middle of finishing-up their new record; fittingly, they co-answered each question.

Who is in Valleys? Did you bring together other musicians to play on this record you are working on finishing? Do either of you play in other bands? They Were Valleys is Matilda and Marc. As on our last album, Night War, we had a few friends sign on to play a few instruments and sing some choruses, but mostly we play everything because we need absolute control. Marc sometimes plays in Flames! and we are both part of a sort of improv-collective called The Practice of Joy Before Death.

Does the new record have a name, a release date, or a label yet? No definite title yet. We’re toying with a few ideas: Tan Lines of Love, Sometimes Water Kills People... Not Sure. Tillie likes Windpipe, probably solely because it occurred to her in a dream. There is no set release date, but it will be at some point in late February. We are still
label-less.

Is Valleys planning to tour any time soon?
We’d like to start touring as much as possible in the spring. We’re working on it. We play fairly regularly in Montreal. Our live shows are always very different from one to the next, so we usually don’t worry about playing the same set to the same people.

Where do you hope Valleys will take you?
We hope T.W.Valleys takes us somewhere exotic, like France!

Valleys travels a lot between New York and Montreal; do you find these two cities feed your music in special ways that living in other cities would not? Friends and other bands don’t really influence our songwriting very much. People in Montreal have been very supportive and that has made it that much easier for us to make music. We started playing in and around New York and I think we were initially inspired by the music people we knew were making there. So I think of it like people there inspired us to start and people in Montreal encouraged us to continue.

It’s rare that you find a band such as yours with only two members. What drew your two minds together? We have very similar aesthetic sensibilities and so we trust each other. So, there’s a certain freedom that we haven’t experienced in other bands. Basically, we travel the same psychic landscape.

Is their a single idea that connects all the songs together on this new record you are recording? No, not really. We mainly had ideas about the sound of the album. As for lyrics, Tillie writes ghost stories and Marc writes cheap romance novels. [Laura Glowacki] - Nightlife Magazine

Montreal, Tuesday October 2nd 2007 - Today, Montreal group There Were Valleys will be presented with the POP NIGHTLIFE! Award, a prize given to a Montreal artist or group performing at the POP Montreal Festival. The $1000 prize, which supports up-and-coming artists, is being awarded to the band in ¥en (totalling 120,000), a symbolic gesture that we hope will send them all the way to Japan! Marc St-Louis, Matilda Perks and Ali Rahman are receiving this reward in honour of the quality, originality and potential of their newest songs, which marry folk music with ambient textures. The band completely captivated this year's jury (Olivier Lalande (Music Editor, NIGHTLIFE Magazine; journalist, ICI), Kristiana Clemens (Musical Coordinator, CKUT), Roxanne Arsenault (DJ, CISM), and Cynthia Bellemare (Coordinator, SOPREF)). SoCalled was the winner of last year's award.

There Were Valleys, aka Marc St-Louis and Matilda Perks, is a creative duo whose onstage act is complete with the addition of drummer Ali Rahman, singer of Montreal band Flames!. The band will be performing at midnight this Saturday, October 6th at Barfly (4062A St-Laurent). Marc and Matilda met two years ago through roommates and have been exchanging ideas and creating their spellbinding, poetic folk-rock ever since; the songs Denver, Silent Wood and Slow Path totally enthralled our jury. Back in Montreal after staying in Brooklyn, Marc realized that right now Montreal bands are receiving more support from their fellow artists than they ever have before. He also claims that "a ton of stuff" has been going on in Montreal in the last few years, mostly thanks to the POP Montreal team. The POP NIGHTLIFE! Award has arrived at just the right time for There Were Valleys, who hope to go on tour in the next few months. Three of the band's songs are currently being featured on the NIGHTLIFE Magazine website at nightlifemagazine.ca/popnightlife.

Ten Montreal artists and groups playing the POP Montreal Festival were chosen as finalists for the 2nd POP NIGHTLIFE! Award: Boo Hoo, Mathias Mental, Myxilodian, Vicious/Delicious, The Luyas, Jeune Chilly Chill, The Nymphets, Caroline Keating, Milie Croche and There Were Valleys.


- The POP NIGHTLIFE! Award/ Nighlife Magazine

Then there’s There Were Valleys, a local sextet who take their sweet time building beautiful tunes with guitars, synths and vocals, sometimes to devastating effect. While “Renegade Daughters” could easily be a Bright Eyes song, other tracks venture into Luna’s VU jams, Spiritualized’s stacks of sound and Mazzy Star’s ominous reveries. Someone sign this band.
8/10

Lorraine Carpenter - Montreal Mirror

There Were Valleys were fun! I only expected to see two or three people up on stage but they'd arranged it so there were six of them up there. It made for an energetic show that blended keyboard pop with krautrock synths, some of those awesome wailing-type vocals I love, and the rocknroll beat.

Robyn - Midnightpoutine.ca

How do Matilda Perks and Marc St. Louis and friends distinguish themselves from the other moody indie bands running (shyly) rampant around this city? Two words: sound sprawl. Layer upon layer of sound and feedback fill the (mostly) quiet indie rock or, to use their term, "sissy rock" songs. A closer listen to the lyrics reveals a sly sense of humour, but for the most part you want to lend them a sweater and bus fare and let them stay precious.

Best songs: Night War, Trouble.

Brendan Murphy - Hour

May 11, 2007 · Matilda Perks (synthesizers, guitars, glockenspiel and vocals), half of There Were Valleys, is from Red Feather Lakes, Colo. She was studying philosophy in Montreal in Canada when she met the other half, Marc St. Louis (guitars, bass, drums, keys and vocals).

The duo's debut, Night War was recorded last Winter in Montreal. Their songs are a combination of pop and folk instrumentation, existing in layered sound and feedback.

They started making music together as a backing band for a solo artist. In the spring of 2005, they toured London.

Upon their return, they decided to form a band. The duo recorded their debut album to "enjoy the frostbitten wilderness of Montreal."

They now live in a Volvo station wagon, touring, and stopping here and there to ask for directions. They are currently working on a second full length. - NPR Open Mic

With all the blogs out there and the myriad of PR folks willing to carpet bomb the internets with glowing praise for undiscovered acts, it’s almost impossible to find new bands that haven’t been blogged to death before they even play their first house party.

That’s why I’m shocked that people haven’t jumped all over the latest Semprini signing, Valleys. The label is home to one of last year's Polaris Long-List nominees (Pas Chic Chic – review) and usually that type of publicity guarantees some attention for any of the other acts, but up until a few days ago I hadn't even seen an email or press release hit the web about the band.

Label mates aside, more importantly, people should be all over this Montreal based band because they are making fantastic music. I’d like to call their sound lo-fi, ambient folk, but the distortion and thumping drums they use turn the intimate acoustic sketches into heavy, complete thoughts. The Beach House like vocals are often so frail, you think they’d break on the slightest touch, but the swirls, beats and strums provide more than enough support to carry the load.

I don’t want to go on and on, because a full review of Sometimes Water Kills People will be coming closer to the September release date. I know that seems like forever in blog years, but I wanted to get the band name out there, especially since they are hoping to make it into this year’s Pop Explosion and I hope this post might drum up some Halifax interest.

Thankfully, the label was kind enough to let us post The Heavy Dreamer here on herohill and I can't recommend it enough. The simple electronics and nostalgic, double vocals gives the track a late night chill, the kind that makes you tighten your collar and walk head down, but the guitar and drums force you to keep walking. I know you are probably thinking that routine has been done, but not only does Valleys execute the balancing act perfectly, they throw the listener a curveball by ending the track with a minute of crashing drums and distorted guitar that does it's best to push the attention away from the simple melody.

For any of our readers hitting NXNE this weekend, they are playing @ Rancho Relaxo tomorrow night.
- Herohill.com