This young band is passionate about what they do and have serious goals for their future, which include headlining their own gig at a big venue. For now, they are more than happy to showcase their budding talent for Emergenza. Come check out their alt rock/progressive set on the 22nd of June at the Epsy. While preparing for the show, they’ve taken the time out to speak to us on their backstory and what their future may hold.

CAN YOU TELL US A BIT ABOUT THE FORMATION OF THE BAND?
I met the drummer Paul through an ad on Melband back in June 2011. We first got together after recent departures from other bands. We had a collaboration of 10 or more songs varying in styles. We didn't know what genre we wanted to play we just knew we had chemistry in writing together. Originally I started on guitar and tried vocals. We assembled a 4 piece band which has gone through a few line up changes, including landing our singer James in August 2012. We played our first gig toward the end of last year and found the final piece of the puzzle in our bassist Andrew in December and have been going steady since, fusing our sound and honing our performances at local venues.

IF YOU COULD CHOOSE 3 WORDS TO DESCRIBE YOUR SOUND, WHAT WOULD THEY BE?
I’d say in 3 words, our music is melodic, dynamic and powerful.

HOW DID THE NAME VALLEY COME ABOUT?
Valley was just a name the drummer liked, we gigged under the name Immersion for our first few gigs but felt it sounded a bit metal so Valley was a neutral name with no real meaning, we don't want to be labelled based on our name.

WHERE ARE YOU GUYS PLAYING GIGS NOW AND WHAT ARE YOUR ASPIRATIONS FOR THE FUTURE?
This year has seen us play The Espy Gershwin room 3 times for the first round, the semi-final and the final of the Gunn Music Artist Showdown which was a great venue. We’ve also playd Room 303 Northcote, The Brunswick Hotel and IDGAFF and have gigs at Revolver and other venues coming up. Basically we're looking to build a fan base and some momentum on the local scene and hopefully once we have our demo in the next few months we can continue to play good venues, maybe festivals and support slots for established bands. We're aspiring to headline our own gigs in the future.

DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS TO RECORD ANY TIME SOON?
We are looking at getting a demo done next month so unfortunately don't have anything for you to listen to.

WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO JOIN EMERGENZA FESTIVAL?
Emergenza just seemed like another good opportunity for exposure, plus the chance to witness other great local acts perform on the same day is a bonus. Ideally we'd love to play in Sydney and Germany but realistically we would love to play the Hi Fi bar, which was a big seller to us in playing this. We're not really about competing with our music but do want to showcase what we can do.

WHAT IS YOUR AUDIENCE IN STORE FOR WHEN IT COMES TO YOUR LIVE SHOWS?
I think the audience should be able to expect a diverse and energetic playlist with a mix of alt rock and progressive. People who've seen us recently from our first shows have mentioned the improvement so we just want to keep enjoying and playing more gigs and feeding off the crowd.