Following a series of successful releases with ‘Love Myself’ and ‘Deadweight’, former Hot Chip and Kano vocalist Valentina drops her much awaited EP ‘All Are Lost’ on 1st December 2023. Alongside the EP, she releases the focus track ‘Flutes Over Dudes (The Last Time That You Cried)’ and the accompanying music video.
Written back home in London after returning from a soul-searching trip travelling across LA, Mexico and Costa Rica; ‘Flutes Over Dudes (The Last Time That You Cried)’ is a sombre, yet playful musing on the idea of being ‘too much’, after being broken up with in the middle of Costa Rica, and realising she had repeated a pattern that she really wanted to break with that relationship.
The lyric “If it seems like I’m too much, maybe you’re not enough. I don’t want more, I want it all” is the beating heart of this track and a line that many others will be able to relate to. With her signature hazy vocals layered over airy pads and atmospheric flute instrumentation, Valentina captures an audience with a hauntingly honest tale of finally putting herself first.
Of the track, Valentina said “To the people I’ve had in my life who do not take responsibility for themselves, and who almost wear it as a badge of honour, expecting someone else to do the emotional labour for them – “You’re proud you can’t remember the last time that you cried, but you hurt everyone around you in the meantime”. I wasn’t going to downplay or undermine myself anymore or make myself less intimidating or more agreeable for people. I wasn’t going to pretend I didn’t need things that I needed. It feels like maturing, growing into yourself in a way, and letting yourself inhabit space that’s been squashed or stifled for a long time.”
Alongside the focus track, Valentina drops the music video for ‘Flutes Over Dudes (The Last Time That You Cried)’ inviting us into the artistic, minimalistic and somewhat surreal visual imagining of the track.
On the video, Valentina says: “Working with the director Alex Corona on this video, we were looking to be playful with the tone and juxtapose against the rawness of the lyrics. The photographic and contemplative setups in black and white felt like it sat in the right space for the theatrical plays on emotional states of being.”
The EP was predominantly written in transit, taking a small studio set-up with her wherever she went and recording vocals in reverby bathrooms in Mexico to fancy studios in LA. There are a lot of field recordings on the EP too – from the birds and jungle sounds in Costa Rica and Mexico to a friend’s piano in Ojai. The lyrics throughout the EP centre around breaking old patterns and trusting her intuition sending a message of growth through adversity, during a particularly transformative period of her life.
“I always think of this quote that I love – “Wherever you go, there you are”; as transformative and eye-opening as travel is and as much as it can give you new perspectives, if it doesn’t inform any inner change, or if you never do that exploration inwards then you will always be back where you started. You always take yourself with you” – Valentina
Self-produced and written entirely by Valentina, she joined forces with producer and close friend Kwes for the final mixing process of ‘All Are Lost’, where he added his own distinctive colour to the sound.
A multi-faceted artist and highly accomplished vocalist, Valentina’s musical journey counts collaborations with UK heavyweights including Kano, Lil Silva, Hot Chip and Kindness among her accolades. Valentina is also known for her work with Joe Goddard writing and performing vocals on the highly acclaimed single, ‘Gabriel’.
‘All Are Lost’ will be released on 1 December 2023 alongside the single and video for ‘Flutes Over Dudes (The Last Time That You Cried)’.
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