6 Things W/Valleyview

Photo Credit: Emily Conners

Pittsburgh post-punk band Valleyview dropped their debut album Still Life last month. On songs like “American Windmill” and “Haunting” their driving rhythm section and textured guitar riffs highlight the band’s influences, merging the old and new. Valleyview is Jesse Farine (guitar/vocals/lyrics), Jared Anderson (guitar), Ben Volk (drums), and Ethan Herring (bass).

In our “6 Things W/Valleyview” we connected with Farine to discuss the band’s guitar sound, the Twin Peaks theme song, authenticity in performance, and more.

1/INFLUENCES

Much of our influence comes from this newer wave of post-punk bands (Protomartyr, King Krule, Dry Cleaning, Fontaines D.C.) and some of the old gods of post-punk as well (Joy Division, The Cure). Personally, I am inspired by Julian Casablancas and Alex Turner lyrically–Alex when thinking about playing guitar while singing. To be honest, I don’t think it comes through as much as the post-punk stuff does in our sound.

We are extremely inspired by all the friends we’ve made as a band. Some of the bands that have inspired us musically and/or personally are:

Dizzier, James Castle, Histrionic, Surface Broadcast, Adam’s Purse, Gaadge/Ex Pilots , Rave Ami, String Machine, and I’m sure there are like 20 more.

2/PEDALBOARD

My pedalboard is always changing. A big part of my sound, and the sound of the album, has been the Catilinbread Soft Focus Reverb. It’s based on the rack unit Slowdive used on their first album, and I haven’t found a reverb I like more than this. I have an always-on DOD Icebox for an 80s chorus sound, and multiple gain stages for both guitars. Ethan is a big proponent of the Big Muff on bass and uses a chorus. Jared typically has some pretty crazy modulation going, either by his Aquaduct or this pedal our friend Joey made for him that’s based on the Organizer by Earthquaker. We used that for some stuff in “Sugarized.”

3/WRITER’S BLOCK

This has been something that has been appearing since finishing the album. It’s always somewhat daunting to try and figure out where you want to go stylistically. For me, the biggest thing is time. I need to rest my mind and do other things that bring me joy. Eventually, I settle in and start writing here and there and do more and more.

A huge thing for me and some of the other guys is playing video games. I love playing video games to take my mind off music sometimes. It can be a social thing if all our friends play together.

Elden Ring was a huge help in getting me through the hardest parts of making the album haha.

4/ARTWORK

Visual stuff is not my forte at all. I’m trying to learn more about it and get better. For now, I usually have a sense of what I want things to look like or at least the vibe. Then I will ask one of our friends who are all talented visual artists. My girlfriend Lex and our friend Jake from the band Dizzier have been a huge help with a lot of that stuff–designing shirts, stickers, covers, and all that jazz.

For the album cover, we used a photo taken by a Mars rover before it was destroyed/killed(?) in a storm. The photo ended up half black and half static. I thought it was cool because if you didn’t know you might have assumed they were stars. It was trying to take a photo of a place called Perseverance Valley. That sort of liminal feeling you get while thinking about this robot, sent out on its own and not coming back, is interesting.

5/PRESHOW RITUALS

I don’t think we have any regular preshow rituals other than always eating too much beforehand and then being too sleepy by the time we’re supposed to play haha.

We did a show in June at Mr. Smalls Theater. As we were about to go on, we played the Twin Peaks theme as an intro. If that technically counts as the pre-show, that’s something I’d love to continue doing when we can.

6/ADVICE

My only advice for other people trying to make music is just be genuine. Anyone with a brain can tell when someone is putting on a facade, and–unless you’re doing a character or something then ignore this–I think the only time I am ever disappointed in a band’s performance is when I get the vibe that they aren’t being themselves.

Being part of a music scene means you have people around who are trying to do the same thing. You gotta be aware of that and know that lifting other people helps everyone out.

Having people know about one cool band from Pittsburgh is one thing, but being able to show people and say ‘Look how much cool music is coming out of my city’ and having this huge wave of bands get some attention would be quite an amazing thing to see.

---

Valleyview’s debut album Still Life is out now. You can purchase the digital album on Bandcamp. You can also listen wherever you stream music. Follow Valleyview on Instagram. Go see Valleyview play live:

8/30 - Pittsburgh, PA @ The Government Center
9/27 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Hammer House

---