Meet Rock N Roll’s Newest Heartbreakers: Hunter Valentine

CONTEST: Win Hunter Valentine’s We’re Here to Recruit You

We want to introduce you to hot new Toronto trio, Hunter Valentine with their super fan-friendly DVD, We’re Here To Recruit You. Most of it is live performances of songs from their forthcoming US debut EP, “Lessons From the Late Night,” which was filmed on June 27, 2009, in New York City at the legendary Stonewall Inn on the 40th Anniversary of the historic Stonewall Riots. The DVD is currently available exclusively at all Hunter Valentine gigs.

The Hunter Valentine sounds is a bit retro, referencing in a vague sort of 50s/80s way.  Y’all are so young, how did this sound find its way into Hunter Valentine?

Kiyomi: Those two decades put out great, anthemic, catchy, pop songs. Two totally different sounds, but all coming back to the core of the strength of the song. We stand behind our songs and take those decades on as main influences in our songwriting. Whether it’s a “Loverboy” song or a Berry Gordy Motown song we have studied our craft over the years, fused styles together and come up with what is Hunter Valentine’s unique sound.

Adrienne: I think all contemporary music is somehow informed by other decades of music. Even if the references are kind of obscure or unintentional – maybe it’s the music playing at the malls in the suburbs where you grew up, or maybe it’s the old records a family member used to play on family holidays – I think it somehow all comes into play. For the Hunter Valentine sound, I think we all bring different references to the table – and that’s what has helped our own sound grow and evolve since being a band together.

Are all of you from musical families?

K: My family is definitely not a musical family in that they play instruments, but they do have an intense respect, love and passion for music. My sister is a bit of a music journalist and stays heavily involved in the hip-hop scene. My father plays guitar for fun and collects them and my mother has been a folk music fan since her teen years, but it should be noted that she is pretty much tone deaf.

Laura: I am a third generation drummer in my family. My grandfather and uncle were drummers and both are very inspirational for me. My mother played the piano as a young teen and inherited the piano when I was a young teen. Other than that my family is obsessed with all types of music, from blasting heavy metal in my other uncles car, dance classes with my sister to learning all kinds of new music from my cousins.

A: I’m pretty much the lone sheep in my family in terms of performing music, but I have a pretty big family and there’s a great variety of music appreciation. One of the greatest early family music influences on me was my grandfather’s love of early big band and swing music. I used to spend summers at a cottage in Northern Ontario with my grandparents and he always had a Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Cole Porter, and Duke Ellington tape playing. One of the first “groups” I ever played bass in was my high school jazz band, and I felt like I had been listening to those bass lines for years before even coming close to understanding what it meant to actually play them.

Are they supportive of your rock star lifestyle?

K: I couldn’t ask for more of a supportive family. I started playing shows around Toronto when I was 16 years old and my parents have been to almost every single show. If you come to a Toronto show you will most likely see my entire family there, including my 90-year-old grandmothers. I am extremely grateful for the encouragement I have been given from family over the years. Without that support I would never have been able to continue in this rock game for so long.

L: My family is very supportive. My dad buys at least 2 cd’s every show he comes to (the same one!) just so that he can give it away to someone new and let them know that it is his daughter’s band. I have been rocking out on the drums since I was a young girl, in many bands, and they still come to my shows!

A: My family has seen many different incarnations of my dreams and ambitions of being a musician. They’ve lived through the times when I told them I wanted to be a classical musician playing in an orchestra, to most recently when I called them up this past summer and said “hey mom and dad, guess what? I’m moving to Brooklyn with my rock band!” I’m not sure when my parents first put me in piano lessons when I was five years old that this was what they had in mind, but they’ve been watching me live my dream for the past ten years and they are very supportive of that.

When did you realize Hunter Valentine was working? You know, that you were going to be around for a while?

K: I always knew that I would play music, I just didn’t think I was good enough to play with anyone. When I met Laura we clicked right away and became musically inseparable. About a year later we met Adrienne and she completed the puzzle. I guess we figured out that it was working when we started visiting other cities and there were “real life fans” there. That’s when we knew that the good word of Hunter Valentine was spreading.

A: For me, I think I realized Hunter Valentine was working on the night of our very first show together. It was in June 2004 at a Toronto venue called the El Mocambo. I had been playing in a bunch of different bands for a few years before meeting Kiyomi and Laura, but something about that very first show together felt different for me. We were probably pretty bad – as any other band playing their first show together would be, but I felt like there was something really special about what was happening between us.

Remember your first fan letter?

K: I remember the first fan letter that struck a chord with me was from a kid from a small town in Ontario. She wrote to us and said that she got teased a lot in school and had really been having a rough time, but when she found our music she realized that it was okay to be exactly who she was and remain proud of that. She let us know that our music gave her the courage to come out. That’s when I knew that the kids were actually listening.

L: The one fan letter that I will never forget was about my boobs! He wanted to know my size and if I my back hurt a lot.

A: The letter that stands out to me was the first time someone wrote to us asking for the chords to “Typical” – the single on our first album. When I first started playing electric bass I used to sit in my bedroom for hours, playing along and figuring out how to play bass lines. The fact that some little kid was sitting in his bedroom trying to play along to one of our songs…that remains as maybe one of the most flattering moments of my life.

Is there a Hunter Valentine fan club?

K: Ya, there’s a fan club, don’t try and act like you are not a member already!

L: There are many fan clubs, underground and all.

When you’re not touring or rehearsing, what do you get up to?

K: There is no such thing. We are ALWAYS rehearsing and writing. We do take the occasional break to hit up a strip club. We prefer the ones with buffets. That way we can eat and be entertained at the same time. It really recharges us when we go back to the studio.

L: Don’t forget about the take out!

The snapshots of you guys hanging at the beer garden are sweet and we know you’ve been friends forever. Do you guys live close to each other, hang out often? Off duty pals?

K: I live with Adrienne, but no, we don’t share bunk beds and Laura has a lovely roommate who is a part of the Hunter Valentine family. We are best friends and I think that has been a crucial factor to our survival. We have seen so many bands break up because they never spend any “friend” time. It’s really important to find that balance of how you spend your time together.  We do fight, but we fight like siblings. When it comes down to it Hunter Valentine should be the ultimate model for how “life partners” should be.

A: The thing about being in a band together I think is unique is that you have this creative relationship, a business relationship and a life partnership with your best friends. I’m sure every band is different but at least that’s how it feels with Hunter Valentine. When we’re on tour, I often get hit with this feeling of how lucky I am that I get to travel, play music, and experience the world with my best friends.

Pick three bands (dead or alive) who you’d like to open for, or, hehe, open for you.

K: Kings of Leon, Janis Joplin, The Weatherthans

L: Loverboy, ACDC, Muse

A: The Police, Blur, Stars

Kiyomi: You have a unique, signature vocal style. Were you rocking this from the get-go or did it develop over time? On your own or with a coach?

K: I did not know how to sing at all when I started and I am still learning each and every day. I taught myself how to sing from just singing along to songs with a lot of range. My vocal stying is constantly changing and I like it that way. Someone who saw us three years ago is not going to hear the same thing as what they are hearing today.

Laura: You’re tearin’ up some serious shit on those drums. When did you bang your first pot? Were you the pre-schooler rockin’ the drum kit in the basement while the other kids were playing with Barbies? Any drummer idols? You don’t happen to be a BowWowWow/Adam & The Ants fan? After hearing the intro to “Revenge” I thought, damn, I’d love to hear you guys cover “I Want Candy” or “Stand And Deliver.”

L: I have been kicking some serious shit since the womb baby! I guess I have been having a love affair with the drums since the day I was born. There have been times in my life that I put drumming on the back burner to focus on other things but I always felt like something was missing. I live and breath drums and I will always have it in my life.

Adrienne: You play that bass like a weapon! Ballistic. We hear you are a “classically trained” bassist. What does that mean? What were you playing before rock? And do you still play other kinds of music? Any favorite non-Hunter Valentine songs you like to play?

A: I think one of the greatest things about being a bass player is that it fits into almost all genres of music – classical, jazz, rock, country. I think that very point is what sort of sealed the deal with my love affair with playing bass. I had been playing piano for years before I played bass, and I knew I loved music, but playing piano never really fit with my personality.

When I first started playing bass it was exclusively in a classical context at my high school. Next I decided I wanted to play in jazz band at that same high school, so I learned how to play ‘walking bass lines’, read chord charts, and that was when I also started playing electric bass. I eventually went to university to study classical performance on the upright bass, and ironically that was where I had my very first experience playing in original rock bands and when I fell in love with being a rock bassist.

I spend 98% of my time playing electric bass these days with HV, but I do have a secret love affair with a particular kind of alt-country music. Toronto is host to a really vibrant alt-country scene with an amazing community of musicians and venues that support that scene.  I’ve had the opportunity to play with some of these musicians in the past and so some of those songs are ones that I like to play when I’m not with HV.

What’s the overall message on your forthcoming (February 2010) US debut EP, “Lessons From the Late Night?”

K: Lessons from the late night represents a more grown-up Hunter Valentine. A Hunter Valentine that has had perhaps one too many late nights and learned many-a-lesson from that. We have learned from sitting next to an old “seasoned” musician at a shitty bar telling us how it is, we have learned from chasing after that unattainable person we long for until the sun comes up, we have learned a thing or two from staying up too late with your mom, we have learned from crying our eyes out in our bedrooms until 2 am over a situation that didn’t work out. We have been beaten down, picked up and set straight (but not too straight) along the way and this record documents all of that.  It tells the story of us growing up, but never forgetting that we will always be chasing a youthful existence.

CONTEST: Win Hunter Valentine’s We’re Here to Recruit You

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