“It’s the most Valley that feels like Valley.” On their fifth studio album “Water the Flowers, Pray for a Garden,” Valley resonates with lead vocalist Rob Laska’s sentiment and feel a new sense of direction. The project was born after spending a month in a cabin together with nowhere to go but the studio or the Canadian woodlands.
Valley debuted in 2016 with their album ‘This Room Is White.’ In 2024 the Toronto-based group now consists of Rob Laska, Alex Dimauro and Karah James, following founding member Mickey Brandolino’s departure. The trio is closer than ever and their experience creating their latest album has helped them “rediscover” their sound.
They wanted to “time capsule things” on “Water the Flowers, Pray for a Garden.” The entire album was written during their time in the cabin, which the three members were quick to note was fueled by their love of Uncrustables. “You really need good snacks when you’re making music,” Laska joked.
Spending so much time together working on such emotional music truly brought the band closer than ever. “There were quite a few moments where the three of us were huddled all together,” Dimauro said of the cabin days. “It was just us soaking it all in, and I think those are the fondest memories.”
Where many artists sit on their music for long periods to refine and rerecord, Valley felt a sense of urgency in making “Water the Flowers, Pray for a Garden” compared to past projects. “It just felt like we had something to say,” Laska said.
In 2023, the band released their album ‘Lost In Translation’ to much critical and fan acclaim. While the group went on a national tour that sold out shows before the project’s release, the songs felt less authentic to the band.
“Not to make a silly pun,” James said of their new album, “but there was no room for it to get lost in translation.” She laughed and added, “Honestly, we did it all at the same time. We wrote and recorded so there wouldn’t be this weird grace period of sitting on the songs, wondering if they’re what we want to talk about.”
Each song on “Water the Flowers, Pray for a Garden” has a purpose. “I feel like we’ve all kind of come to terms with the previous record in our own way,” Laska said of Valley’s progression. “These songs [on their latest album] are very particular, and I attach particular memories to writing these songs that are very real, raw things that happened.”
A few months after the release of ‘Lost In Translation,’ it was announced that Mickey Brandolino was parting ways with the band to become a producer. The final track on “Water the Flowers, Pray for a Garden” called “Cocoon” is an ode to him. Laska recorded the vocals in one take.
“We kind of waited until the end of the album to work on it,” he said of the track’s production. The song began as a “seed of an idea” with their producer Chase Lawrence (best known as lead vocals in the band COIN) in Nashville. While working on the guitar for “Let It Rain,” the group discovered a riff that worked well with the lyrics written for “Cocoon.”
In the earlier stages of the track, the band wasn’t sure what the song meant specifically. “It just started snowballing from there,” Laska said. The song was difficult to finish once the group connected the original lyrics back to Brandolino’s time with them; it’s an incredibly honest, heartfelt and emotional ode to someone they’d been making music with for ten years.
“It was our closure and acceptance song,” Laska added. “We were like ‘Oh, we’re not doing this together anymore and that’s okay.’ I think that song helped us more than it’s doing to anyone else, but we’re happy that it’s on that record because it just closes the chapter.”
Two of the tracks – “Water the Flowers, Pray for a Garden” and “Bass Player’s Brother” – were recorded outside.
Lawrence suggested Laska, Dimauro and James go outside and sing in the woods when they found themselves stuck during the recording process. “It really breathed life into the record again,” Laska said. While hunkering down in a cabin for a month brought the band closer than ever – through their music and friendship – there were moments that brought on “cabin fever.”
“It just made me realize that you can tweak one little thing in your environment and it’ll breathe new life,” Laska said.
“Water the Flowers, Pray for a Garden” has some of the tightest songwriting. The album’s vulnerability truly shines and creates both empathetic and sympathetic connections for fans.
“I hope that we can have another chance to put our most authentic self out there,” James shared. “I think we didn’t on the last album, and there’s something so violating to yourself when you realize you’ve been doing that. I don’t know how else to describe it.”
Like “Cocoon,” most of “Water the Flowers, Pray for a Garden” was done in one take – vocals would be recorded in one go, Dimauro played the entire song’s bassline one time. The group credits Lawrence’s work as a producer for helping them find their “pocket.” There is a sense of authenticity in this album’s purposeful storytelling that has inevitably brought the band to its roots.
“When we get in a room and play on our instruments together it sounds like Valley. There’s an indescribable feeling about that,” Laska said. The trio is excited to bring this energy to the live shows and build on them in a way they haven’t before – like with James playing guitar instead of staying on the drumset or more lead vocals between the three of them. The hope is to “give people the vulnerability they want to hear.”
At the end of September, Valley begins the tour for “Water the Flowers, Pray for a Garden.”
“Piecing together how we present these new songs live, and Rob’s done a lot of transitions between that,” Dimauro said, “I was like, ‘This is really feeling genuine. And it’s turning into a genuine presentation of these new songs live.’ I think it’s going to be the most apt version of these songs.”
As the tour approaches, the band continues to create the show’s theatrical, instrumental and energetic aspects. The fall tour will be the first time songs off the album are played live; it’s both daunting and thrilling.
Valley has done lots of introspection regarding their past projects as they prepare for the “Water the Flowers, Pray for a Garden” Tour. After grappling with the creation and personal meanings behind ‘Lost in Translation,’ they’ve found that this tour is about “combining those two friendships” between the “old catalog and the new catalog.”
On their past few tours, it’s clear how strong of a connection the band has with each other. Laska, Dimauro and James have such infectious and feral joy that transfers to the crowd; there’s a sense of family when they perform.
Location has played a role in the tour visuals. The “When You Know Someone” music video was filmed at a water treatment plant in Toronto with very compelling architecture. “I think that has sort of translated to our live show,” James said, “so we’re doing this industrial, brutalism for the live show. Lots of concrete with blue sky. Just the juxtaposition.”
Meaning is vital in the creation of music for the band. Everything is connected for Valley; the bigger picture is represented in their songwriting, instrumentals and visuals.
“Water the Flowers, Pray for a Garden” was born out of a lost demo from a few years ago. While Valley has no plans to pull from previous scrapped projects, the band looks forward to this “return” to their sound and what the future holds.
Tickets for their tour are on sale here: https://www.thisisvalley.com/tour/
Featured Photo Credit: Becca Hamel