Features Craft Spells

2011 is going to be a busy year for Justin Paul Vallesteros, aka Craft Spells. He’s recently recruited a new live band for a stint of hard touring, and will release his debut album ‘Idle Labor’ via Brooklyn’s Captured Tracks on 29th March. We ask the man himself a few questions.

Hello! Introduce yourself: who are you, where are you from, where are you based now..?
Hello, I’m Justin. I’m anxious cause I’m moving from Stockton, CA to Seattle, WA in three days. Stockton sucks.

What got you into making music?
Not sure what got me into music, but I jammed out hard to Oasis’ ‘Wonderwall’ at like 15.

You’ve got an album on the way via Captured Tracks - what brought you together? Did you approach them, or..?
It was really unexpected. I had put the songs on MySpace to show to my friends, they got in contact with me from there.

Has the album been a long time in the works?
Sort of. Some of the first songs I recorded were re-recorded with a better ear. I put a lot of time into these songs. Glad they are out of the way though. Stoked to be writing new tunes with the rest of the band up in Seattle.

What topic does a typical Craft Spells track centre on: day to day events, politics, romance…?
First world problems. A little bit of romance thrown in.

How autonomous are you when it comes to recording? Do you work with many other people?
I wrote and recorded this in my bedroom in California. Some of the tracks have Jack Smith’s back up vocals and bass skills. He and two other friends (Peter & Javier) make up the new band up in Seattle. We will be writing collectively on the next release. Should be fun!

Other than the album, of course, do you have anything else of interest in the pipeline?
Tour the entire year and more.

And finally: What other up and coming bands should we be checking out?
I’m really into Peaking Lights. So Good.

Craft Spells by CraftSpells