Neu Valentina

Valentina takes a break from playing piano and taking walks in the country at her Mum’s to tell us about her music, to celebrate the release of her debut EP ‘Weights’.

What got you into making music?
I used to write a lot of melodies and words, not whole songs as such, from very early on with no real reason, it just felt pretty normal. Then my Mum and I were given a really old organ by a friend which I messed around with a lot and gradually things took more form and writing songs and singing took over really.
I think it was probably the combination of a few things coming together at the right time!
I also decided to move to London at 16 on my own to go to music college, that changed me a lot and made me grow up pretty fast and created an even bigger drive and determination to make it happen.

You describe yourself as a singer, and a songwriter. Do you write for musicians other than yourself?
I have dabbled in it a little, and would like to do a bit more at some point. I think it is a very different skill to have and you almost have to have the capacity to get into someone else’s mind and make it as honest as possible to that person, whilst also detaching yourself from the song somewhat.

Much of your music tells quite personal tales. Do you ever share a bit more than you intended?
Yes probably! I never set about writing a song intending to share all of my baggage and insecurities, but when you are in the midst of something happening in your life and you need to write about it, it is very difficult not to, and it would make it contrived to censor bits out! So the short answer is yes, I probably always share a bit more than I intend - as with interviews too…

How do you treat negative and positive situations within your lyrics? Are you drawn to write more about one than the other?
I guess it really depends where you are at, but I definitely think that I find it easier and am more drawn to writing when I need to vent something. There is not much to write about being serenely happy really is there?! It is such a fleeting emotion in real life. A lot of people I know are very concerned about reaching this constant state of happiness and contentment, which I feel uneasy about in a way! Without the struggle, that in part becomes the motivation, I think it would be very difficult to create anything meaningful. That sounds like I want to be really miserable doesn’t it?!

You’ve been working with your now ex-boyfriend, Blue May, and Kwes on your debut EP. Can you tell us a bit about the release? How long have you been working on it?
It was written in quite an intense burst, but the recording process and everything else leading to this point has been quite a long journey! I am also an awful perfectionist/worrier so that doesn’t help! We had a bit of a nightmare at times, being without a studio for a bit of the process so we had to hop between, hallways, bedrooms and any studio place we could borrow/beg. Then there was the small incident of the whole EP getting lost! Which meant we started all over again. This was actually a breath of fresh air in the end though, as we ended up making it the way we had always intended to, and it felt like a whole piece of work rather than bits strung together.

Finally, if you had to guess in advance, what will be your highlight of 2011?
World domination? Failing that, some people buy my EP?

Valentina’s new EP ‘Weights’ is out now via Little Chaos.

Valentina - It’s A Line by facultydigital