Q&A: Valley’s New Single "Vending Machine" Is Their Most Uninhibited Track Yet
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
Photo credit: Vanessa Heins
IT STARTED WITH A TEN-YEAR-OLD ASKING THE MOST VALLEY QUESTION IMAGINABLE - When co-producer Chase's niece called mid-session and opened with "do you need to be entertained?", the band knew they had something. Not just a hook, but a provocation: the kind that cuts right to the heart of what it means to be in a band, to be in a relationship, to be a person someone only calls when they need something from you. Nearly two years after their critically acclaimed third album Water the Flowers, Pray for a Garden, Valley are back with "Vending Machine," and they're arriving with the fog lifted and the animals loose on the lawn.
Where the garden grew out of grief, "Vending Machine" shreds it up with playful lyrics, nostalgic alt-pop production, and a sharper-than-it-sounds meditation on transactional love, the kind that depends on output, not connection. It's the first glimpse of a new era from Rob Laska, Alex Dimauro, and Karah James, one that finds the multi-JUNO nominated trio leaning fully into the euphoric chaos that has always lived just beneath the surface of their music. With over 1.2 billion global streams behind them and a run of Canadian festival dates ahead, including Osheaga, Rock the Park, and Area 506, Valley are stepping back into the world with something to say. We sat down with the band to talk about the two years in between, what they left behind, and what they're building next.
LUNA: "Vending Machine" opens with the question "do you need to be entertained?" — it feels almost like a challenge to the listener. What were you trying to set up with that line right out of the gate?
VALLEY: It's a question born out of a happy accident! It's Chase's (our co-producer's) niece — we happened to be recording when she called him and he answered. The first thing she said to him was "do you need to be entertained?" What an interesting way to start a conversation with someone, yet alone an audience? She's like 10 years old, haha. It felt important and inspired us to dive deeper into the meaning of our band's purpose and what we "provide" as a band — entertainers? humans?
LUNA: The track has a noticeably more playful, uninhibited energy compared to some of Water the Flowers, Pray for a Garden. Was that shift intentional going into this new era, or did "Vending Machine" just arrive that way?
VALLEY: Both. We felt the fog lift for sure. The garden had really grown out of grief and took on its own life. "Vending Machine" felt like animals arriving and shredding up the grass a bit, ya know.
LUNA: Tell us more about the music video for this one.
VALLEY: I don't know if I'm doing any favors by explaining it too much — you just gotta watch it! We really wanted it to visually take you where you wanted to go, meaning-wise, and leave you asking questions. Adit, our director, is a visionary and did an outstanding job at conveying entertaining both an audience and ourselves, knowing that you're giving into the idea of trying to find connection in chaos and an environment that takes the natural and makes it co-exist within the un-natural.
LUNA: It's been nearly two years since your last release. What did that time away from putting out music actually look like for the three of you — were you writing constantly, or did you need the space to step back?
VALLEY: It was a weird but inspiring two years. A lot of music was made and scrapped, then started again. We all traveled but had way more consistent time home after touring for almost six straight months. We mostly focused on realigning life outside of music and being in a band. For us it always comes down to living a life that's worth writing about or worth picking up an instrument. And you can only really do that if you give into the unknown and live outside of the work. At least that's where the truth will be.
We could write a song every day and work that muscle, but it's not about that anymore — especially not when you can generate a song in five seconds. It's all about living. The feeling of knowing there are new songs in you only comes from stepping away and letting your soul literally gather the words, melodies, etc. It's all out there but it won't show up when you expect it. And we learned not to wait around for it. It will happen when it's meant to.
LUNA: Who have you been listening to lately?
VALLEY: I've been loving Ryan Beatty's new album Sweet Fortune but also have Calico on constant rotation, loving the new-ish Smerz album, went back and listened to the first Foster the People album — absolute nostalgia and what an era of music! I have also possibly listened to "Baby Don't Hurt Me" by Emma Ogier 5,000,000 times this week. Constant replay in this house — that song is special.
LUNA: You've got a run of Canadian festival dates this summer — Osheaga, Rock the Park, Area 506. What does it mean to come home to Canadian stages as you're kicking off a new chapter?
VALLEY: Very exciting! I sometimes get really anxious playing festivals because truthfully, for me, they are not an ideal environment for playing music, haha. You're playing to a lot of new people which gets you into this "I need to win people over with the show" mode, which is actually just internal anxiety and silly — but lately I've learned to embrace that and it's been healthy fuel to show up with a new show and new songs and ultimately just have fun with it. We are so grateful we get asked to play these festivals in the first place and that people care. They have worked their asses off to buy tickets and travel, etc.
Having the time off to make music really helped the excitement build up to get out there again. Touring and playing shows really is a whole other sport. It takes a lot of time to build up to the routine and structure behind it. So having fun preparing for that! It's gonna be a good summer.
LUNA: Valley formed after a chance studio double-booking brought two high school bands together. A decade later, how has the way you three work together in the studio evolved — and what does the dynamic look like now when you're building a song from scratch?
VALLEY: It's always been about baby steps towards discomfort = discovery. The moment things feel safe or like we've been there before, we'll always question why and dig deeper. It's of course not that easy in practice to define in the room, and we're fully aware that we have a sonic "watermark" when we're all in a room together picking up instruments. There are chords, melodies, and sonic almost-superpowers that will always sound like Valley and stamp us on the timeline. But bending the idea of that and testing its resilience is really what it's always been about — distilling the meaning and truth in anything, whether it's a synth sound or heartbreak. Water the Flowers, Pray for a Garden really began that journey for us again. It felt like a return to how we made MAYBE.
LUNA: What can you share about this upcoming new era of music?
VALLEY: Do you need to be entertained?
LUNA: What intentions do you have for the rest of this summer?
VALLEY: Saying more yes's to things outside my job and career, and more no's to things in my career that don't align with who I am — regardless of the money, time, and opportunity sold to me.
I've been working really hard at clearing the path I face every morning to revolve around inspiration, healthy consumption, and more curiosity. The walk to coffee, the bike ride around the city with no destination, spending quality time with the people I love, and listening to albums — it's all healthy entertainment. When all that is co-existing with my career, the five hours I have a day to work on music at the studio really does bring a whole new level of calm and focus. I find I can really surprise myself with what I make and where it leads. Life always gives back what you put in, always.
