SOCIAL MEDIA

Twinmusix got to speak to Anthony from Valhalore about their upcoming tour and more.

TM - Hi this is Amelia and Elizabeth from Twinmusix and we are here with Anthony from Valhalore, thank you for having this interview with us today we appreciate it.

AY - Hey guys, how are you?

TM - Good, How are you?

AY - Good, there's a bit of rain on the way.

TM - It is raining here too.

TM - What can fans expect from your new album "Beyond the Stars"?

AY - It is awesome that we can talk about this after so many years of waiting, and we can finally release some new music in the form of a new album. We are pretty pumped about the album and the fans can expect an evolution of the classic sound, especially if they are a fan of this band. We hope when people listen to this record, they go away from it thinking Valhalore has found their own sound and they aren't trying to sound like all these other bands.

TM - What's your favourite song off this new Album "Beyond the Stars"?

AY - They are all pretty special to me in their own way, but my favourite one would be the last song on our album "A Walk Among the Stars".

TM - What was your writing and recording process for your new album "Beyond the Stars"?

AY - We started writing these songs at the end of the last album in 2017. Then we put out a single called "Legacy" and an acoustic EP of all of these songs we had written around the same time. "Legacy" was meant to be a two-part single with the band "Wayfinder" but that didn't happen. Then we were due to go to Europe and play Waken Open Air and do a 6-week tour over there in 2020, and unfortunately, everything got cancelled, so we put our savings into a second album instead. We hired a great producer called Sam Vallen from Caligula's Horse and spent 6 weeks across 2020 and the end of 2021 in a few Studios around the neighbourhood recording this album. It was a more collaborative approach as it wasn't just me in my studio. Everyone was involved, and we had a lot of guest musicians playing and a bunch of different orchestral instruments on the record, so it was a more collaborative approach than the first one.

TM - It would be cool to see you do an orchestral tour.

AY - That would be cool, or even just a few shows.

TM - How did you come up with your Album cover for "Beyond the Stars" and Who designed it?

AY - The album cover was designed by a fellow called Justine, and he also did the "Voyage into Eternity" artwork. This artwork encapsulated the themes of the album and described someone's journey throughout their life from beginning to end. It had all the ups and downs someone might encounter and ultimately conveyed can this person become greater than themselves. We tried to convey that in the album artwork with the celestial figure coming out of the Galaxy and going beyond whatever they know.

TM - How did you come up with your video for "Horizon"?

AY - All of the video concepts were born in Lachlan's magnificent brain, and we collaborated on that. We knew "Horizon" needed a story, and we had some pretty wacky ideas for this story. Ultimately, it came together with the professor finding a time loop and the professor losing his daughter. Then his daughter eventually found her way back to him. It was a cool concept we came up with, and we were pretty excited to pull it off.

TM - How about your song "The Storm"?

AY - Lachlan came up with the idea, but the lyrics are pretty dark, and it deals with some pretty heavy human emotions. We wanted to embody that with a figure, and in this case, it was Lachlan just getting brutalised as mentally and physically as possible; it was just trying to be a parallel of what the song was about.

TM - What can fans expect from your Australian tour?

AY - We are playing four shows, It is not a massive tour, but a nice concise tour to focus on the production of these shows. We will be playing most songs of the new album and some fan favourites and we really hope that these will be our biggest headline shows so far.

TM - Who was the first band you saw live and can you tell us a story?

AY - I don't like this answer but I think it was As I Lay Dying back in the Day before all the controversy.

TM - Did they influence you to play?

AY - To be honest, the guitar players in the band at the time, I think it was Nick and Phil, had an aggressive picking Style and the way they accented different notes and different riffs, influenced me, and I was drawn to that type of playing Style. 
Children of Bodom, was one of my influencers, and they had a similar picking style. I have found that the aggressiveness approach with riffs and the melodic and catchy riffs influenced me, and you can probably hear that in "The Storm". It also comes through in the verses of my music, and I have a fast down picking riff style, and it is very hard to play.

TM - Do you have a favourite memory of a concert you played with your fans?

AY - A concert that sticks out is a concert that we played with Arch Enemy in Melbourne at the forum. I have never played a venue like that before and it was just the most beautiful building and architecture that I have seen in a venue. The whole atmosphere and vibe of the place was very exciting so it was an absolute treat to play in that place.

TM - If you could have any band play one of your songs what band would it be, what song would it be and would it be in your style or their style?

AY - I always respect people who cover songs and make it a little different. I would have to think about who could do our songs. We have the tin whistle element so my brain goes to a band like Eluveitie, that would be pretty cool and to hear a female singer clean singing one of our songs would bring a pretty unique flavour to doing whichever song they want to do.

TM - Is there anything else you want to say to your fans?

AY - It has been 8 years and we have a new album coming out, and people are still listening after all the roadblocks that we have had. I have so much gratitude and so much appreciation for people sticking around and still giving us a chance and a shot and still giving our music a go. Thank you to those people who still buy Merch, support us at band camp and buy tickets. We still consider ourselves quite a local band in a scene and we haven't broken out into the wider international stage yet, so we appreciate the support and we hope we can just keep giving back to you guys.

TM - Thank you for having this interview with us today, We appreciate it.

AY - Thank you for having us.