Valley

The Arc of Valley

The pivots — what forced Valley to reinvent.

1. 01

   The Double-EP Build

   Splitting their full-length debut into 'MAYBE - Side A' and 'Side B' across 2018 and 2019 was a calculated gamble to feed streaming appetites without losing an album-length narrative. The four-piece lived together, obsessively refining radio-ready hooks and layering synth textures over Alex DiMauro's punchy, melodic basslines. Tracks like "There's Still a Light in the House" proved they could turn bright, clean indie pop into an arena-sized calling card. It earned them Juno attention and proved the Toronto bedroom-pop scene could generate genuine pop ambition.

2. 02

   The Quarantine Hit Machine

   When touring shut down in 2020, Valley turned entirely inward and churned out hyper-concentrated pop singles like "Like 1999" on short deadlines. The 'sucks to see you doing better' and 'Last Birthday' cycles traded live-room band dynamics for polished, digital precision built around viral hooks and Karah James's co-lead vocals. It pushed their streaming numbers through the roof but threatened to trap them in a loop of glossy, disposable pop confection. They were sharper than ever, but the edges were completely sanded off.

3. 03

   The Stripped-Down Rebuild

   Michael Brandolino exited the band ahead of 'Water the Flowers, Pray for a Garden' in 2024, forcing the remaining trio to completely rethink their setup. Instead of bringing in outside players to fake the old sound, Laska, James, and DiMauro went rustic, cutting live-off-the-floor tracks driven by acoustic guitars and raw, unpolished vocal takes. The heavy digital layers vanished in favor of open space and organic drum sounds. It was the sound of a band surviving a lineup fracture by stripping away the safety nets.

Influences

• Fleetwood Mac — Valley have consistently cited Fleetwood Mac's co-ed vocal interplay as the template for sharing lead duties between Rob Laska and drummer Karah James. You hear it clearly in the dual harmonies and rhythm-heavy arrangements of tracks like "Like 1999" and "Cure." It gave a 2020s pop band the classic vocal engine of a late-seventies soft-rock machine.
• The 1975 — The band openly credited The 1975's self-titled and 'I like it when you sleep...' eras for showing how to fuse pristine 80s funk guitars with modern pop sheen. That influence is plastered across the snappy guitar hooks and gated snare snaps on the 'MAYBE' tracklist. They took the Matty Healy blueprint and stripped away the irony.
• Death Cab for Cutie — Valley grew up on Ben Gibbard's lyricism, citing 'Transatlanticism' as a foundational text for writing earnest, bittersweet melodies. The melancholy pacing and acoustic warmth on 'Water the Flowers, Pray for a Garden' pull straight from that Pacific Northwest indie handbook. It anchors their pop hooks with real emotional heft.
• Bleachers — Jack Antonoff's modern heartland production style is a documented touchstone for Valley's driving, anthemic choruses. You can trace the booming snare hits and full-throttle gang vocals on "There's Still a Light in the House" directly to Antonoff's playbook. They took that oversized suburban catharsis and ran it through a Toronto indie lens.
• Phoenix — Valley frequently pointed to Phoenix's 'Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix' as the gold standard for blending analog band arrangements with hyper-tight electronic sequencing. The bouncing synth basslines and syncopated drum grooves on tracks like "Swim" mirror the French indie-pop masterclass. It kept their early tracks bouncy and impossible to ignore.