Paul: Please introduce yourselves!
Brendan: i’m Brendan and i play guitar. Max plays the drums, George plays bass, Jd plays guitar and Shane sings the tunes.
Paul: For the uniniated, please give us a brief history of Valencia, who you are influenced by and what you sound like.
Brendan: We have been playing together as Valencia for about a year and a half now. After a drummer and singer left our old band The Capgun Heroes, George, Jd and I recruited Max from a band called the Emphasis and Shane from a band called Attracted to Miss. We since have been writing and recording songs and playing music together almost everyday. As far as the sound that we play, I would describe it as pretty much just rock, we are constantly writing songs and just are always looking for something that will keep people interested but bring the rock.
Paul: Is there a reason you’re called Valencia? Have you ever been to the Spanish city or does one of you have some kind of weird orange fetish?!
Brendan: Haha well the name actually came about because we were going through alot of changes and decided that we always wanted to keep evolving and getting better and better all the time. So we thought about some different ideas that would express that, but the spanish city of Valencia went through so many different changes and was known for its progress and evolution in the golden era of Spain, so we thought it was a perfect name. Plus, we love oranges.
Paul: What influences your songs the most and is there a particular lyrical style that you like to bring across in your songs?
Brendan: The things that influence our songs are the people that we associate with and the current events going on in the world and the music industry. There are many different factors that go into our lyrics and our song writing. We try to stray away from the typical girl/guy love/hate songs, but they also come out sometimes too, its whatever we’re feeling. We have songs about our thoughts on the direction of the world and the music industry, we have songs about friends with drug problems, and many different subject matters, but we try to keep writing constantly about whatever matters to us.
Paul: How did you wind up on I Surrender Records?
Brendan: We actually ended up on i surrender os sort of a fluke. Rob was sifting through some demos and he said that he has never signed a band off of a demo but he got bored for a few days and decided to listen to a few. He heard ours, and called me waking me up flipping out about our demo and wanting to put out a full length of ours. He just kept saying how he had nevver heard a good demo and within a few weeks we were i surrenders newest band.
Paul: What does it feel like to have someone like Rob from Midtown declare you as his new favourite band?
Brendan: Honestly that is the most encouraging thing that we could ever get. When someone who i have respected for such a long time (for not only Midtown being one of my favorite bands, but for also running a successful record label) tells you that they love what you do and respect you on the same level, its the best boost you could ever get.
Paul: You’re from Philadelphia – what is the local scene like? Which bands did you watch growing up and what bands are from that area now that you would recommend to us?
Brendan: The local scene in Philly is amazing. Its so great to have so many loyal kids that come out to shows and so many great bands around the area. Like some of our favorite bands come right from our home towns. Growing up we’d be at Days Away shows or even the Starting Line and now they’re everywhere. Some of the local bands are incredible as well that should definately be checked out are Like Lions, The Prize Fight, Zolof, The Suicide Pact, Honest Engine and there are so many others that just blow us away everytime we play with them.
Paul: How was the recording process for the new record? Did you spend a long time demo-ing the material or was it a case of recording it quickly?
Brendan: This album took so long, we had written about 15-20 songs and demoed them all several times. It began last August with the 4 song demo we did the first time, and several home demos before that. Then we wrote a ton of new songs and began doing more home demos in january and february. Then we finally thought we were ready to enter the studio. We went into Skylight in March and came out of there really unsatisfied. We tossed all of those songs and booked more time in May and June. We went back and demoed more songs at home and wrote more songs and then went into the studio for almost 30 days straight to finish the record. It was a long process but we’re all really happy with how it came out.
Paul: Is there a story behind the title of ‘This Could Be A Possibility’?
Brendan: Well these were lyrics to 2 different songs we had written. It has alot of meaning behind it because we have all been working on music for several years and its been our dream to make this a living and make our music heard. This title comes out of alot of self doubt concerning our ability to do it and make it and another lyric right after this on the song “How Will We Ever Know How” is ‘We’re all hoping’ and thats really what it comes down to.
Paul: The album reviews I’ve seen so far have been very, very positive. Have they surprised you or were you expecting such a good reaction?
Brendan: We were not at all expecting this kind of reaction, Max and I actually talk about it all the time how shocked we are that people like the music that we’re creating it, it boggles our minds and keeps us positive and its defiantely amazing to hear, and i hope everyone catches on. We just want everyone to hear our music.
Paul: With bands such as Houston Calls and Fallout Boy having released excellent albums recently, and of course Green Day having sold millions of records again, do you think a pop-punk surge may be on the cards again?
Brendan: I really hope so, there are so many great pop rock bands up and coming. I think its on its way back i hope the screaming thing is sort of dying down a little bit, to make way for some more melodic music which would be great. It seems like kids are really getting into bands like fall out boy, starting line and houston calls keeping this scene alive and just growing everyday.
Paul: What is the plan for the rest of the year? Are you a band that feels comfortable on the road?
Brendan: We love being on the road. Our plan for the next year is to play as many shows as possible, if we can play 364 days a year we would be the happiest people on earth. We have all taken off school and plan on touring as music as possible. We have some awesome people backing us and hopefully together we can make this happen, we’re looking to tour every chance we can.
Paul: Any funny on the road stories to tell?
Brendan: Nothing too crazy haha we’re pretty lame dudes just a few funny little things that happen when we’re hanging out everdyay together we like to play pranks on the other bands. On the last day of our tour with the Prize Fight. We came out of our show and found out that they had Saran Wrapped our van…. the entire way aroudn the van, closing all the doors. Our good friend Sonya gave them all the supplies and they did it while we were playing haha.
Paul: If you were an interviewer asking Valencia a question, what would you ask and why? What would the answer be?
Brendan: I would ask: How many girls do you get? and the answer is… None. We have no game.
www.myspace.com/valencia