DJ Jason: I find your work to be very unusual and pleasantly so. The haunting combination of your voice, piano and violin is very unique. How did you, as a multi-instrumentalist, come to write and record songs with these specific instruments? Please tell us a little about your history.
Valentina: I started studying violin when I was 5 years old, my unexplainable choice, since then I never stopped playing it. I wanted to be a soloist at that time. On one side, I’ve been part of symphonic youth orchestras and ensembles playing violin and viola, and on the other hand, I perform live with rock bands. I took composition classes and take seminaries but I always like to keep exploring techniques and experimenting by myself, however I have to say that I’m a more self-taught with the piano and voice.
While growing up as a human and as a musician, I found out the most genuine and sublime bond when composing; something I didn’t experience when interpreting someone else music. It’s my metamorphosis; the moment creatures start dwelling into my soul.
You have songs in both Spanish and English. Will you continue to make albums with both languages, or have you decided to move towards a single language in the future?
That’s an interesting question! I’m not thinking about leaving languages, all the opposite, I pretend to add more languages. The great diversity is peculiarly fascinating, I wish I could speak all of them and include them into my music. Spanish, English and Latin will appear in the future.
What inspires your lyrics?
I choose metaphor, analogies and allegories to write. The whole album came from Endăley, Fairy of the souls and my alter-ego, she tells the stories of the lost souls to immortalize them in legends. Encompassing many topics, each individual discovers and observes from multiple points of view. But clearly there are topics that inspired me, society and its impact; the melancholy of time, the events and milestones that go through us, but also hope, the unexplored, the fearsome, the unknown, the unreal.
Who are your favorite bands?
I have a lot of favorite bands, since I was a classical trained but also all that surrounded me always encouraged incorporating immense variety of music. My eternal inspiration is Siouxsie Sioux, I love her aesthetics, her voice, she has always been the darkly sparkly sorceress I look up to. The Cure and Echo and the Bunnymen are my all-time favorites. I made a playlist you should check out with some of the dark and mystic musicians I admire from yesterday and today, and of course I’m constantly seeking for new ones.
What is the music scene like in Argentina? Are you part of the local goth scene there? Do you feel that it has influenced your compositions?
I think it’s like anywhere else, but with the difference I don’t live in a city where the gothic scene has ever been strong, it’s very reduced, although I know there are goth musicians out there in other provinces. And my generation or younger musicians are focusing more in other styles, I want my music influences more young people and they do not fear to embrace the unusual, to explore and create.
To be frank I nurtured from everything I listened from my country including tango, national rock and folklore. I guess that’s the reason I become more eclectic.
Your debut album, Leyendas de las Almas Perdidas, came out last month. How has the reception been for it?
Odd!! I received a lot of magnificent impressions from beings from all the planet Earth. It’s really inspiring when someone listens and shares your music to support a DIY independent musician.
Are you playing any live shows in support of the album’s release? Are there musicians that fill in for you when you perform live?
I wish I was as mysterious as Anna Varney Cantodea, and never perform live in front of humans, but actually, I have no plans going live at the moment. In fact, I’d love that musicians join me.
The music videos that you have are very visually compelling and creative. Did you create the sets and designs? Are they of your aesthetic vision in addition to the music?
Thank you! Yes, I design them, it’s a whole concept that arises from the main essence, absolutely tightly attached to the music, starts as visions, spectrums, floating ideas that become a plot and images, that become sets with a very low budget and recycling stuff. Surrealism, fantasy and silent films are pivotal for my videos to come to live in a theatrical form.
What are your future ambitions?
Composing, composing, recording, making more art, learning.
Is there anything that you would like to tell our readers?
Yes, I’m working on an EP at the moment, it’s instrumental and the prequel of ‘Leyendas de las Almas Perdidas’.
Lovely she is a unique genius