Valentiger unleashes ‘Stray Animals’: Striving for honest, song-centric pop-rock with a good vibe

The Grand Rapids trio spent more than a year on its new studio project, which gets unveiled in a Saturday show prior to a national tour. Check out an exclusive video in this Local Spins Artist Spotlight.

 

Consider it the yin and the yang of Valentiger.

The band’s long-awaited new studio album, “Stray Animals,” unwinds in understated fashion, with singer Brent Shirey on acoustic guitar and harmonica playing a solo rendition of “The Dawn Just Ain’t Enough Anymore” to open the collection – a pensive, hazy ditty with an upbeat ending.

That’s followed immediately by the explosive beats of the infectious, pop-hued “Connection,” which clearly oozes that “hit single” quality audiences are sure to embrace in concert, where Valentiger has earned a reputation for witty banter and an affable demeanor.

The mix of tunes and dynamics on the trio’s third studio album perfectly encapsulates how far this popular West Michigan band has come on the long journey from its teen-age genesis as “Happy Hour,” through name and personnel changes, to a well-deserved confidence in musical approach and attitude.

“I think we made a really honest record here,” Shirey says of the project meticulously recorded at Stephen Holsinger’s JJ Recording in Grand Rapids. “This album really seemed to be song-centric, what was best to accent the very basics of the tune.”

And each tune flaunts its own character.

TOURING BEHIND THE NEW ALBUM, FROM CINCI TO NEW YORK CITY

“In the past, I might have second-guessed a pop descriptor for this band,” Shirey concedes. “Now, I don’t think I could argue that myself as a songwriter, or the band in general, doesn’t have pop sense. As a three-piece, we work hard to make them the best tunes they can be. But we are a very varied band: We’ll have a punk song and then a real heartbreaker and then right into a 6/8 (time signature) number all in the same set or album. It’s hard to pin us down, but I think pop is in there.”

For Shirey, drummer Scott Rider and bassist Bill Kahler, the year-long recording endeavor propels Valentiger into its musical prime, with the band following up its CD-release show at The Pyramid Scheme in Grand Rapids on Saturday with an ambitious national tour that takes them to Cincinnati, New York, Washington D.C., Philadelphia and Nashville, among other cities, before returning to Michigan for shows in Detroit, East Lansing and Bay City.

“We have always enjoyed heading out East,” says Rider, who first met and started playing music with Shirey years ago at Sparta High School.

“Basically, we have always found it be the best way to play many larger cities in a short amount of time. It’s been a long time since we have been on the road for more than 10 to 15 days at a time. … We like playing Boston, New York City and the surrounding area, and our music seems to fit most of the time.”

To give fans a preview of what’s to come in these live shows, Shirey and Rider made a stop this week in the studios of News Talk 1340 AM (WJRW) for Local Spins Live, playing an acoustic rendition of the song, “Jim or Jason,” the fourth track on “Stray Animals.” Listen to a podcast of the entire show here and watch an exclusive video of their performance below.

Shirey, the band’s chief songwriter, says Valentiger previously would test and select new songs for prospective albums by performing them for audiences. This time around, band members picked their favorites based on demos Shirey provided, then honed them in the studio.

“It’s very much an album album,” Shirey offers. “We make the music we want, but we also try to find ways to make it better. First and foremost, we’re listeners, so we play the songs we want to hear.”

Those songs, in the case of “Stray Animals,” are about the choices people make in life, the consequences of those decisions and “humanizing, or rather, rehumanizing ourselves,” says Shirey, who penned many of the tunes in his garage with an acoustic guitar, a tape deck and a “gallon or so” of coffee by his side.

During one of those songwriting sessions, a “mangy, beefy, muscular mutt” wandered halfway into the garage and briefly faced down Shirey, inspiring the album’s moniker. “I think a lot of the lyrics started relating back to these moments and ‘Stray Animals’ kind of surfaced as the title and theme.”

CONTROLLING THE MUSICAL PRODUCT FROM START TO FINISH

Band members certainly intend to take a pitbull approach in promoting the new album independently, having polished their skills in marketing and managing their music.

“We will be busy promoting ‘Stray Animals’ for the next year,” Shirey says. “I think we’re pretty effective at spreading the word nationally via the Internet and Twitter is our current weapon of choice. The band has a personality that sometimes will even outshine the music and it works in our favor most of the time.”

Not only that, the band already has an inventory of songs for its next recording. Shirey said he wrote new material while mixing and completing “Stray Animals,” and the band had time to do “a lot of planning and reflecting” for the follow-up album.

And they’ll continue to release and plug music on their own rather than solicit a record label.

“We know a lot of bands, friends of ours, that have signed deals and, to this point, has never seemed like much of a ‘deal’ to us,” Shirey insists. “Currently, we control our product from start to finish. We write, we record, mix and master. We design the album artwork, do web and social media. We publish to all digital distributors, land licensing contracts here and there, and for this record, we’re even screen printing our own shirts. We work pretty hard and it’s tough to top.”

Valentiger’s CD-release show begins at 8 p.m. Saturday at The Pyramid Scheme in Grand Rapids, with Nathan K (of Stepdad), Detroit’s The Handgrenades and singer-songwriter Jon Timm opening the evening. Tickets are $12 in advance and $15 the day of the show, and the purchase price includes a copy of the new album. Details online here.

To learn more about Valentiger, listen to the track, “Connection,” purchase its music, buy tickets to the show and view a full touring schedule, visit valentigermusic.com.

And the first person to email john@localspins.com with “VALENTIGER” in the message field gets a free copy of the new album, courtesy of Local Spins.

Email John Sinkevics at john@localspins.com.
Copyright 2014, Spins on Music