|
By: Adam Grant Click to Listen to:
When you watch a made for television movie or an after school special where the central character packs up all of its most important possessions with the intent of leaving everything else behind to follow their dream, such an idea can come off as overly dramatic. In the case of Toronto rock trio Hunter Valentine, this is a reality that had to come to fruition in order for its members to truly get their group rolling.
Formed in the summer of 2004, HV – Kiyomi McCloskey (guitar, vocals), Laura Petracca (drums) and Adrienne Lloyd (bass, keyboards) – began to rehearse furiously, get their own gigs, and really see how people would take to their driven, attitude induced brand of rock n’ roll. Fortunately for them, the right people were listening and would help get the group into the North By Northeast Music Festival, as well as the Halifax Pop Explosion. During this time, the threesome would come into contact with legendary Canadian indie rocker Ian Blurton (C’Mon, Change of Heart), who would step into the studio with HV to produce their debut, Self-Titled demo. By the summer of 2006, momentum was building and interest from True North Records was around, but the girls abruptly decided to leave their jobs, apartments, and their community temporarily behind for gigs as employees at a Connecticut area arts camp. 
“I guess in some way when we decided to go away for the summer – at least in our hearts – signified that we would be prioritizing music in our lives, above all other things,” relays Lloyd. “In a way, I think we always considered ourselves a hard working band, but that was a big challenge for all of us to say, ‘would we be willing to give everything up in our lives for this rock n’ roll dream?’ I don’t think every band is really prepared to do that. “I mean, people have lots of reasons for not being able to leave the city that they live in, but I think we were challenging ourselves both individually and as a group to see if we could make it happen,” she continues. “We were challenging ourselves in a sense, to step it up to another level.” During the time away, HV would write a whole whack of songs and sign to High Romance Music, which happens to be a new imprint of True North Records. Once back in town, the real work began to take shape. The group got together with Alexisonfire producer Julius Butty and wound up putting together what would become Hunter Valentine’s 2007 debut, The Impatient Romantic. Now that the hard-charging record is out on the streets, the new goal for HV is to change the perspective people have of women in the music scene – for these once aren’t the groupies, and don’t intend on becoming them any time too soon. 
“It feels like the industry is still very male dominated,” contends Lloyd. “I remember one of our early shows – we were opening for another band on a Saturday night at the Horseshoe (Tavern) and we walked in, and I think the other bands and some of the industry people around thought that we were the girlfriends of the guys that were playing next. “I think that’s changing,” she elaborates. “I think what we would hope that people are just able to respect us for our songwriting, our individual playing on instruments, rather than see it as, ‘you’re a great band for a bunch of girls,’ or ‘she’s a great guitar player, great drummer, for a girl,’ we just want to be considered good musicians and we’re working towards that.” For more information on Hunter Valentine, please visit www.huntervalentine.com |
