Saturday 24 October 2015

Introducing - Slowcoach


Slowcoach is the name of Melbourne Australia Dean Valentino's latest project. We've tipped his song In Limbo this week on Shell Zenner's show on Amazing Radio. We discovered it randomly on Soundcloud, but were immediately hooked and wanted to find out more. We had a chat with Dean to discover a little more about Slowcoach and his plans.



Can you tell us a little bit about Slowcoach please. What made you choose a band name instead of using your own?

I never really loved the idea of using my own name to represent the music. I feel like having a moniker gives me a bit more creative freedom and allows me to attach a different persona to the project if I want. Like how Bruce Wayne goes by Batman, except nowhere near as cool or physically gifted.

Have you played, or are you playing, in other bands or is this your first musical project?

I played in a three-piece band called The Red Lights for about 5 years before releasing this music, so it's been really nice branching out and trying some new sounds. All our old stuff is still floating around on Soundcloud somewhere!

We've chosen the track In Limbo as our tip for Amazing Radio. Could you tell us a little bit about the song please?

This is a pretty old one that I toyed around with for a while until finally getting around to tidying it all up and recording it. I was listening to a lot of guitar based stuff like Beach Fossils and sort of mixed a bunch of sounds together until it worked. The lyrics are kind of about the tussle between moving on from an empty relationship and using minor, irrelevant things to try and hold onto it, even though it sounds like a pretty upbeat and fun track.

Are you surprised by the positive reaction it's had - was it not originally intended to be the b-side of the single Beneath The Board?

I planned to eventually release them as a Double-A side, which I've finally done, but yeah it was the second single next to Beneath The Board. I'm generally always surprised by positive reactions haha, I think you have to keep an open mind when releasing music and understand that it's always going to take a bit of time to get people to come around to it, so I'm always pretty chuffed when someone says something nice.

When you play live how do you manage to recreate the sound of the recorded versions?

I'm actually yet to play live with this project! It is in the works though, so there'll be something ready by the end of the year for sure so I'll let you know how it all pans out.



We discovered your music when Soundcloud scheduled it after a completely different track by another artist. You've been getting some love around the world, but what's the weirdest way someone has connected with you?

A fan in Peru sent me a video of her singing 'In Limbo' which was actually amazing haha.. it's weird to see so many people from around the world sharing the music and showing some love. Music is so accessible now, it's not longer this exclusive thing where international releases and downloads are only for big name artists.

What are your plans after the single release - is there an album in the pipeline?

Getting the live show off the ground is my biggest priority right now, I really miss that. I have an insanely talented group of guys helping me with it and I guess once these new songs start to shape up I'll think about releasing heaps more music and hopefully an EP next year.

Are there any plans to play further afield than Melbourne?

Yeah definitely, I'm a huge, huge fan of the Brisbane scene - there are so many good acts doing the rounds up there, so I love getting over when I can! I've still never played in Perth, so that's something that's on the list if they'll have me.

One final question, which we always ask, how would you describe your music to someone who'd never heard of you before?

I usually just say 'dream-pop' and then when people ask what dream-pop is I usually say "reverby, chorusy, guitar based stuff - very much inspired by Wild Nothing & The Smiths", then if they ask who Wild Nothing and The Smiths are I usually walk away. You don't need that in your life.

Slowcoach are on Facebook and Twitter.  The tracks can be purchased from Bandcamp on a name your price basis.
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