Band Of The Week #226 - Death Valley Girls
This week’s Band of the Week is LA mystic rockers Death Valley Girls - who have just released their new album ‘Islands In The Sky’, which is out now via Suicide Squeeze Records.
For the better part of a decade, LA’s scrappy rock n’ roll mystics Death Valley Girls have used their music as a means of tapping into a communal cosmic energy. On albums like Glow In The Dark (2016), Darkness Rains (2018), and Under the Spell of Joy (2020) the band challenged the soul-crushing banality of modern society and celebrated “true magical infinite potential”through a collage of scorching proto-punk riffs, earworm melodies, far-out lyrics, and lysergic auxiliary instrumentation. But on their latest album Islands in the Sky, Death Valley Girls’ songwriting mastermind Bonnie Bloomgarden uses the band’s anthemic revelries as a guidebook to spiritual healing and a roadmap for future incarnations of the self. And while these may be the loftiest aims of Death Valley Girls to date, the resulting music is also by far their most infectious and celebratory.
The seeds for Islands in the Sky were planted while Bloomgarden was bed-ridden with a mysterious illness from November 2020 to March 2021. “When I was sick I had to sleep most of the day. I kept waking up every few hours with an intense message to take care of the island, feed the island…I have no idea why, but making music for the island kept coming up.”
They took a moment to talk to us about how the album came together.
Hey there Death Valley Girls - how are you? So your album is out now - how does it feel to have it out there in the world?
Hi!! We are so good, thank you for asking!! It feels amazing! We recorded this exactly one year ago, and have learned so much since then! This record means the world to us, and it feels incredible now that everyone can hear it and be a part of it, and be with us on this journey!
It is called ‘Islands in the Sky’ - what is the meaning behind that?
We wrote this record after a very hard experience in life. We wanted to make a record for our future selves, so that we would never have to have the same struggles in the future, that we had to have in this life. The challenge is, how will our future selves know to listen to this record?? We believe that “Islands in the Sky” will mean something to our future selves that we don’t totally understand right now! In other words! I’m not sure why it’s called that, we were compelled to call it that for a yet to be known reason!!
Where was it recorded? Any behind the scenes stories from the creative process you are happy to share with us?
We recorded it at Station House Studio with Mark Rains, it’s where we record all our records! One interesting part of the writing is that we went up to the forest in the middle of the mountains away from everything! There we channeled all the melodies and concepts. It was the first time it occurred to us, or was channeled to us to love ourselves, and send love to our future selves! I think being isolated in the forest gave us the power to look with in clearly and deeply, with out disturbance!
What are the key themes and influences on the album?
I was very sick from October 2020 to around May 2021. During that time I went to tons of doctors, but did not get better because they could not help me get to the root of the issue. I believe that it was an illness caused by emotions, fear, and storing of emotions! When I realized that, I started working on myself, and I started to heal. It took a very long time- and is a process I am still in, but the shift was and is real. I had stored pain and trauma from childhood, once I started to release it, and recognize it, I was on a new path. That path inspired me to want to help others, and my future self to learn sooner what I had to learn the hard way! To love yourself, be kind to yourself, not live in shame and fear, to know that you/I/we are all connected and being guided. No one is alone, and healing is a journey that is possible for everyone!
If the album could be the soundtrack to any film - which one would it be and why?
Oh wow! Cool question! I would say Jaws, just kidding! I think Alice in Wonderland.
Do you have a favorite lyric on the album - if so, which one and why?
I think it’s from the title track “Islands in the Sky” “you’re in charge of your perception of your life. You can choose what you keep and what you leave behind.“ I think that’s the biggest lesson I learned, and the most important message I want others to hear !!
Now the album is out there - what next?
Tour, tour, tour and more tour. And then record a bunch more :)
