Valley Queen - Chord of Sympathy
Ahead of this Friday’s release of their mystical sophomore album Chord of Sympathy, Los Angeles band Valley Queen have shared their buoyant, heartfelt new single “Nobody Ever,” which premiered today at Under The Radar. “Call me crazy, but I personally think ‘Nobody Ever’ was written by Paul McCartney to Linda McCartney, or vice versa,” explains songwriter/vocalist Natalie Carol. “I was working on this song when I moved into my first solo place in 2020 in Los Angeles and was spending a lot of time alone. I would have dreams where I would hang out with Paul and he would noodle melodies and fragments on the piano and I would lay around and listen. All I remember ever saying to him was: ‘I love Linda.’ He said ‘I love her, too.’ Maybe ‘Nobody Ever’ doesn’t sound like ‘Wings’ to anybody else, but I know it’s the closest I’ll ever come to writing in their style, even if it was by accident. I think of Paul and Linda every time I hear the track and how sound might travel between the land of the living and the land of the dying.”
Valley Queen recently chatted with Jenny O. about their new albums, their favorite lyrics of each other’s, and their desire to nurture people with their art in a conversation for Talkhouse. Chord of Sympathy’s previous singles—”Falling,” “Cassavetes,” “Pavement,” and “Chord of Sympathy“—have earned praise from FLOOD, The Alternative, Ones to Watch (playlist), Buzzbands.la, and more. The band also has a handful of spring U.S. West Coast shows presented by Folk Yeah! coming up, including at Los Angeles’ Gold Diggers on May 4th.
Chord of Sympathy marks a definitive departure from the system Valley Queen was using to write, arrange, and produce music before this point. In the wake of an original band member’s departure and a global pandemic, the group was pushed to reroute their roles—instead of sticking to their individual instruments, the trio of Carol, Mike Deluccia, and Neil Wogensen moved around, trying on different hats, sharing them, and reinvigorating the Valley Queen sound in a style newly and truly collaborative.
“I see a lot of the writing I do as sourced from a wound, or sourced from love and abundance. Both are valuable,” says Carol. “Our full-length debut Supergiant was written from a lot of wounding, but Chord of Sympathy plays more like a love letter out to the world. Writing this one, I had more access to my inner love, which I wanted to share as a source of comfort for people who listen to our music. Supergiant’s yin has been answered by Chord of Sympathy’s yang.” Whereas 2018’s Supergiant channeled pains of the past, Chord of Sympathy is borne of the endless present Carol experienced in her bedroom during lockdown, where time collapsed and the future needed to be created.