Music Q&A: In The Valley Below

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Angela Gail and Jeffrey Jacob’s music thrives on the intimacy and chemistry the pair create on stage. They’ve just supported White Lies on tour and will be ones to watch next year.

With it being the two of you do you both have a vision of how epic you want a song to sound and how do you translate that to the band? 

Jeffrey: We work together on every song and we want them all to be epic. When we began this project (a studio-only project initially) we played everything ourselves. When we started performing live we recruited a friend, Joshua Clair, to play drums because we both like the primal feel of having a live drummer on stage.

The fact that you both share the vocals and use a dual mic stand on stage reinforces the interdependency in a physical way.  How much do you feed off each other as well as the audience?

Angela: I feel safe being close to him – he keeps me from drifting away. I think about what I am saying when I sing, what the songs are about and those feelings I had when we wrote them. So it’s easy to sing to him. I also feed off the connections I make with the audience, everything from mutual curiosity to sexual desire.

Are there any ranges that one of you can sing that the other can’t and are you jokingly competitive with one another when it comes to that kind of thing?

Jeffrey: We’re not competitive at all. We are learning how to be good singers together, and try to help each other.

Is it important that your music conjures up visual imagery of your surroundings and landscapes or do you not think it is integral?

Jeffrey: I think LA has an effect on our music. We live between the desert and the ocean, and are surrounded by people with stars in their eyes. We are far away from family and everything we always knew. It’s easy to feel lost. But somehow the perfect weather makes it OK.

How did you settle on your image, which is very American frontier-style, and is it a pain to tour with a lot of white outfits?

Angela: Keeping it white is ceremonial for me. I have a collection of vintage white dresses, so I bring several on tour. Dressing the same every night keeps it easy for the men in the band. It’s the same principle as having a school uniform. We can focus on the music as the suspenders [braces] keep their pants up.

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