OOF INTERVIEWS: Kennedy (of Highnoon) talks with Sasha and the Valentines

photos by: JB Bergin (left) & Julia Leiby (right)

It was a historically snowy night in Austin when I sat down with Oof’s newest band, Sasha and the Valentines. The five-piece, squeezing into camera view, consisted of Sarah, John, Billy, Tim, and Alex. The band’s chemistry and ambition felt palpable to me even from miles away at my apartment in Philly. I got to talk to them about the band’s growth, how they’ve come to cultivate a recording process during Covid, and the work that led up to their stellar new LP So You Think You Found Love?. Keep reading for the full interview.

Me: So how long have you guys been playing music together?

Sarah: I guess it’s been like 5 years -- no, seven years. Seven years ago is when me, John, and Billy played in Calico Blue together, that was our college band, and we played a little after college too and then we met Alex and Tim they were in Spirit Ghost. Alex had been doing Spirit Ghost at about the same amount of time so I would say like seven years.

Me: And did you all go to school at UMass? You’re all from that area?

Sarah: Yeah we’re all from Massachusetts but more like eastern Mass. Alex is from Providence, RI. And me and John are like South Eastern Mass.

Me: What brought you guys down to Austin originally, did you move together?

Sarah: It was in phases sort of but we had moved just because me and Alex had gone on a road trip that brought us to the Texas area and we really liked it and we kind of talked about it with everybody but John lived in Chicago for a little bit before, Billy was in Hawaii, and like Tim was in Western Mass so then we moved here and I feel like it kind of trickled and we decided we wanted to give music like a real honest try so we all had to be in the same state in the same city.

Me: So you’ve been playing together in different bands for a bit. When was the official inception of Sasha and the Valentines?

Billy: At Alex’s house.

Sarah: Yeah! Oh my god.

Alex: Well I would say as soon as John left to go to Chicago and things in Calico Blue started to dissipate so Sarah was not able to like do this thing that she really wanted to be doing. And I also wasn’t able to do my project as much and we obviously hang out together a lot so we were like why don’t we just do it together? We also have a lot of the same influences and it just made sense to also have people that we knew like Billy and everyone and then John eventually came to their senses.

Sarah: Yeah exactly. I remember that day Billy came over to Alex’s mom’s house and we worked through some of the earliest Sasha and the Valentines stems and that was like four years ago honestly.

Tim: You were kinda working on stuff when you still lived in Amherst though.

Sarah: I know like even before that like these were stems of songs that I had personally been writing for a while but like not knowing -- because with Calico Blue it was very like four people writing their own parts I was only writing like vocal and melody lines. And this was me tryna cut my teeth and like building songs and chord progressions.

Me: Could you say a little bit about your process together now -- I know before you said you were only writing your parts individually. Would you say it’s a bit more collaborative now?

Sarah: Yeah as of like this album and the songs that we’ve been playing live, it was kind of me writing a bunch of demos and trusting everyone to kind of fill in all the gaps and work out the kinks from the demos and just kind of diving right into those songs for the most part.

John: Yeah because the demos would be like drum pad and keys and vocals basically, and maybe a guitar line and then we would have the demo and be like “Okay, let’s make it a live song.”

Alex: And I feel like it’s different from song to song like there’s some where the collaborative process definitely makes the song different but then there’s some like “Tears for Mars” where I’m literally playing exactly what Sarah wrote the entire time.

Sarah: Versus “Flower” where Alex wrote that and I added the melody so that was like a song that was very collaborative and then yeah some of the other songs I wrote fully and some had less parts so it was all like filling in the gaps of the demos I was making kind of.

Me: And when did you end up recording the album itself? Was it a pre-pandemic or a during type of thing?

John: Right at the beginning of the pandemic.

Sarah: Yeah, we were set to play SXSW for the first time and going on a tour to Mexico and doing all these things.

John: *face palms* Oh my god yeah. Why’d you bring that up?

Sarah: We were gonna plan another tour. We were very much like seasoning all of these songs and playing out and enjoying getting very tight. So we were very much enjoying the live aspect of it and then when Covid hit, it was like everything got stripped away from us so we were like “what can we do?” We can finally record all these songs.

John: It was also like a huge surprise that we could record and like go into the studio. I remember being so shocked that we had enough money to do that. Just because we’d been making money from the last tour we’d gone on and the merch we had been making. It just coincided where like once we lost all of the shows, it very quickly was like well, I’ll just crunch the numbers and see how many days we can actually be in the studio if this engineer is down.

Sarah: Yeah, this engineer also reached out to us, Eric Lawford of Cacophony Records, he did a lot of really amazing albums, most notably the Molly Burch album that kind of like skyrocketed her to success which is kind of crazy like working with him right after that. But he stopped by at a show at Cheer Up Charlie’s for Hot Summer Nights and he messaged us and he was like “I love your sound. I’d love to do a free day.” So we did a free song with him.

John: That was when we did “Witches” which is cool.

Sarah: And that was before the pandemic. We had done the free song but we were like listen, we can’t afford him like he’s like the real deal. Then Covid hit and we realized we didn’t need to spend money on tour to make money. Our money wasn’t moving like we were gonna get a van. We were sitting on this money that we once had plans for and we were like okay let’s just go for it. All of us were working and like doing different things but like because everyone’s life came to a halt we were like “okay we have time.”

Me: So you mentioned that you guys have similar inspirations and stuff. Can you name some of those bands that you feel have influenced your sound a lot or that you feel like you connected over together?

Sarah: Yeah. I think going into it I was like I wanna do some songs that pull from like ABBA or Blondie vibe of the 80s classics I listened to growing up. But then my modern influences at the time like years ago like I was obsessed with Beach House. I loved Tennis. I loved Pure Bathing Culture like all these powerhouse female vocals and then as like individuals we were kind of all over the place. Like we all had very different music tastes that kinda webbed together in different ways and we can bond over different things that we all enjoy. Like Billy and Alex can bond over like old school country whereas like Tim and Al have psych rock and then John and Tim have jazz and me and John have like--

John: What do we have?

Sarah: I don’t know like SZA? *laughing* Like we all very much like a lot of music.

John: Yeah I think a lot of our growing together as friends who do music was in the way of sharing music so I mean like Beach House was shown to me by Sarah and Unknown Mortal Orchestra was shared in that way too. And they’re all truly dynamic influences on what I listen for in bass parts. But then I also bring like -- I don’t know there is a certain level of jazz I appreciate. I bring a certain sassy.

Me: Do you guys have a favorite beach house album? I’m curious now. I think I’m either Bloom or Depression Cherry.

Sarah: I just love pop sensibilities so like Teen Dream is mine.

John: I love Thank Your Lucky Stars, I think. Or just the self-titled album. Though Bloom is like a special one for me.

Alex: Teen Dream is my favorite.

Me: What do you think are some common themes in your music or like the impetus for a lot of the songs that you come up with?

Sarah: I still kind of feel like a novice but I’m just focusing on writing things from my perspective and just writing my feelings and my relationships and not trying to say anything but just trying to say something? That sounds stupid but like all of these times and moments that I’ve experienced in a certain way-- maybe other people relate to me or people totally don’t relate to it. But it’s like I’m just going to say it and it feels like a weight comes off of me every time I’m saying it. And a lot of times I write things that I feel I should’ve said to people in the past.

Me: Do you feel like your lyrics and also your sound has shifted since your EP Green came out last year? Do you feel like you’re getting kind of closer to what you feel is your goal as a band like you’re progressing in some way?

Sarah: Totally. In terms of like everything like songwriting, the sound and production value was like a big thing because like our EP was kind of rushed and we did it very cheaply which is fine because we wanted to put music out there and even the songs, because I was again, still so new at songwriting, like they're good but like this new crop of songs feels more like what I pictured Sasha and the Valentines’ identity to kind of be. 

John: I think like actually receiving mixes from Eric was like one of the stupidest things to get because it was like “Holy shit. That’s what I would like to sound like!” And especially recording bass for the last few recordings that I’ve been a part of, I’ve never gotten a mix and listened to it and been like “Oh that’s what I can sound like. That’s cool.” It was like a new level was unlocked in terms of what sonic capabilities were at our fingertips-- for like everyone but specifically for what I was listening for.

Alex: And so much of being a band when you start out is just finding the cheapest way to do everything and saying like “Okay I don’t deserve to sound as good because I can’t afford it.” I feel like with these songs, there’s also a really good example of like, you’re writing good songs, you just have to put the money in. And like it’s scary as hell. We don’t have a lot of money but like it’s very very worth it to just like in the end be happy with something and feel comfortable.

John: Because it sounds exactly like what you heard it sound like.

Sarah: Like it’s nice to feel like there’s no regret on how we recorded it which is crazy.

Alex: I genuinely feel like after years of doing this we were able to finally find the right person. But after that free day with Eric I heard my guitar tone back and almost cried. I didn’t know my guitar could sound like that and someone could record it that way.

Sarah: I cried too the first time I heard my vocals back.

Me: And moving forward too, you guys will be able to write so much more freely knowing what you’re capable of sounding like and kind of just push the limits a little bit.

Sarah: Yeah I’ve thought about that so recently. Like I used to write to be like okay can we play this live? If we can’t, I’m not gonna write that part in. Which is such a young band thing to do because we’ve been playing live for so long.

Billy: You learn to get comfortable with not knowing how anything sounds. And that’s probably why it felt way more comfortable. It was like hiking blind. 

John: And all of the sudden the person you’re hiking with is like here take this off *gestures taking a blindfold off of Sarah* and you’re like “what?!”

Me: Do you guys have any goals for after the pandemic?

Sarah: I’m purposely not setting any high expectations to be honest. I’d love to explore getting placements on TV and commercials and work on our digital outreach. Doing fun stuff like music videos and just starting to write again. I definitely see us touring in the future and just continuing to write. Because of how long we’ve been together I don’t think we’ll fall out of it.

I ask the band if they’ve picked up any fun and cool hobbies over the lockdown. Sarah says Spiritfarer and Neopets. Tim says running. Frisbee Golf and rollerskating for Billy as well as some screen printing with John -- an old hobby from high school they’ve picked back up in their freetime. Alex practices French occasionally and some does yoga too. These are pastimes deployed, perhaps, only for the purpose of killing time until shows come back. But it’s clear this band has been diligent about finishing what they started despite the many obstacles of the pandemic. Their debut record So You Think You Found Love? is out now on Oof Records.