The Valery Trails Announce New Album; The Sky Is Blue Out August 12th

The Valery Trails announces the release of their album, The Sky is Blue, on August 12. With the travel season upon us, The Valery Trails takes the listener through a globetrotting exploration infused with energized guitar-walled hues.

In 2020 Andrew Bower moved back to Brisbane following an extended period of travel that was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The album chronicles Bower’s stops around the world, including Jaisalmer India, the sleepy little beach community in Zancudo, Costa Rica, and Brisbane, Australia, where the journey started and ended.

The Sky Is Blue is The Valery Trails’ most ambitious work to date, with the band working without a deadline and taking the time to produce each song to its logical conclusion without strictly adhering to a rigid sonic framework. Help was enlisted from Brisbane friends Tim Steward (Screamfeeder, We All Want To – guitars and vocals) and Skye Staniford (We All Want To – vocals) as well as online collaborations with a horn section in Atlanta, Georgia (Terminus Horns) and strings by Swedish musician Filip Magnusson.

The album was mixed in North Carolina by Scott Solter. He has recorded and mixed an eclectic mix of artists, including The Mountain Goats, Superchunk, St Vincent, and his own avant-garde / ambient projects such as Boxharp and The Balustrade Ensemble. 

Andrew Bower (vocals/guitars), an expatriate Australian then living in Houston, enlisted his brother Sean Bower (bass) and Dan McNaulty (drums) in his hometown of Brisbane, Australia, to form The Valery Trails in 2011.  The band has released three albums that have received airplay and charted on US and Canadian specialty and college radio and community radio in the US, Australia, and Europe. Songs by The Valery Trails have appeared on PBS’ “Roadtrip Nation” and MTV’s “Teen Mom 2” and been featured in online videos for the Dew Tour extreme sport online videos. In 2020 Andrew moved back to Brisbane following an extended travel period interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In between lockdowns and as restrictions eased, the band was able to spend time in the studio, producing a wealth of material for a busy 2022 release schedule. The Introvert Blues EP was released on February 25, followed by the Disappear EP on May 20, leading up to The Valery Trails’ fourth album, The Sky Is Blue, on August 12.