North East indie-rockers Fortitude Valley share their new video for ‘Video (Right There With You)’. The second single from their upcoming album Part Of The Problem, Baby.
Vocalist and songwriter Laura Kovic comments on the track:
“The song is about trying to get inside the head of someone you love, and how hard it can be surviving together in what feels like an increasingly hostile and scary world. It also plays into the central theme of the album, which is about feeling distant from people you care about, both literally and figuratively”
The video (shot while the band were performing at this year’s Machynlleth Comedy Fest) stars comedian Celya AB (Live at the Apollo, Off Menu) and was directed by Stuart Laws (James Acaster: Heckler’s Welcome; Jen Brister: The Optimist).
Fortitude Valley is the brainchild of Laura Kovic. Taking influence from the likes of The Beths, The Go-Go’s and Pavement, what results is a ludicrously addictive cocktail of heart-stopping indie-punk power-pop melody and a back catalogue of songs that’ll be living in your head, rent free, for evermore. The band has shared a stage with Los Campesinos!, Allo Darlin, Gruff Rhys and The Wave Pictures. Laura previously played in psychedelic pop band Tigercats, and the band also includes members of Martha and Fast Blood.
They have previously received praise from Steve Lamacq (BBC 6Music), Marc Riley (BBC 6Music), John Kennedy (Radio X), Mickey Bradley (BBC Radio Ulster) and Ed Gamble (Radio X), as well as publications such as Bandcamp, For The Rabbits, Get In Her Ears, NARC. Magazine, Distorted Sound and more.
UK TOUR DATES
THU 11TH SEP – Duffy’s, Leicester
FRI 12TH SEP – Hope & Ruin, Brighton
SAT 13TH SEP – New River Studios, London
SUN 14TH SEP – Sidney & Matilda, Sheffield
FRI 19TH SEP – Star & Shadow, Newcastle
FRI 26TH SEP – Mono, Glasgow
SAT 27TH SEP – Rat & Pigeon, Manchester
FRI 14TH NOV – Wharf Chambers, Leeds
SAT 15TH NOV – Blue Moon, Cambridge
“We’re still very much the same band,” says Fortitude Valley’s Laura Kovic, describing the band’s triumphant return with second album Part Of The Problem, Baby. “But the dials have all just been turned up a bit.”
That much is immediately apparent from the off – whereas 2021’s self-titled debut was a breezily charming coalescence of effortless pop hooks and indie-punk energy, this new effort announces itself with guts and a road-earned sense of self-confidence. It’s the sound of a band growing into itself; with a smartly effervescent approach to songwriting and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of swoon-inducing indiepop hooks.
Lyrically, opener ‘Everything Everywhere’ snatches the baton from the previous record’s themes of insecurity and anxiety (“No amount of praise is ever gonna make me happy”), but any sense of melancholy is immediately offset by a surge of alt rock muscle. With an affectionate nod towards Rivers Cuomo’s knack for fists-aloft powerpop undercut by heartstring-tugging wistfulness, powerpop undercut by heartstring-tugging wistfulness, it tells us we’re in new territory for Fortitude Valley – no less affecting, but louder and somehow even more direct. The perfect reintroduction, in other words.
Over the course of Part Of The Problem, Baby’s ten glorious offerings, we get treated to a miscellany of pop cultural sources of inspiration as a means of tackling themes like distance, personal growth and self-determination. For Kovic, an Australian-born musician living in the UK for almost two decades, the first of those is clearly a big one.
“When I was a teenager I couldn’t wait to get away,” she explains, referencing her upbringing in Brisbane, “and now I can’t wait to go back each time.
“My life is now just repeatedly visiting and then feeling sad when I leave, but knowing in my heart that I am where I’m supposed to be.”
The sensation of comfort in your place in the world really comes through in the songs too. That aforementioned self-confidence rings out throughout the unfolding grace of ‘Video (Right There With You)’, where the yearning ache of the verse melody gives way to a chorus bearing all the hallmarks of the best guitar pop: immediacy, poignancy and timeless melody. The song also contains the first guitar solo written by Kovic – a crucial moment for a musician constantly trying to push her own evolution and development.
At every turn, there are moments on this record that’ll leave you gasping at their seemingly-effortless way with a phrase, a refrain, or a general cohesiveness of form and function. The title track merges themes of fighting feelings of inertia with a musical balance of restraint and release; the chorus feels euphoric as a result. Elsewhere, the rush of ‘Sunshine State’ makes like The Weakerthans sharing sticks of bubblegum with The Sundays, while the softer, stripped-back ‘Into The Wild’ cribs notes from Stevie Nicks to build a pensive aura that’s all Kovic’s own – just wait til those spine-tingling backing vocals kick in with just over a minute to go.
But it’s the finale of ‘Oceans Apart’ that really shows Fortitude Valley’s progression; the sibling rhythm section of Nathan Stephens-Griffin (drums) and Naomi Griffin (bass) locks in propulsively before Kovic’s stadium-worthy hook gives way to an all-too-brief burst of deft soloing from guitarist Dave Hillier, creating a song that feels far grander and more epic than its two minutes should really allow.
Louder, wiser, in tune with each other and their identity as a collective… Fortitude Valley may well remain the same band, but Part Of The Problem, Baby is a step forward on every level.
Thoughts Words Action 