“I discovered myself stranded in Athens with a single carry-on bag when the world’s planes had been grounded indefinitely. Folio folded a month later, so I figured I’d as nicely keep put and move the time making music,” Valentino tells New Times.
Out of the disaster got here his new album, Lines of Flight, an album of darkish atmospherics that serves as an eight-song dispatch from the seediest of lounges. Like many people in the course of the age of COVID, Valentino mentioned he was compelled to do the work on the document remotely.
“All my gear was half a world away in Florida, so I requested my previous musical co-conspirators in Europe, Australia, and the States to ship tracks, which I spliced and handled on my laptop computer, cobbling songs collectively, including verse and voice and a little bit of ukulele, the one instrument I had at hand,” he says. “Numerous technical limitations however a number of love, so we let it trip — on ten-inch vinyl, no much less.”
The sounds he creates aren’t what you think about would come out of South Florida, however that’s the place Valentino was birthed and spent his childhood. He has a love/hate relationship together with his hometown that had him spreading his wings as quickly as he may.
“Suburban West Palm Beach wasn’t essentially the most stimulating surroundings for a stressed younger Phantom Chords fan,” he says. “Living music at all times appeared like one thing that occurred far-off, in a kind of unique locations with 4 seasons and viable public transportation. I cut up on the tender age of 17 seeking such a clime. I did finally discover what I used to be on the lookout for in Detroit and later Brussels, and have since made peace with my house state — not less than the half that votes Democratic.”
He’ll be making a homecoming when he returns to play Gramps on Sunday, December 11, supported by openers Borri and Pocket of Lollipops. It’s a part of Valentino’s first solo tour in years, although he had been enjoying with the musical acts Crime & the City Solution and Blaine L. Reininger.
“It’s been a minute since I’ve even considered my very own materials, not to mention tried to play any of it. I belief it’s going to be like driving a motorbike,” Valentino says. “I’ve roped in two very succesful musicians [and former Folio contributors] to hitch me on stage: Jessica Leigh on bass and Jason Irvin [of Creep City] on drums. We’re going to bash out a number of tunes from the Georgio Valentino songbook, and no matter occurs, we will have an incredible quantity of enjoyable doing it.”
Though his retirement from music turned out to be a mere sabbatical, Valentino thinks his time in journalism has solely strengthened his music.
“I used to be mired in preoccupation with making my definitive assertion as an artist. That largely meant obsessively overthinking each element in mute nostril agony. To the purpose of paralysis, actually,” he says. “The tempo in our newsroom at Folio Weekly was one thing else solely. There was no time for pie-in-the-sky perfectionism. But once you’re printing on the pace of life, it is by no means going to be excellent. And that is OK. There’s at all times subsequent week. So I assumed, What if cultivating that form of residing doc additionally makes for higher inventive apply than agonizing endlessly and alone over my very own private holy bible? It’s actually higher for psychological well being.”
Georgio Valentino. With Borri, Pocket of Lollipops, and the Bicentennials. 7 p.m. Sunday, December 11 at Gramps, 176 NW twenty fourth St., Miami; gramps.com. Tickets price $8 through eventbrite.com.