PropertyOfZack had the chance to sit down with Shane, Dan, and JD of Valencia just two weeks ago to discuss their new record, tour dates, and returning to I-Surrender. I had an absolute blast with the guys and if you haven’t picked up their new record yet, you should be sure to!

For the record, could you state your name and role in Valencia?
Shane: My name is Shane and I sing.
Dan: My name is Dan and I drum.
JD: I’m JD and I guitar.
 
So tonight is the first night of your fall tour. Are you guys stoked to get out and play some new songs?
Shane: Yeah, we’re playing two new songs that have been released online within the past two weeks, so we’re excited. It’s the first time in like a year that we’ve been out on the road and I think we’re all ready to hit the road and play some music.
Dan: I think it’ll be cool to play new songs to people who have actually heard the song. That’s why it’s cool that the two came out already.
Shane: This is our first real tour with Dan.
Dan: Yeah, it’s gonna be interesting. Long nights in the van, cell phones ringing during interviews [Laughs].
 
Last night you guys announced that you’ll actually be selling the record on each date of the tour. Obviously it doesn’t come out for 12 days and I don’t think it’s a jump to say that it’ll definitely get online.
Shane: It’ll get online within the next 12 hours.
POZ: Is that your own way to prevent the leak?
Shane: I think really, in all honesty, we just wanted to take advantage of the fact that we’ll be on the road for 12 days prior to the release and to just get the record in as many hands as we can and hopefully kids, even if it does leak, will buy it and support the record.
JD: Wasn’t it like, if we didn’t finish a bunch of things by a certain time…I think the 12^th was supposed to be a day where like, “Man, if you don’t finish all this stuff it’s not even going to be out by this point.”
Shane: We hustled a bunch of deadlines to get it out. The fact that it’s here on the 1^st is pretty cool.
JD: Exactly.
Shane: In this day and age records leak regardless; it’s just a matter of when. We’re lucky to not have it have leaked yet.
 
Since it’ll be out there in a lot of peoples hands, will you guys start playing more songs as time goes?
Shane: We’re probably going to keep it to two. We have a pretty short set on the Say Anything tour and we’d like to let the record sink in a little bit and then we’re gonna do some shows in December and probably are going to play a lot more songs.
 
You guys did release “Dancing With A Ghost” and “Spinning Out” and as far as I’ve seen the reception has been incredible. What about in your eyes?
Dan: Yeah, I mean, it’s like a very big relief to see that people are into it because it’s definitely a new sound for us and a step above the rest and the fact that kids are showing their support and love means everything’s good. Hopefully the shows will just get better and better and the kids will be singing along with us.
You have also been having a track played on MLB.com. How the hell did that happen?
Dan: My uncle’s Jose Conseco [Laughs].
Shane: I’d like to chalk that one up to management. I’m a huge baseball fan, so when I saw that I was very excited. It’s cool to see our record and then hear “Valencia, Dancing With A Ghost” or whatever it is and then like Jason Worth hitting a homerun.
 
Like you said, it’s a small departure from your previous material, but what would you say the big differences have been caused from?
Shane: Dan. Dan stepped it up and really brought this whole new youth and I guess he rejuvenated our band to say the least. We had been writing songs and them Max decided to leave and then Dan stepped in because we had known him for a long time and it was funny because Brendan had called and told him Max left and he was asking him a recording question or something like that and Dan say, “Well why don’t I just come, try out, and play” and it was love at first site.
Dan: If I can make things fair; you guys actually rejuvenated me. I was getting kind of bored,
Shane: I’d say the biggest departure would be the sound quality and the fact that we’re all sitting here five years later and we understand that each individual member of the band has a large role in the band and we let ourselves kind of push each other to kind of create Dancing With A Ghost and all the b-sides and stuff.
 
How was the time in the studio?
Shane: It was a blast. Carlos and Mark are great guys and really, really talented. Carlos’s studio is Eagle Rock, California so it’s beautiful everyday, there’s ping pong outside and it’s down the street from this amazing taco spot.
JD: It was like a man cave.
Shane: It was a lot of hard work; 14 hours a day some days, but I feel like some nights nobody wanted to leave.
Dan: Oh, we wanted to leave, but most nights we couldn’t because then we wouldn’t finish by the deadline
JD: We did a lot of stuff after hours to make sure that the record got done.
POZ: Why was that an issue, getting the record done in that time period?
Shane: Scheduling, It was tough. We had four or five weeks to do the record and when you want to put out a product like we do, which is pretty in-depth when it comes to the production, the sound, and the parts, it takes a little bit longer.
Dan: We had almost like a full week of not getting back to the place we were staying while we were there like seeing the sun come up and then knowing that we would have to be up in four hours.
JD: We would have to do 17-hour days sometimes.
Shane: There were times where I actually sang for like 9 hours straight, sometimes even longer. It took a toll on my voice.
Dan: It was cool though because you can hear the grittiness in the record.
 
Valencia is back for I-Surrender for this release. How’s it being back with them and Rob?
Shane: It’s coming home, basically. That’s what we consider it. Just because Rob is like a father to us and is the bands kind of mentor. Without him we wouldn’t be here today with a new record talking to you. The label and all the people associated with I-Surrender are just really great people and they care about our band. I could not think of a better situation for us to be in right now. They’re going tow ork hard for us and we’re going to work hard for them. It’s a team effort.
POZ: Was that the only switch in your mind. The only place that you would ever go to?
Shane: Yeah, option wise, it’s like, you could go here or here. We were comfortable with Rob and we know the job that he does and the work that he puts into bands he puts out, so it was definitely, in our minds, a clear decision.
 
You guys shot a music video a couple days ago. What track was that for?
Shane: “Dancing With A Ghost.”
POZ: Will that be out in time for the Say Anything dates?
Shane: Yeah, actually it’ll hopefully be out within the next two weeks. Our deadline was to try to get it out before the record comes out. We drove 20 hours to Minnesota and 20 hours back, but it was worth it and the director, Shane Nelson, did a great job and we’re excited to see it.
 
How stoked are you for that Say Anything tour?
Shane: It’s like a dream tour. We all grew up listening to Saves The Day and Say Anything, another amazing band, and Motion City Soundtrack, amazing band. It’ funny to see that bill and then to see our band name. It’s really cool.
 
Valencia will be heading to Australia to play in November as well. How is it playing over there?
Shane: It’s cool. The last time we were there we were there for Soundwave Festival and they treat you so well. They put you up in like 5-star hotels and they just really take care of you, but this time around we’re definitely doing a tour tour with two Australian bands. So we’ll actually get to travel the way that we normally get to travel when we’re on tour rather than fly to places and stuff like that.
JD: We’ll get to really hangout with the fans.
Shane: It’ll be cool to really get a real Australian experience, because Soundwave is definitely not an Australian experience. It’s great though. I wish that we could go back and do it again.
 
You said that you’ll be playing some dates in December. Should we expect any other winter dates?
Shane: Yeah, we’re gonna come up with out game plan for the rest of the year as time goes on. We’re definitely not gonna stop touring. We’re road dogs. You’ll probably see us a lot.

Would you definitely like to hit up Europe?
Shane: Yeah, definitely. We hit the UK two and a half years ago with this band Kids In Glass Houses, which was a lot of fun, but we were never able to get over to Germany or France and I would love to do some of those festivals that they do over there. We go to Japan quite a bit, so I’m excited to go back to Japan probably in the summer or spring.
POZ: You guys went this past summer right?
Shane: Yeah, we actually went right after we recorded.
JD: We finished recording and the very next morning we flew to Japan.
Shane: We’d been to Japan before so we knew what to expect and we were comfortable there. The people over in Japan are so friendly. They really respect music.
POZ: The only issue with that tour was the Anarbor incident, right?
Shane: Yeah, yeah, poor Greg.
Dan: “The Anarbor incident.”
Shane: There was blood everywhere, teeth everywhere. He slipped and fell face first into the pavement.
Dan: First day. 45 minutes in.
JD: He didn’t get much sleep the night before and he kind of wandered off the bus last and nobody was really near him and he passed out.
Dan: The rest of the guys in the band took it really well and hung out with us that night. They were having a blast.
Shane: I wish we got to spend more time with them.
 
Should we see any b-side releases?
Shane: There’s gonna be b-sides floating around probably. I’ll leave it at that.
 
Thanks so much for your time, is there anything else you’d like to add?
Shane: Dancing With A Ghost, October 12^th or at one of our shows. Thank you.