Valley Releases ‘Water the Flowers, Pray for a Garden’
Photo by Becca Hamel
Article by Lindsey V. Britt
Rob Laska, Alex Dimauro, and Karah James make up Toronto’s indie pop band Valley. They have recently released their third album Water the Flowers, Pray for a Garden on August 30th. While at crossroads, the band rediscovered the title track, which they had written back in 2021. The album reflects on the band’s experiences while making it. With the success of their smash “Like 1999” which led the band in a pop direction and brought the band great success, Water the Flowers, Pray for a Garden has brought Valley back to their roots (no gardening pun intended).
I have a question for each of you, do you have a recommendation? This can be anything from life advice to a movie to watch.
Karah: My recommendation, stop eating so much gluten and sugar, it will change your life, even though I love breed and I love sugar.
Rob: That’s real.
Karah: But I am a different human when I eat it.
Rob: This is a good quote because we’ve been talking about nostalgia and getting stuck a little bit, cause the idea of nostalgia can kind of be really I think a crouch and an advantage. But getting stuck in that portal of nostalgia can sometimes bread to like standing still in life and anything. And I’m the worst with it. I tend to look back a lot and get stuck in the past and be like why are things different now? I deal with change in really odd ways, but a quote that I just love to live by lately is “You can look back, but just don’t stare.” It’s really helped me process the past and the good times and everything that we’ve been through. And everything that I’m going through in a way of, ah, I’m so happy that happened and I’m okay with it not happening anymore. And I’m excited for the future of like what my future holds. It might not be exactly what I had envisioned but that’s like even more exciting because life’s going to surprise me, so I live by that a lot these days. Don’t stare, but you can look back.
Alex: See the world. Go experience different cultures because it provides a lot of perspective.
You can stream Water the Flowers, Pray for a Garden now, and catch Valley on their North American tour this fall, and in Europe in 2025.
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