In The Valley Below, who released their sophomore album + feature film, The Pink Chateau, this past Friday on Bright Antenna Records. The duo/couple of Angela Gail and Jeffrey Jacob are in the midst of taking The Pink Chateau out on the road this & next month, performing the album/score live in front of the film, broadcasted over headphones including May 5th in Cincinnati at Video Archive!
The Pink Chateau motion picture is a story of sexual discovery and freedom from taboo. "A fantasy of an inviting place where female sexuality is a beautiful curiosity and not a shameful secret. Free from the story of the woman being a slut or victim if she is sexual,” Angela stated, adding, "I was inspired by the beauty of vintage French erotica and cinematic colors from the 70s and 80s, and pulled ideas from my own sexual fantasies and experience.”
For In The Valley Below hardship and passion are two sides of the same coin, and romance is the only defense against a world gone mad. Emerging in 2013 with the hit single, “Peaches”, off their debut 2014 album The Belt, Angela and Jeff were swept up quickly into an unexpected whirlwind… a record deal with Capitol Records, invitations to perform on Letterman and Conan, remixes by Bloc Party’s Kele Okerke and Passion Pit, tours with White Lies and the Cold War Kids, and festival dates from Austin City Limits to Reading & Leeds. And as the water receded the duo were found themselves expecting their first child. Priorities changed. Bags were packed in LA and shipped to Grand Rapids, where a house was bought and a basement studio created.
According to the rock ‘n’ roll rulebook, domesticity is supposed to represent a death knell, but for In The Valley Below, it brought a renewed sense of freedom. The resultant album, The Pink Chateau puts lie to our preconceived notions of how environment influences music. There’s a tendency to conflate an artist’s sound with their surrounding geography—be it the sun-dappled serenity of ‘70s Laurel Canyon folk-rock or the industrial pallor of Manchester post-punk. But The Pink Chateau is proof you can make sexy, urbane, tropical pop music in a Michigan basement in the dead of winter. When In The Valley Below invite you to “drink champagne in the pink chateau” on the album’s seductively funky title track, the message is clear: paradise is wherever you want it to be.
