Saints of Valory: Battle of the Bands 2012 Southwest

Saints of Valory beat out two other acts in the Billboard.com vote to become the finalist in the southwest region. The band is on the road to Las Vegas and you can watch the roadtrip progress in the video player below! In Las Vegas they will play against the other finalists head to head at the May 18 Battle of the Bands concert. The ultimate winner will appear on the 2012 Billboard Music Awards. In addition to the Battle concert, your views to this page and the videos on it will contribute to a social score that influences who will win. So come back here often to follow the journey and to help Saints of Valory win the Battle.

On a mobile device? Watch video here.

Saints of Valory are a multi-national rock quartet whose future plans include touring internationally, releasing their new album — due May 1 — and possibly buying Apple.

Describe your sound and your audience in your own words.
I guess we get a lot of comparisons to bigger bands like U2, Coldplay, and the Killers. So, I guess to describe that kind of sound would be just rock. Alternative rock with pop and indie influences… We’ve always been surprised about [our audience]. At shows, we’ll have 14, 13 year olds coming up to us and just loving it. And then we’ll have at the same exact show a 65-year-old woman.

Tell us about your first gig ever — just how awkward was it?
Our first gig was at a club in Austin, Texas. There was a friend of ours who’s a bartender there and he said “Oh, you guys should come to a show at my bar.” It was pretty eventful. We had a great turnout. It was a tiny little place, we’re playing on this diagonal stage that should not have been a stage. It was created into a stage. We were having one or two technical difficulties with the power not being enough to power the amps we had running. The power of the place was not satisfactory. So we had a few of those, but all in all it was just an awesome, fun time. So, we’ll never forget it, that’s for sure.

Why should you win this competition?
Because we believe we would take the opportunity of winning and utilize that exposure the best. Obviously everyone’s going to say that, but we’re very committed to taking this exposure and helping it break us into the U.S. and more than just the U.S. We’re an international band. We have members from four different countries. So our global reach is pretty far and we want to utilize that. And Billboard’s awesome. I mean we even noticed with the new fans coming on since we’ve been on the website, a lot of them are international, which is awesome because that’s kind of what we want to do — play overseas.

What’s your next project?
Actually we’re finishing one right now. It’s a new record that we just finished… It’s finishing mastering now and we’re finalizing artwork and stuff. [The album will be released May 1.] We’re just going to keep writing and hopefully we’ll be back in the studio in the summer. We’re just going to keep putting out music and keep getting better at what we do.

What’s the weirdest thing to ever happen to you on tour?
In Burlington last year, we did a show. We were driving back for a show in New York at the Canal Room, so we woke up early and started driving south. On the way down, we switched drivers. And the new driver got back on the highway — as we found out three hours later — going north in the wrong direction. So we wake up, pull out our iPhones, thinking we must be getting close to New York. And the ball refreshes and shoots way up North. We’re thinking, “Crap, this has got to be a mistake.” Then we look up and we see a sign that says there are five miles to Canada. So we’re freaking out… but we made it to the Canal Room and we played like 20 minutes. It was something we’ll never forget.

If your band had to come up with a plan for total world domination in the next 10 seconds, what would it be?
Buy Apple. And continue to make awesome products… Something like that. Because I think they have control over all of us now. It seems that way.

Interview by Sarah Maloy

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“Neon Eyes”

“Winter Lights”

Saints of Valory Members :

Gavin Jasper, bass
Godfrey Thomson, lead guitar
Gerard Bouvier, drums
Stephen Buckle, keys

Saints of Valory’s Bio:

An impassioned rock quartet, Saints of Valory has a multi-national background, with singer Gavin Jasper from Brazil, French drummer Gerard Bouvier, Canadian Stephen Buckle on keys, and American Godfrey Thomson on guitar.

Formed in Rio de Janeiro in 2009, the band relocated to Austin, Texas in 2010, where they recorded debut EP, “The Bright Lights.” The EP received radio airplay all over the country, with “Providence” cracking the AAA song charts.

After less than six months on the scene, the band’s efforts earned them top 10 placement in six categories at the Austin Chronicle’s 2011 Music Awards.

In 2011, national touring brought a broader audience at SXSW, CMJ and DeLuna Fest. Later in the year, the fellas headed to Nashville to record with renowned producer Jason Lehning (Mat Kearney, Guster) in anticipation of a 2012 release.

Website: SaintsofValory.com
Twitter: @saintsofvalory
Facebook: Saints of Valory

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