Viana Valentine to Release Debut Album ‘Fever Dream’ this Friday

Viana is releasing her debut album, Fever Dream, on Friday, June 2. Photo by Maurisa Mackey.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated from a previous version which first published in March 2022.

Viana is a Rhode Island-based singer/songwriter making noise along the airwaves for her vocal talent and vintage-style music videos. This Friday, June 2, she will self-release her debut album titled Fever Dream, an album which denotes a dream-like atmosphere and hits notes of singer-songwriter, dream pop, roots and more. Viana’s first single from Fever Dream, “Hella Depressed,” can already be streamed here.

The former frontwoman for the pop-rock band Royal Street, Viana saw more widespread recognition last year when she covered a track originally performed by My Chemical Romance, “I’m Not Okay (I Promise),” a song that brings her back to her high school days of cruising around in her car and blasting the ballad while singing her heart out.

Her new song, “Hella Depressed,” focuses on her mental health struggles. “‘Hella Depressed’ is a song to sway to, reflecting on the ways that I work through depression or self doubt in general. I talk about why my head is spinning and then what I try to do to silence the noise,” Viana says. “It’s a pretty simple concept in the way it plays out in the song, but it’s a forever cycle and forever struggle of mine. The groovy and mid tempo vibe of the song overall is a perfect counterpart to the mental circles I’m spinning in while I’m going through these struggles.”

Below she shares more details about growing up in the Ocean State and the release of her debut album.

When did you first get into music and decide to pursue it as a career?

I come from a musical family, stemming back to my great grandfather who played trombone professionally for artists like Sinatra. My mom is an amazing singer and I grew up with her always singing around the house. And as far as figuring out that singing was going to be what I did for the rest of my life, that just kind of happened. I have never really pictured myself in a life without music. So, I just keep on singing and seeing where the journey takes me.

Photo by Maurisa Mackey.

Where are you from and how did the local music scene influence your career?

I’m from the woods, baby! I grew up in Western Coventry, out in the sticks. I spent my childhood frolicking around the forest with my dogs, which is still exactly what I do now. Luckily, when I started playing shows before I could drive, I had friends that would drive the extra twenty minutes out of the way to pick me up and parents that would come to my gigs. The local music scene was what started getting me on stage more and more and meeting some amazing artists.

What inspired the song “Hella Depressed”?

“Hella Depressed” started off as a voice memo that my producer Greg brought to me of a song that he wanted to show me. I remember him saying, “No pressure, I just feel like we could make this really awesome.” He showed me the melody and the first couple lines of the verse and  I knew we had to make the rest of the song together. He worked his magic building out the song, and I helped write the rest of the lyrics with him. Through the lyrics, we both connected on our mental health struggles. I wanted the lyrics to be really personal and serve as an insight into what my brain is spinning about on any given day and how I calm myself down.

How does it feel to finally release a whole solo album?

It feels really inspiring honestly! Music has always been sort of a time stamp in my life to show where I was as I wrote certain songs. Releasing my first album a day after I turn thirty makes me feel like I’m starting my third decade on this planet off in a really humbling and grounding way. Fever Dream shows so many intimate pieces of me and it feels like a true representation of the person I am as I wrap up my twenties. Finally putting the album out is seriously inspiring me to keep on writing and growing through my music.

What does going solo mean to you?

Going solo was pretty huge for me after being in bands for basically all of my career. I was pretty scared to venture off on my own, but looking back I’m really glad that I did. While being a solo artist absolutely means feeling more pressure to keep everything together on my own, there’s also something freeing about knowing that I am the only thing standing in the way of creating and growing as an artist.

What made you decide to do a cover of “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)?”
I love taking rock bands I listened to growing up and making pretty piano versions of their songs. I had an instant flashback of myself and my friends. We were skidding around the back roads of Coventry in my Nissan Sentra, extra extra iced coffees in hand, blasting this song and subsequently blowing out our voices in the process. I knew I had to cover this throwback jam and then my producer, Greg, and I recorded our version of it at my house in late 2020.

What made you decide to put in the extra effort to produce music videos?
Something that I’ve been a huge fan of while releasing singles has been the ability to make each song its own vibe and create visuals to go along with it. For some songs, you daydream the video as soon as you hear the first mix pass, and that was what happened with my most recent video for “About the Money.” I knew that doing a video set in a certain time period wouldn’t be easy, and I wanted to make it as accurate as possible. I was lucky that I had an incredible team of humans who I’m lucky to call my friends to pull that video off. instagram.com/vianavalentine

Photo by Maurisa Mackey.

RELATED ARTICLES

Q-and-A: Rafay Rashid of Ravi Shavi Releases Debut Solo Album Kitchen Weapons

From the Archives: Q-and-A: Deer Tick

Prussner Printing Supports the Local Music, Restaurant and Food Industry with Merch