BMP (Buffalo Music Players) Episode 30: Guy Valentino

Hi listeners, this is the BMP podcast and I'm Benjamin Joe. This episode we have a very special guest, Guy Valentino, and for this one we'd like to preface the interview with a statement from BMP's cohost, Max Fisher:

"I've known Guy for many years. I don't know exactly how many, but we met on Reddit before COVID. I was instantly enamored with his creativity and his approach to music. Guy is extremely passionate, creative, and has a big heart.

"Honestly, the genesis of the BMP podcast came from him. A while ago, I was talking to him about posting my art (music and the like) because I was stil very trepidatious about sharing my work and being judged. 

"But then Guy gave me a speech that changed my perspective. I can't remember it word-for-word, but the gist was: if you're an artist, don't you want to be seen? There are so many artists in the world who never get to be recognize for what they create. If you have a chance, why not take it and show what you can do?

That idea led to a flow of thoughts that brought us to this moment. And all thanks to Guy. He is the producer for over 95% of my music, but more than that, he's my friend and I'm happy to provide a platform where we can show his firs album 'Cupid'. Thanks for shooting the arrow that helped me come up with important ideas, and to fellow listeners, you're in for a treat. Love you, bro."

BMP Sponsors are:

Captain Tom & the Hooligans

BUFFALO CREATIVE WORKSHOP

MAMMOTH CANNABIS

SHIANNE WAXING STUDIO

Theme for the Shianne Waxing Studio Commercial was Conducted & Composed by Philip Milman

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Hey BMP listeners, I'd like to go and thank once again our sponsors, our very first sponsor, Captain Tom and the Hooligans. I'd also like to thank our gold sponsors, Buffalo Creative Workshop, Mammoth Cannabis, and Giants Waxing Studio. If you want to be a sponsor, please get a hold of us through Instagram. Thanks.

SPEAKER_02 1:38

Man, life just isn't letting up. I feel like the walls are closing in, and I don't have a way to stop it. I wish there was somewhere I could go. Some place where I could just get away from everything. And just be creative.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

There is the Buffalo Creative Workshop.

SPEAKER_02 2:00

Who did that?

SPEAKER_01 2:01

The spirit of creativity. I heard you're playing. I felt the duty to healthy. Okay in the Grid Arrow building on Elmwood Avenue. Use our space, our art supplies, and equipment to your heart's content. Let us hope you beat back the stress and feel centered again.

SPEAKER_02 2:18

Wow, that sounds great. I'll check it out.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

Always remember if the world has your creative spirits in a rut, come to the Buffalo Creative Workshop for a pick-me-up. More about Buffalo Creative Workshop can be found at Buffalo.creative Workshop on Instagram.

SPEAKER_03 2:40

Hello listeners. This is the BMP Buffalo Music Players Podcast. I'm Benjamin Joe, your host. And this is Max. And with us today is a very talented individual. He came to us through Max, actually. He uh produces a lot of Max's songs, makes a beat, kind of like the uh the man behind the man when it comes to uh Max Fisher's brilliant music right here. Um his name is uh Guy Valentino, and he's calling us all the way from South America somewhere. As we know, Buffalo is the world and BMP is Buffalo, so it makes sense just for all you guys checking up on that. Uh would you like to introduce yourself, Guy?

SPEAKER_04 3:17

Uh thank you very much for introducing. I'm Guy Valentino, um SMEJ. And yeah, I produce a lot of Macs, actually. Not day one, but it's been a long time now.

SPEAKER_02 3:29

Yeah, like 95% of my music pretty much.

SPEAKER_04 3:32

Nowadays, yeah. But I have to do that.

unknown 3:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:37

So uh so guy, how how did you get into making beats and everything? And music in general. Were you were as a child were you into it? Was your family really uh musical or different kind of story?

SPEAKER_04 3:49

Uh I don't think I come from like a family um music oriented family, I mean. But I started like getting really into music by 11. Okay. My father wasn't really like a musician or anything, but he liked, you know, rock music, jazz. So he told me, you know, uh that Zaplin, uh Pittsphantom stuff. And he like knew like one riff in guitar and he told me he he didn't play guitar at all, so it it amazed me at first like how he made you know he made sound out of uh guitar without knowing and that got me so uh into it. I started learning guitar and I got into the Beatles and then by 18 year old I was really into like hip hop stuff, uh um Farrell Williams music. Uh he's like one of my biggest inspiration and he makes his own music, so I was like, I wanna do that too. I wanna make like actually make the music with the drums and the instruments and all, and I started like learning from there pretty much.

SPEAKER_03 5:03

Awesome. You you're multi-instrumentalist too, is what Max was saying. And I mean you can hear on the album the use of the the guitar and everything.

SPEAKER_04 5:11

Yeah, I made every like every sound is made by me too.

SPEAKER_02 5:16

You're going to a prestigious Chilean uh school for music, right?

SPEAKER_04 5:20

Uh yeah, it's it's you know, it's college really sound engineering.

SPEAKER_00 5:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:25

And they teach me like uh music production and also like music theory too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But all my like what I do is all like I learned by myself before that because this is like my third year and I started making music around six to seven years already. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, it's like a complimentary thing.

SPEAKER_02 5:48

Yeah, you're just tuning up the stuff that you already know.

SPEAKER_04 5:51

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 5:53

Now before we get into the album, I just wanted to go and uh kind of highlight this uh this collaboration you have with Max and with the rest of the world, as we know Buffalo is the world. Um how how did you get into releasing your stuff for other people worldwide, like over SoundCloud? Is that a very easy thing to do? Um do you just choose to do it one day, or was there there do you have to go and motivate yourself to do it a little bit a little bit more than you know than like say just playing at a local bar or something like that?

SPEAKER_04 6:25

Well no I was never like a local bar guy, you know, never I was always like more of a I don't know how could you how you could say like online views? Yeah so when I started making music, I I met some guys over the internet uh at the time. Um I don't speak to them now, but you know, they kinda were part of uh me that time and we all like started making music and I drop them sound club and sometimes I would like, you know, experiment and learn how to like sample and make beats and I would drop them and at the time I used to do I used to like post on Reddit sometimes, and that's where kind of like Max uh got to me. I also like uh at some point when I was learning like sampling and stuff and I was really into like old hip hop like 90s, I was really into a child called Quest, uh we made like a whole album and dropped it on YouTube and a lot of people like uh like watched the video and and some guys you know uh were interested in how I made like the production of that and then started like um asking for commissions, like custom uh from me.

unknown 7:37

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 7:38

That's kind of how uh yeah, kind of like a little bit of the story, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:43

What was it like growing up where where you're at? Like it might be a little bit different than Buffalo, but is it like from what Max has told you, is it the same kind of story? Like, you know, you you go to school for so many years and then you have to decide whether to go to college or something like that, and um or is it more uh the same in that matter?

SPEAKER_04 8:02

And also, I don't know, that I feel like it uh I don't know how it really is in Buffalo when it comes to like art, but in Chile it's like more like uh I think look looked upon is the word. Like it's not as it's not like a like look that's valuable career path to do. Yeah, it it yeah, because it doesn't like brings you that much money into the table.

SPEAKER_03 8:27

Yeah, it's like that everywhere though, man. I think I think it's everywhere. Yeah, it's always wild.

SPEAKER_04 8:31

It's always rough. But yeah, and and I know and I've kind of like curved a lot of the scene in Buffalo too. Uh thanks to Max, really. Yeah, I'm always recommending him to other people. Yeah. That's very interesting. Yeah, he always wanna work with people and he's like, listen to this guy and see what we can do.

SPEAKER_02 8:50

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:51

And yeah, stuff like this.

SPEAKER_02 8:54

He's uh he's very uh adaptable. Like I can just like give him like something and then he'll figure something out, you know. He's he's very versatile. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:03

But also like very experimental too. So like kind of I always like going to the alternative line of of anything, not just music, also like how I dress, how I express myself, always like that too. And I think Buffalo got a lot of that too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:21

We do.

SPEAKER_04 9:21

I really want to visit something.

SPEAKER_02 9:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:24

Hopefully we can have you come through soon, man, for real. Yeah. Well, when it when it comes to the album, I'm just wondering what kind of influences do you have? Because there's a lot, there's a lot in there. It's hard, it's kind of like tough to unpack. Like I was telling Max earlier that the first track, like um, I think it's called um I forget what it's called. You're gone or something.

SPEAKER_04 9:44

And I'm bleeding.

SPEAKER_03 9:44

And I'm bleeding, yeah. And it just really the way it opened up, it was just like somebody was telling me a story, like probably about a relationship or something like that. And I just felt like it opened up in a way like that I wanted to listen to more of the album. So I don't know if it was like the most vector track or if it was just the way that I was coming to it and my own personal listening. But can you tell us a little bit about that first track? Like what what what what what influenced you to go and make it the way that it w turned out?

SPEAKER_04 10:14

It's kind of funny. But um, I mean of course the whole album, it's a whole like there's a lot of like this romantic, like heartbreaking aspect to it, but also like personal personal heartbreaking, like like depression and stuff is like it's pretty dense album pr a pretty intense album, I mean. Yeah, also real.

SPEAKER_02 10:35

It's not really an album, it's more like an exorcism.

SPEAKER_04 10:42

Um I think it's still to this day, like in my files called uh Silent Kill type beat. So that's like soundwise, uh there's a lot of that uh video game like inspire uh inspiration I mean throughout the whole album. Um because it's like I don't know if you ever like play that video game, uh Silent Kill. Yeah, it's like but it's like really eerie, really Uncomfortable, like uncomfortable, like mysterious, but it got some really like beautiful elements on this, in my opinion too. Which is why what I wanted to like uh put into that song specifically at least. That's why you hear like a guitar riff and then but also you like in the background you hear like this uh like static noise in re on repeat with with some uh harmonies in it, and that's pretty much the reason of it. And lyric-wise, I pretty much said I I said like probably like six lines, and it's like w the title, like you're gonna be in still. Um I said like I sleep I sleep in red, it's like all trying to be trying to be a little like poetic about it. Or and it's really like straightforward to it when it comes to like the the meaning of the lyrics, like like when someone has actually gone, but you don't feel like good about it, even though you know like that person is not good for you, like you're like that person is gone, that's good. But I'm still bleeding, like like that's what's up, that's it really meant.

SPEAKER_03 12:16

Yeah, ripped out your heart and left a hole in your chest kind of like thing.

SPEAKER_04 12:21

Exactly. There's a lot of that in the album.

unknown 12:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:24

But it's good. Uh it's meant to be relatable too. Not meant to be like like an album that makes you feel sad, you know. It's a story. Did you call it the bottom?

SPEAKER_02 12:36

Did you like call it Cupid because like you're mad at Cupid? Like, damn, why'd you give me this?

SPEAKER_04 12:41

Yeah. Yeah, pretty much. There's a line in the song. There's a line in a song which is called Away from me. And I said like, um, I'm stuck with the spear, it's Cupid in here. Like I I like the imagery of Cupid being this tr kind of like this tragic uh hero in a way, because love is can be really good, but it can also be uh like super dreadful most of the times, really.

SPEAKER_03 13:14

Yeah. Yeah, that's for real. I mean that's that's what what you get for putting yourself out there and being vulnerable and like falling in love, I guess. Yeah, exactly. But you know, the end game if it actually works out like Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:27

Originally the album was gonna be called Cupid. You know there's like a heart in the title? Yeah, it could be like a broken heart at first, but then I just get like a normal heart.

SPEAKER_03 13:38

That's cool. What kind of music do you listen to?

SPEAKER_04 13:42

Uh a lot of it's really um damp. I like the normal answer is like I listen to everything, but yeah, my main inspirations, like music, like general genre wise, it would be like um New Metal and Tue Gaze, which is kinda like the the main genre of this album, which is Hugh Gaze, Black Gaze, and and on my own time, like apart from the album, I also listen to a lot of like post-punk, uh like that music, I guess, and and comp hip hop too.

SPEAKER_02 14:18

You're in a band too, right?

SPEAKER_04 14:20

Um no, not really, not no no, not now. I'm my build one assumed, but uh from now no. Because it's like my solo, my solo work.

SPEAKER_03 14:33

You got a lot of that uh kind of like lethargic drone going on that you hear a lot in like post punk albums and um and uh and shoe gays and like and new gays and black gays, all those all those. I mean, why do you feel like those are accessible?

SPEAKER_04 14:47

Well, you know about those genres, right? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:53

Yeah, I think shoe gays came around when everyone was looking at their pedals or something like that, but like it's it really has to go do with having like a wall of sound and like being able to not really Yeah, I mean the name shoe gase comes from that like actual ace and like use because it's more about the sound that like that comes from that, which is just like a lot of um it's like a wall of sound. It's hard for me to describe it any other way to listeners if you don't know what shoe gase is actually yeah, yeah. Um wall of sound with guitar. Yeah, with guitar, yeah. Um, I guess I'm just wondering, like, why do you feel that uh it's that genre that you decide to go and play in? What makes it accessible enough to be delved into again? Because like, you know, like some people try to go and imitate Led Zeppelin and they do a really good job of imitating Led Zeppelin to the point where you listen to like a Queens of a Stone Age song and you're just like, well, that was Led Zeppelin, and someone has to go and say, Oh no, it wasn't actually Led Zeppelin. It's just a guy that likes Led Zeppelin a lot and teaches. And I don't really find that genre to be very accessible because you can't just keep playing the same Led Zeppelin tunes over and over again. What makes Shoe Gey something that you can that you feel like you can add to?

SPEAKER_04 16:02

Um I can add to myself, like in the scene.

SPEAKER_03 16:05

Yeah, like in the scene, like without being just like, you know, like repetitive. Repetitive, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:12

Uh uh so my I don't know, like shoe gays, I feel like there's actually like a lot. I I've heard like in the in the meantime, I heard like a lot of like different artists, solo artists and band artists that do shoe gaze.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:28

Um and some and some bands that kinda accidentally make shoe gates like death tones.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

Right.

SPEAKER_04 16:35

Because they always like they level themselves as uh alternative metal. Like sometimes they call them new metal and they don't like that. Sometimes sometimes they call them sugar, they don't like that because they don't make music like that. Um there's also like artists like um I don't know, this like this sub genre that I I don't I call it myself like that, uh like sort of like SoundCloud slash bedroom shoe gaz, which is like one person and I'm making sugar. Like I have in my uh on the top of my head, like I can think of um Quanic or BB Dalena, which are like solo artists that are like they're not like super popular, but you know, they got their base. And they make this type of shoe gaz that it's like you can tell this is one person making it, like they make the beat, and it's really harsh, and I feel like the whole like essence of shoe gaz uh there's so it's it's a wall of sound that it's so it can be like so chaotic sometimes, but you got this like more like um like how do you say like focus in this whole like distorted sound of guitars. It's like a such a interesting contrast for me that I wanted to make it myself and I did. I did it with some like like screaming to it.

SPEAKER_00 18:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:04

Because I also like metal too, and I feel like just screaming, just like opera was at the time such a dramatic like element to add in music, especially with what I wanted to express myself. So I tried to, you know, and I use my own learn elements that I learned from my past. So I was at the time, like five years ago, I used to be really into like hip hop production. Like Max was there when when I used to like do only hip hop.

SPEAKER_02 18:34

Yeah, you do like Nova and stuff, yeah. You don't do that much stuff like that.

SPEAKER_04 18:38

Yeah. And I was as I said before, always into that alternative, like experimental line of sound, and I wanted to add it on my own, like shoegate genre. So you got a sound like uh Lazy as L, which is like my single of the album. You got with this car-ass drum, like like you hear like the first second, it's just the drums, and you can like rap over it because it doesn't like anything else to it, but then it comes the guitar and there's like a whole like melody, uh like you don't expect that, but it blends really well, it fits really well, and that's what I wanted to do like throughout the whole album almost.

SPEAKER_03 19:22

Cool. Well, let's hear a clip of one of the songs from Cupid by Guy Valentino. Guys, is there any one song that you think that the listeners should uh listen to on our program?

SPEAKER_02 19:33

Um what? Is there a song on the album that you want like specifically for us to play?

SPEAKER_04 19:40

I think uh either Lacey SL or BLS virtual loser saturation.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_04 19:49

I think LaCSL since I mentioned it, it's before uh we'll do that.

SPEAKER_02 19:55

We'll do that.

SPEAKER_04 19:55

Alright.

SPEAKER_02 20:33

The bringer of life. The bringer of unimaginable joy. The cause of catastrophic destruction. Knowing that you have something so powerful, wouldn't you want the best to take care of it? Pardon me for saying this. I am just a humble announcer. But if I had a coochie, I'd probably get it waxed at Giant's Waxing Studio on 830 Elmwood Ave. You have power in between your legs. So why not have it taken care of by the best?

SPEAKER_03 21:08

And we're back. Uh BMP Listeners, that was from the album Cupid by Guy Valentino. Uh now, guy, can you tell us this album is really intense and I know it's a like a concept album, but can you tell us a little bit more about it and like how viewers uh listeners can access it and what what's the um like what are like the exact what like what environment would you expect people to listen to for like the maximum experience you would say?

SPEAKER_04 21:35

Yeah. Oh um I mean alone, really? Yeah, yeah. Um I can suggest like you know like an intimate moment. Um I just wanna say like I made this album, like ninety percent of the album was probably made, you know, alone in my room at night. I'm a I'm a I'm like a vampire in a way, like I sleep. really late sometimes like five a.m. So a lot of my music uh was made during midnight and and I feel that shows in the music, like in the sound of it. And yeah, and I don't wanna like explain lyrics or anything.

SPEAKER_03 22:19

Oh no, no.

SPEAKER_04 22:19

Since I'm not from American my my English is not the best. And also Shuge as a genre um it's not very friendly with vocals when it comes to like understanding vocals. I am um turning the lyrics out though.

SPEAKER_02 22:38

Oh that's cool.

SPEAKER_04 22:38

Oh that's yeah but I think yeah that's the best experience you know like being comfortable alone at night.

SPEAKER_02 22:49

It's the album for like the witching hours you know the the really late night when you're kinda down a little bit you know you just want to be in that vibe.

SPEAKER_04 22:59

Yeah it's also like really ethereal. Yeah um a lot of like ethereal elements too so I think that's um I suggest doing that but you we can listen it you can listen to it like anytime like it's not it's not a rule it's just what I think do you have any promotion oh there's definitely some songs that you can listen like you don't have to listen to like the whole album like like Lacey Cell is one of the songs you can listen on your playlist chemicals or virtual loser saturation as like a few examples of it.

SPEAKER_02 23:40

Gotcha very cool um do you have any promotion for the album planned or like are you gonna just let people just find it and like enjoy it that way?

SPEAKER_04 23:49

I wish people will find it really but I I wanna I have to I have to do promotion. I'm right now like working on you know edits uh so I'm putting my music some of the lyrics out with with a video in the background but it's always been hard for me like promoting uh music. It's like my weakest it's my crypt night really promotion as a whole so I'm working through it. But uh but yeah no I wish as I do with my favorite band as as I did I mean uh I always like fandom myself you know like like out of nowhere sometimes I like to be that type of artist you know gotcha people will uh uh Buffalo tour is that in the making anytime soon yeah uh hopefully like next year I have to talk with Max about it. Yeah I have to I have to sponsor the tour and stuff yeah we'll do we'll do a sponsor he's gonna sponsor me for sure but definitely if I go to America's uh Buffalo is gonna be my first stop for sure I don't plan on going anywhere in there we can make my music too yeah for sure man I also wanna add to the album um hit me up for a feature hit me up for a feature oh yeah definitely for my future songs so I wanted to make this album like um a whole like a whole lot of like a whole lot of me like it's a hundred percent me I wanna say that too like like all the instruments and that's why it's messy too. It's not a perfect album but I like it not being perfect. But like all the production and and the mix and and the mastering and the edits the the album cover like everything was purely made for me and I told Max that because uh because he wanted to be in a song and I had to question like I want this to be like my whole DNA because I just wanted to be like that. I'm not gonna do that for m the rest of my music probably but yeah I wanted to like uh say that and also the writing for the album took me about a year and a half. I started by mid twenty twenty three and it was a really really really low point in my life and that shows in the music.

SPEAKER_02 26:24

Um but yeah it took me that much and and I got out of that uh low period of my life I lied so hey man you got out of it you made some really good art of it and um you're gonna move on to brighter things.

SPEAKER_03 26:42

Yes and I wish that for every artist Alright guy um that's all the time we have today listeners uh Max is there anything you'd like to go and say to your your compadre the guy behind your music a lot of times no just the usual man I love you you already know that and uh thanks for being on the podcast being on the pod guy thank you for inviting me really alright awesome I really really appreciate that all right and you can hear more episodes on all streaming platforms at DMP Buffalo Music Players Podcast peace guys may the sauce be with you guys peace after a long day it's hard to turn off that's why I go to Mammoth Cannabis on 212 Ohio Street.

SPEAKER_02 27:29

Their stuff I'll have you laid out flatter than a mammoth foot from flour to pre-roll vaporizers to concentrate you can rest assured that something big is waiting for you at Mammoth Dispensary just keep in mind if you smoke cereal from the General Mills factory nearby they can't help you. You have to go home and get a ball yourself. It's a dispensary not an eatery after all this the B park you are test no matter just playing well even gatekeeping we are gonna eat and it's about where they are quite and uh no very far those tool so I got D upper and if go rogue for I church and no refer to I got a upper and the BMB