Chicago duo Valebol is dreamy ‘breeze pop’
“We wanted to have a band to have fun. This is a band where we just have fun, say yes to a lot of things and don’t have limitations.”
By Ethan Schwabe, Micah Yason
Chicago duo Valebol is dreamy ‘breeze pop’
“We wanted to have a band to have fun. This is a band where we just have fun, say yes to a lot of things and don’t have limitations.”
By Ethan Schwabe, Micah YasonChicago has a new superduo entering the musical mix. Local musicians Daniel Villarreal of Dos Santos and Vivian McConnell, who goes by V.V. Lightbody, are releasing a new album under the name Valebol.
“It was a very organic collaboration right away,” Villarreal said.
The duo first met in Bridgeport at one of Villarreal’s musician parties where artists from around the area would come together to connect and collaborate.
It was there in his basement in 2017 when the duo realized that their jam sessions were more than for the two of them to hear.
“We both kind of looked at each other and it was like, ‘This is pretty cool,’” Lightbody shared.
When the duo started writing music together, Chicago was experiencing a polar vortex. And the result of their collaboration were dreamy, dancy, groovy “breeze pop” tracks. Tracks like “Multivitaminas”, “Netuchepa”! and “Del Fin.”
Villarreal and Lightbody have their own musician pursuits outside of Valebol, but this duo helped take off some weight and pressure of their usual creative projects.
“Let’s just have fun with this music and see where it takes us,” Lightbody said. “It took a while for us to finally release something, but that’s part of the process as well.”
Once they did start releasing music, they were in need of a name and ultimately landed on Valebol.
Vale is the Spain Spanish for “okay” and bol is the word for “ball,” so together it makes okay ball! Villarreal said it’s something like, “Let’s get the ball rolling!” or “Let’s go!”
“It’s like an invested sport,” Lightbody continued. “And we’re the champions of yes ball.”
Not only is this superduo the champions of yes ball, they’re also icons of what they call “breeze pop.”
Lightbody comes from the world of indie music and Villarreal is the king of psychedelic cumbia, but together they create easy-to-listen-to, breezy music that just makes you want to dance.
And that’s exactly what Valebol will make music lovers do during their album release show at Thalia Hall this summer on June 7.
Reset host Sasha-Ann Simons sat down with Chicago drummer Daniel Villarreal of Dos Santos and multi-instrumentalist Vivian McConnell, aka V.V. Lightbody, ahead of the release of their album on April 5 and album release show at Thalia Hall on June 7.
You can listen to the full conversation above.