Valley of the Giants

In the dead of winter, one of the coldest and snowiest in history for the northeast of North America, six musicians assembled in an old farmhouse in rural Ontario. For years there was talk of various contingents within this group getting together to record. Now that time had come. Gathering in a small green room with a four-track recorder, the group decided to rehearse just once, spontaneity being the spark of life. That first evening Anthony Seck (Shalabi Effect), Brendan Canning (Broken Social Scene), Charles Spearin(Do Make Say Think), Sophie Trudeau (Godspeed You! Black Emporor, The Silver Mount Zion), Dierdre Smith (The Squarewaves), and Rameau Kaspardsat around the television. Their friend Scott had brought with him a copy of Michael Crichton's classic film Westworld. Dierdre, inspired by Yul Brenner's lonely, murderous, robot cowboy, began to pen lyrics. There is a sense of desolation captured in the Valley of the Giants self-titled debut. Whether it is the chilling loneliness of eastern Ontario or the barren deserts of the American southwest. And in this desolation lies beauty and serenity and a calm that is missed in the hustle and bustle of everyday life.