Artist: Fortitude Valley
Title: Wreck
Format: 35mm black enamel pin badge on polished silver metalwork, on hand numbered backing card
Cat#: Fika076
Release date: 6th December 2019
Bandcamp | Spotify
Fortitude Valley is a brand new project for the songwriting talents of Durham based Brisbanite Laura Kovic.
Having spent the majority of her musical career playing keyboards in other people’s bands, bringing their songs to life with a melodic flourish, it was about time for Laura K to find an outlet for her songs: awkward power-pop that’s bound to appeal to fans of The Beths, Weezer or The Pixies.
She’s assembled quite the band too: Martha’s Daniel Ellis on lead guitar and Nathan Stephens Griffin on drums, and Night Flowers’ Greg Ullyart on bass.
Laura explains a little more: “Over the last couple of years I’ve started to feel musically restless and I wanted to try my hand at being the songwriter in a band, but had been going through writer’s block for a couple of years, so I bought a guitar in February 2018 to see if doing something different would help me...and it did! I sent some tracks to Nathan and he told me I should start my own band. I asked him if he’d be in it and he was like “obvs”. I already knew that I liked playing in a band with Greg, so that was easy and I wanted someone on guitar who could shred, so Daniel was an obvious choice. We managed to have a few practices before recording (but only one with all 4 of us, because we live in different cities), but everyone is very good at what they do and it worked out surprisingly well.”
Fortitude Valley - or just The Valley if you’re from Brisbane - is the heart of the city’s music scene; at least it was during Laura’s time playing in bands in Australia 13 years ago, before moving to the UK. It was a place that objectively felt mythical, a suburb with a special meaning, looking back from the other side of the world and many years later. Completing the circle, Fortitude Valley is also named checked in the Martha song Brutalism by the River (Arrhythmia).
Wreck was recorded with Tigercats’ Giles Barrett at Soup Studios in London and mixed and co-produced by Allo Darlin’s Mikey Collins at Big Jelly in Ramsgate. Fortitude Valley will be playing their first show in January 2020 at The Winter Sprinter at The Lexington. They’re finishing their first full length record to be released in the summer of 2020.
Fortitude Valley are Laura Kovic (Tigercats, Mikey Collins, Ski Saigon), Daniel Ellis (Martha, Onsind), Greg Ullyart (Night Flowers, Mikey Collins) and Nathan Stephens Griffin (Martha, Onsind).
“On Wreck, citing influences from The Beths to The Pixies, the sound is one of deliciously driving indie-pop, or in their own words, “awkward power-pop”. The track enters on an easy strum of guitar and Laura’s instantly compelling lyric, “it’s in the silence that I start to fall apart, I hate the way you’re running rings around my heart”. From there the rhythmic hum of bass and drums crashes into place along with a wonderfully meandering lead-guitar line.” For The Rabbits [Wreck video premiere]
“I was charmed right away, but the big hook comes around the 2 minute mark when extra backing vocals are included to really pull on your pop strings. As of right now, the band are wrapping up their debut, so here we are on proverbial pins and needles.” Austin Town Hall
“This is a stimulating and vivid track to start a new project with! ‘Wreck‘ is an amplified pop tune with a highly catchy melody, sweet vocals, and glowing guitars, reminding me of Dinosaur Jr.‘s slacker electricity. The lively and compelling cadence turns this debut into a sparkling humdinger” Turn Up The Volume
“a spritely slice of driven indie pop with melancholy lyrics and harmonies along the way” Collective Zine
“a true indie-pop delight” Indie For Bunnies [Italian]
“a dream group” Mindies [Spanish]
“power-pop at the crossroads with The Beths, Weezer or even Pixies” Fanfare Pop [French]