ENDLESS VALLEY

Words: Keeley Thompson

Images: Chelsea Shotton & Mahina Fae

Light struggles to pierce through the dense forest canopy above; the little that does casts an emerald gloom on the undergrowth. Fallen foliage crunches underfoot as the sound of ancient trees disposing of sickly branches and the tinnitus-like drone of insects buzzing engulf the explorers’ eardrums. Silence, it seems, isn’t always quiet. 

A nearby Cathedral Fig tree heaves musky breaths as the air vibrates with colour, and water rolls off leaves, twinkling like falling stars. The companions share a knowing glance, their expressions telling what their mouths don’t. 

“You can feel that too, right?” 

Time dissolved long ago, minutes now move with frightening speed, but never seem to resolve. The line between real and perceived grows thinner and thinner. 

The call of a forest friend drifts through the air and echoes off the crown of the tree. Nature is calling. 

Welcome home. 

Endless Valley is the Meanjin (Brisbane) psych-prog-world music-rock project of Luna Nayivada, Cavell Schipp and Brad Schipp that beckons to the shared spirit and pumps life back into the collective heartbeat.  

A carnal, joyfully lawless journey through diverse cultural discographies, Endless Valley is a hypnotic yet vivacious celebration of unity, peace, reflection, and empowerment for all.

KEELEY: Endless Valley recently supported Mildlife, how did that go? 

LUNA: It was really fun! It was great to finally see them and to be able to support them. I love their sound, they’re quite trippy. It was so cool to be there though, I felt like I was in the 80’s. 

CAVELL: Yeah it was sweet. They played for an hour and a half so we got to see and listen to their old stuff as well as the songs from their new album. 

KEELEY: How did Endless Valley form? 

CAVELL: Brad and I are brothers. We moved to London in 2014 and met with a mate Sam who we knew from school, who was already living in London. 

Brad, Sam and I started to jam and make music together and during that time, we met Luna. 

Sam actually was the one that came up with the name Endless Valley. 

We’ve gone through a lot of line-up changes throughout our time as a band. It’s always bittersweet saying goodbye to a member, but it’s also cool to see how the sound changes with different people and different inspirations and skill sets coming into the mix. 

KEELEY: Your new album ‘Kaskashir’ is due to come out in August. How are you feeling about it? What can you tell us?

LUNA: A lot of the songs are pieces that Cavell wrote with past members. 

CAVELL: The journey started when I was working in Western Australia doing video editing out there. I met Leigh who was from the Gold Coast and we both had a great connection  and synergy with music. After we got back from London a couple of years later, he ended up joining the band and played on the first album. 

It’s actually a bit of a transitional time for us as we just lost two members. It always takes a bit of time to readjust but we’re super excited to have Leigh back on board with us for the tour. 

A lot of the compositions in Kaskashir came from that time with Leigh and during our time together in London making music together. 

LUNA: We're really excited for this album because there’s a lot of songs that we've been wanting to get out for a while. 

I think the album shows the groovier, more worldly side of Endless Valley. We just wanted to add a bit of that in the psych scene because everyone has got their own vibe going on, especially in Brisbane. 

It’s been fun to bring more grooviness into the psych realm with this album. There’s a lot of heavy psychedelic music in the scene, so we just wanted to make something that you can dance to, make love to, trip to and headbang to. 

We really wanted to bring that spiritual element to the album because we believe that music is very sacred. This album's pretty much about world peace and we're just going to continue making music about that. 

KEELEY: Where do you get inspiration from both musically and as human-beings? 

LUNA: Travelling and nature, and drugs.

When I first came to Australia I started playing percussion in the band. I got obsessed with the sun because it's so strong here and would chant about it when we were making music and I guess random languages came out.

CAVELL: I take inspiration from a lot of cultures and countries and like to combine them all into one thing. I think it’s fun seeing how they can (and often do) all intertwine. 

KEELEY: What’s your creative process like when making music? 

CAVELL: It’s mostly been that Brad and I write the main compositions and then take them to the band. We tend to rearrange the songs as the other members add their input and their own magic into it. 

In the future we would hope to do more jams and write songs together as a band. It'd be cool to start from jams/improvisation and see what comes out. 

LUNA: There's a few songs on the album that came from jamming. The opening track Crimson Star started with vocals and everyone was kind of improvising around them and adding their own flair to it. 

KEELEY: Do you have any highlights as a band?

CAVELL: We've had some exciting shows over the last couple of years, supporting some international acts; WITCH, Yawning Man, Mildlife to name a few. 

The last few tours have been pretty amazing too. 

LUNA: It’s nice to meet and know other bands who delve into the same kind of psychedelic music we make. We're big fans of Sons of Zoku, they're like our brother band but they're all the way in Adelaide. We always meet them for doofs and we're gonna go on tour with them. They're pretty special because they also add that spiritual element to psychedelic rock. 

KEELEY: What’s your favourite spot in Meanjin? 

LUNA: Honestly, West End is great. 

CAVELL: Yeah West End is good. Shout out to The Bearded Lady. 

KEELEY: What music have you been listening to lately? 

LUNA: I’ve been listening to Altin Gun a lot recently. Also Bab L' Bluz, they’re a female led band from Morocco and they’re really fucking cool. 

I get a lot of inspiration from Sex Witch too. They’re a little project with the singer from Bat for Lashes, they cover old middle eastern songs and make them a bit more psychedelic and groovy. 

CAVELL: I’ve been listening to a Russian space rock band called Vespero. They’re a bit underground but they’re huge in my eyes. I definitely get inspiration from them. It’d be a dream to gig with them one day. 

Also Tool. They’re a long time favourite of mine. I listen to a lot of different music though so it’s hard to pinpoint one. 

KEELEY: What’s next for Endless Valley? What should we all look out for?

CAVELL: Kaskashir and the tour are probably the main things! August is a big, exciting month for us. 

We'd like to back it up with a couple of singles (which may end up being on the third album) sort of quickly after the tour to capture this moment in time with Lee and Sandro. So yeah, maybe a one or two singles not long after the tour too! 

ENDLESS VALLEY: KASKASHIR ALBUM TOUR | 31ST AUGUST | THE BEARDED LADY

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