27 August 2021 - 0 Comments
Proudly Papua New Guinean born, Valle draws his inspiration from his homeland that he left at eight months old to get treatment for Malaria in New Zealand. He has lived here ever since. It was during a recent trip back to PNG, his first trip back since leaving as a baby, that he realised he needed to switch up the game and put all his time and energy into giving music a serious shot. With a natural competitive streak, it was at this moment he felt an overwhelming sense of urgency in his pursuit of music. A powerful inner driving force propelling him forward to do his best for both his daughter and his family back home in PNG. With lyrics he penned himself, he describes the track as a ‘quirky, not so straight forward flex’
“I gotta switch the game I took it back, back to home back to my land back to my people and plan everything we gonna do writing down plays now we scoring hoops” - This is me talking about how I came back with a sense of urgency in my pursuit of music, my head space was like shit, I got all my family and my daughter counting on me to make it, must be time let’s get it. Mentally that energy spilled out into this track’. – Valle on Swing Low
Premiered on RNZ, Swing Low’s accompanying video is directed by Tamaki Makaurau based director Connor Pritchard.
“This was the first time I've worked with Valle and as soon as I heard the song I knew we had to have fun with it. This video gives off a buzzy and energetic vibe which was what I was going for. It doesn't necessarily match the lyrics, but I feel it fits the song perfectly regardless. We managed to squeeze in 8 or 9 different scenes within a day's shoot, it was madness but the team got the job done. Looking forward to work with Valle more” - Connor Pritchard
The video, shot entirely in Auckland, breezes through different scenes with Valle himself at the forefront, the imagery playing off Valle’s bars with some trick of the eye cinematography. This is the first video that Valle has released that he hasn’t had a hand in creating himself.
“The video for Swing Low with Connor was the least stressful video process for me to date. Usually, I’m hands on from concept stage until final upload, to be able to just rock up on set for the first time and just be the ‘artist' without having to organise actors, crew, schedule, props etc was a beautiful thing! Letting go when you trust who’s hands you are putting it in can sometimes be the best thing. It freed me up in a busy season to be able to focus on other tasks & projects. Shoutout Connor Pritchard” – Valle
With a new EP on the horizon and plenty more gas in the tank, Valle is scaling new heights in 2021.
WATCH: Swing Low here
SWING LOW IS OUT NOW AVAILABLE HERE
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