V A L E B O L

Valebol is Chicago’s new superduo featuring drummer Daniel Villarreal (Dos Santos) and multi-instrumentalist Vivian McConnell (V.V. Lightbody) on vocals, synthesizer, and flute. Pronounced VAH-LAY-BOL, this project is a true expression of musical joy, deep Chicago talent, and collaboration. Furnishing their translingual express-pop, Valebol invites everyone to dive down and discover a feeling. Maybe it’s finding an oyster on your maiden scuba dive and discovering it contains a kaleidoscopic disco pearl vibrating to polyrhythms from a forgotten cassette tape. Maybe it was buried in 1983, maybe the club is still open. Either way, opening your new Polly Pocket sized seashell contains an iconic duo. 

Villarreal’s Panamá collides with V.V.’s midwest in this surprising collaboration. Tiny heroes that traded monochrome structures for a kaleidoscopic panoply of patterns, tropical tonality blossoming throughout each song—yet compact enough to put in your pocket as you buzz across arbitrary borders. 

In 2021, Valebol received Chicago’s DCASE Esteemed Artist Award and is in the process of recording their debut album with Elliot Bergman (NOMO, Wild Belle). They performed at Millennium Park with Jamila Woods this summer for the 60th Anniversary of the Recording Academy Chicago Chapter.

S H O W S

SUPPORTING MILDLIFE

October 2, 2024
Santa Cruz, CA
Moe's Alley

October 3, 2024
Los Angeles, CA
El Rey

October 4, 2024
San Francisco, CA
Independent

October 5, 2024
San Diego, CA
Music Box

October 6, 2024
Pioneertown, CA
Pappy + Harriets

October 9, 2024
Denver, CO
Meow Wolf (early show)

October 9, 2024
Denver, Co
Meow Wolf (late show)

October 11, 2024
Chicago, IL
Chop Shop

L I S T E N

Listen to Valebol’s debut album “VALEBOL” out now!!!

C O N T A C T

general: valebolmusic@gmail.com

booking: russell@33andwest.com

P A S T S H O W S

2019
June Empty Bottle w/ Divino Niño & BNNY
September - The Hideout w/ Sávila

2020
January - TNK Fest w/ Resavoir & Luke Titus
March - The Hideout w/ Combo Chimbita
July - Latinxt Festival @ Navy Pier

2021
July - Sleeping Village w/ Post Animal (Official Lollapalooza Aftershow)
September - Millennium Park w/ Jamila Woods for the Recording Academy’s 60th Anniversary of the Chicago Chapter

2022
January - TNK Fest w/ Resavoir & Luke Titus
June - MIDSOMMARFEST - Andersonville

2023
Chicago, IL - March 24, 2023 @ THALIA HALL w/ Neal Francis - WXRT Presents
Chicago, IL - Dec 8th, 2023 @ Schubas Tavern w/ SANTRIO

2024:

JUNE 5, 2024 - LOS ANGELES, CA @ ZEBULON
supporting Finom

JUNE 7, 2024 - CHICAGO, IL (ALBUM RELEASE SHOW) @ THALIA HALL
w/ Carlile & Elizabeth Moen

SUPPORTING FRUIT BATS:
JULY 17, 2024 - BOULDER, CO @ THE FOX THEATER
JULY 19, 2024 - KANSAS CITY, MO @ LEMONADE PARK
JULY 20, 2024 ~ ST. LOUIS, MO @ BIG TOP OPEN AIR
JULY 21, 2024 ~ INDIANAPOLIS, IN @ Hi-Fi

AUGUST 22, 2024 ~ CHICAGO, IL @ CONSTELLATION w/ RICH RUTH
AUGUST 23, 2024 ~ IOWA CITY, IA @ GABE’S ~ Illiterati Music Festival
AUGUST 24, 2024 ~ TRAVERSE CITY, MI @ ALL CALL MUSIC FESTIVAL

PRESS:

Bandcamp - April Best Latin

Psychedelic Baby Magazine interview 

Post-Trash - recommended release

Chicago Tribune - Interview

Chicago Reader - Local Music Highlights

Sounds and Colours - Album Review

FADER - Notable Albums Out Today

Stereogum - Notable Albums Out This Week

Qobuz - Album Review

BrooklynVegan - Notable Albums Out Today

Small Albums - Notable Albums Out Today

The AU Review - Notable Albums Out Today

WBEZ Interview

Pitchfork Upcoming Albums 2024

Remezcla - “Salvavidas” coverage

ALBUM BIO:

Valebol (Vah-Lay-Bol) makes danceable, groove-based pop tunes that are effortlessly fun and totally mesmerizing. “The number one rule of Valebol from the beginning was that it has to feel good or else we're not doing it,” says singer and multi-instrumentalist Vivian McConnell. Along with the Panamá-born drummer and percussionist Daniel Villarreal, Valebol is the union of two multifaceted Chicago musicians who together make some of the freest and most inviting music of their careers. Their self-titled debut album (out in April via label Otherly Love Records) is nine songs of casio-driven jams and blissed-out slow burners.

The band started in 2016 as an outlet for McConnell and Villarreal to make music outside of the confines of their many musical projects. Both are staples of the Chicago music community: McConnell makes gentle indie rock as V.V. Lightbody and has toured with artists like Lala Lala, Finom, and even one-off gigs with Harry Styles while Villarreal is a critically acclaimed solo artist who also drums in the adventurous Latin rock outfit Dos Santos and son jarocho group Ida y Vuelta. “We started jamming in my basement with the idea to explore new sounds and experiment with songs,” says Villarreal. “That's the beginning of Valebol: figuring out what feels good. We both play in different bands so we wanted to be in something more relaxed and low-key.”

These sessions boasted such a freewheeling and unselfconscious atmosphere it allowed for rampant experimentation: Villarreal toyed with congas while McConnell wrote primarily on synths and keys. “There's this freedom to Valebol that I wasn't feeling with my own music at the time,” says McConnell. “There are two wolves inside of me and one is a pop star and one is a soft, indie rock crooner. Valebol really opened up this new perspective for me: I love pop music and I love dancing.” Take the simmering lead single “Netuchepa!,” which Villarreal says started from an Afrobeat-inspired groove and was written solely to become a party starter. McConnell’s synth stabs the empty space in Villarreal’s percussion. “The song is about somebody who's freshly out of a relationship and is ready to go out and explore, but they're too hot to touch,” she says.

Valebol was recorded in fits and starts over several years with multiple engineers including Dave Vettraino, Dorian Gehring, David Michael Craver, and Elliot Bergman, who mixed and produced the LP. It was mastered by Dave Cooley (Tame Impala, J Dilla, Paramore). “In the recording, it was coming together so differently than just playing in a room together,” says McConnell, noting that they were incorporating organic drum loops mixed with electronic drums in the studio. “But that also enabled us a lot more freedom to record and also get a little crazy and creative with the songs.” Opener “Multivitaminas,” which stretches out a hypnotizing groove across five and a half minutes, broadcasts their in-studio adventurousness. She sings over a swirling, pulsating arrangement, comparing a romantic partner to a daily-vitamin, “Too important

to forget / I don’t need to have you daily /We can supplement at night for all the lost time, baby.”

From the slowed-down bossa nova drum machine groove of "Fine Alright Okay" to the wave-like aquatic riffs of "Del Fin" - the album is full of wholly immersive synth stunners. “The way we think as collaborators, we don't set out to make a song in a certain time signature,” says Villarreal. “We're just creating things and exploring. We wanted to make the LP sound effortless and accessible where you can't tell it's actually pretty complex.” While Valebol has been a recording and songwriting project since 2016 and one of Chicago’s most buzzed-about live bands since 2019, Valebol the album is a proper document of two multi-talented musicians combining their own sensibilities into something trailblazing and welcoming.

“When we play together, there's this really effortless fusion going that we don't always realize is happening,” says McConnell. “Daniel and I have had pretty different musical upbringings, but with Valebol we're making the kind of expansive and joyful music we both love and made us friends in the first place."

-Josh Terry