Valentine

Album: 10 Songs (2020)
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Songfacts®:

  • Travis dig into their rock roots with this grungy number where frontman Fran Healy is tempted by a relationship he knows is toxic. He told Apple Music how the track came together: "I needed a quiet place to go and write songs. So I thought that rather than spend a fortune in rent, I would just get a little boat. I moved it in Marina del Rey and would go there every day, mostly to hang out. This rockier side is something Travis has always done since the very beginning. You can go to Good Feeling and hear that in most of that album. Even in The Man Who, you can hear that on 'Blue Flashing Light.' We've kind of got this edgy, dark thing that we do, because I think all of us come from that rock background. Led Zeppelin is a big influence on Travis. AC/DC is a big, big influence on Travis. R.E.M. and U2 are a massive influence as bands go. The direction on this song was for everyone in the band to play like you're screaming as loudly as you possibly can in pure anger. Like really, really f--king pissed. Let it all out."
  • Healy also directed the music video, which finds him lying flat on his back in Aspect Lighting's car park in Los Angeles. As he sings, a bright circle of light flashes around him (Gigi Pedron, the lighting technician for Queens Of The Stone Age, was responsible for lighting design). Healy explained the concept: "The idea came from the lyric, 'If I lie here, I might die here, I may lay here for a while.' I saw me lying on the ground for the duration using our drone to look down on me and maybe have stuff happen while I lay there.' It expanded from here to have lights and a second camera."

    While Healy is on the ground, the rest of the band plays in the shadows outside of his circle - or at least that's what we're supposed to think. He said: "Again, Covid-19 made this a tricky shoot and not being able to shoot with the band meant getting stunt doubles in who I've dressed as ghosts and now in this, they look like urban guerrillas with their balaclavas, shades and black clothes!"
  • This was released as the third single from 10 Songs, the Scottish band's ninth studio album. The album peaked at #5 in the UK.

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