Interview with Valora; front woman and “Hottest Chick in Hard Rock” Syd Duran talks “I Waited For You”

Syd Duran the front woman for the hard rock band Valora took a moment out of her busy schedule to speak with me about the band’s release, I Waited For You. Valora has been on a meteoric rise for the past year even garnering accolades from some of the most prestigious music magazines in the world. Revolver named Syd the “Hottest Chick in Hard Rock” for July 2011 and AP tagged Valora as one of the 100 bands you need to know for 2011. Here’s what Duran had to say about the band and their new disc.

Now that your new disc, I Waited For You, is complete, how do you feel about it and are you satisfied with the outcome?
Syd: Yeah I am definitely happy with it. I wrote a hundred songs for this record so I know that this is the best I have to offer.

Really you guys wrote a hundred songs?
Syd: Yeah I have been writing for over a year and a half and I actually didn’t have a band at the time; it was just me. The next record will be a bit different because we will be writing collectively as a band, but for this one it was just me.

Was it difficult to whittle down which songs to include on the disc?
Syd: No it was not difficult; they kind of stood out to me right away.

What is going to become of the rest of those hundred songs?
Syd: They might be used for other artists or television placement or something like that, but I don’t see them on one of our albums because I feel that these were the best eleven that we chose and the standard has been set to a higher level.

When you are writing do you write with the live setting in mind?
Syd: Sometimes, it is always a little bit different, but I know there are some songs that I was thinking might be anthemic and might be songs that the audience can sing along to as well.

Do you find it difficult translating your songs into a live setting?
Syd: No not really. We just did an acoustic set for a radio show and the songs were a bit difficult to pull of acoustically because there are heavy vocals and guitars on the songs, it is not difficult in a regular live setting though.

Check out the song “I Waited For You”

What is the meaning behind the title I Waited For You?
Syd: It is actually is a title that has evolved in meaning to me personally. It started out when I had just graduated high school and I was just trying to figure out what to do with my life I was waiting on opportunities and whatever I could do to make music my life. Now it is like waiting for my record to come out waiting to play it live and that kind of stuff.

Alternative Press Magazine named you one of the 100 bands that you need to know about in 2011. Did that put any pressure on you at all?
Syd: No not really because in 2011 we knew that the record was not coming out until 2012 and it was a little bit early, but we were just happy to be mentioned. We just kind of had our thing going already so nothing really affected that we just felt really honored to be mentioned.

What is next for Valora?
Syd: The record comes out April 3rd 2012 so that is the big thing right now just getting that out. I know a lot of fans have been waiting for it and I am excited they are hungry for new music from us. I am the kind of person that gets real anxious if am not writing new music all of the time.

Any closing words at all?
Syd: Thanks you for the interview and we are just really excited to get the word out about our record.