Valere – I’ll Tell You When I Know: 13th Floor New Song Of The Day
Valere (Shana Graham) has geared up for a new vibrant sound with her latest single, I’ll Tell You When I Know.
Here is the blurb with more:
Made with the support of NZ On Air, the song celebrates not knowing the destination to slow down and enjoy all that life has to offer. It follows Graham overcoming self-made and familial pressure to embrace music for her own enjoyment once again. The chorus mimics the questions she is often asked by well-meaning people concerned about her career path. “Where are you going? What have you done with your life?” Valere simply answers, “I’ll tell you when I know,” because who really knows what’s ahead?
I’ll Tell You When I Know was co-written by Valere and Christian Tjandrawinata (who also produced the track) at BIG FAN’s Pan-Asian Fan Camp. The accompanying music video, directed by her husband Hayden Graham, takes direct inspiration from karaoke as a metaphor for family and joy. It features cheeky choreography by Leigh Green-Thompson while Valere is superimposed atop her mother’s “bomb” Filipino cooking.
The director says, “People are often like ‘Wow, you and Shana are a creative power couple.’ I won’t deny this, but it often comes with unique challenges especially when we are both strongly opinionated artists/eldest children,” Hayden admits.
He continues,“I’m not going to lie, this creative process has been very challenging for me. I didn’t clearly see Shana’s vision for this roll out, but she was really firm and strong in her vision. She even asked me to leave her alone to do the dancing bits after I set everything up, so I had no clue what it would look like. It was only when I sat down to edit the music video that I saw her vision—and it was flipping awesome! It was super fun and I wish I trusted her from the start. On my own, I would have never made anything like this, and I’m really proud of what we have accomplished.”
Valere was part of the APRA mentorship programme this year, being teamed up with award-winning country musician Holly Arrowsmith.
Valere recently embarked on a string of shows in Australia, her native Philippines and Aotearoa. An APRA Songhubs Sphere alum and International Songwriting Competition semi-finalist, Valere’s debut album colours garnered spots on ZM, BaseFM and various Spotify playlists including The Local List NZ.
Her most recent EP, the poignant Gold Dust, furthered her place as a mainstay in the country’s indie scene with various appearances on the likes of RNZ and Rolling Stone AU/NZ. There will be more to come in 2025.
Valere says:
“It’s a song that deals with not knowing what you’re doing but it being okay, even if it doesn’t seem okay to other people. It was written for a pretty specific case in the beginning (parents concerned about creative pursuits), but for me it has actually morphed into convincing myself that it was okay to not know where something was going, and to just have fun and ease the pressure on myself, especially when it comes to music.”
