Introducing Valentine Valentine Forreau is a singer, musician and MA journalism student originally hailing from Paris. She first came to Manchester at the age of 19 as part of her undergraduate Erasmus program, living in the city for a year, and returned as a permanent resident after finishing her degree. "I actually specifically picked Manchester [to study] because I knew of the music scene, so I thought it'd be somewhere where I'd fit in because I've been playing music pretty much my entire life... I moved back to Paris for a year, and I was really bored- so I just came back [laughs]. And I've been here ever since.” Valentine's musical life history Valentine's musical and vocal styles are wide ranging, although she began her musical training in Western Classical-orientated choirs. This was largely as a result of her primary school music teacher persuading her to join choirs, which she remained part of for fifteen years, eventually moving to a secondary school that specialised in music. “I think we were really lucky. Like, because obviously, it was like a neighbourhood choir where I started. So I think we were just really lucky that that woman had an actual passion for obviously, like, you know, teaching music to children.” During her classical music education, Valentine also became aware of other musical genres she wanted to explore in her teenage years, in part influenced by her parent's musical taste: "I think around the time I left music school, when I was 13 or 14 is when I decided that well, you know, just being a teenager, I decided that, you know, obviously, like, I've been this good, like little music school girl for like, however many years of my life, but I needed to be a rebel and stuff (!) And so that's how I got into like different styles of music... My mum actually was a massive fan of like stuff like prog rock when she was younger, and I kind of rediscovered a lot of her records collection when I was 17, or 18." Now 27, Valentine performs far less in a classical setting, and is the singer of a post-punk outfit here in Manchester named Gary, Indiana- the band formed after Valentine returned more permanently to Manchester and met her now-bandmate, Scott Fair. "It was kind of musical love at first sight- [Gary, Indiana] is actually his project, like he writes all of the music, and then I do all of the lyrics. So all like all the vocals, all the lyrics are mine. But it was really like, it's kind of a little bit out of my comfort zone as well. But he wanted a female vocalist who speaks French, and that is very much my, [laughs] that's my description." Living in Manchester and Singing in French- the purpose behind Valentine's music-making Virtually all of Gary, Indiana's songs are sung in French- a stylistic choice of Scott's making, rather than of Valentine's. As a migrant in Manchester, Valentine herself speaks little French in her day-to-day life in the city, apart from in the performance of this music. "It's quite funny because like, I realised writing in French that it doesn't come to me as naturally as it used to, which is really silly when you think about the fact that I, I was completely exclusively French speaking for pretty much the first 20 years of my life.... so it's actually really fun. And it also kind of gives me an opportunity writing in French to just like, go back, and like explore just the language a little bit more than I would just having a conversation, you know, with my family and stuff like that. Because it's not something that I really get to do that much anymore." The responses Valentine has experienced from non French speakers often are concerned with the pleasantness of French to a non-native speaker- which is often at odds with the theme and content of the lyrics she is writing: "It always really amuses me that people think of French has been such a lovely language, because a lot of my other songs are like very, like militant, and actually quite aggressive, and in some cases like downright just violent- but it sounds lovely!" As someone politically active from a young age, Valentine's lyrics often have political or feminist components to them, and call to mind the experiences and issues that marginalised groups experience- one of the band's songs touches on the topic of street harassment, for example. Valentine feels that the purpose of her music making is informed by both her political drive and the enjoyment of making music for its own sake: "My family's always been very, like, left leaning, my mom is very politically active. So growing up in that environment is something that's always been very dear to my heart. And I've spent quite a lot of time, you know, trying to take part in like, you know, political action and stuff like that, which is kind of one of the reasons why I went into journalism as well." "I think I've always used, like, whether it be like in writing or in my music, I've always tried to use those platforms to kind of promote and advance issues that obviously I feel strongly about. There's obviously also like, a need to create music, and when Scott gave me this opportunity, straightaway I was like "yeah, absolutely", because I hadn't actually played any music, like seriously in quite a while at that point, for a couple years. So, um, I think the two opportunities kind of just met, like really perfectly in the middle." "I think [the music] lends itself really well to having those kinds of messages attached to it. And hopefully, if we managed to get people on board with the music, then people might look into what I'm actually saying! [laughs]" A musician and a migrant in Manchester Valentine has found creating post-punk music in France to be considerable more limiting than in Manchester- it has always been Manchester's music scene that attracted her to the city. "I think oddly enough, the main obstacle to making music in Paris... I think the main obstacle to that is that there are far fewer musicians. I think you come to the place, you come to a place like Manchester and every single person, you know, is in a band." "Paris doesn't have anywhere near as much of a music scene as much as to those or even, you know, most places in the UK, really... It's just not as much of a cultural thing." Whilst the musical nature of the city is welcoming, over the last few years, Valentine has found other aspects of her identity here to be conflicting. As a migrant in the city, Valentine has felt a political cultural change in the last few years erring more towards hostility: "I think the main reason why I moved to the UK is very much because like I kind of, well, I felt French was a bit too restricting, culturally. And like that was more of an open mind in the UK- at the time. I don't really feel like that that much anymore... Obviously, in the past few years and having been here when the Brexit vote happened, and you know, not being able to vote in the Brexit vote... So, of course, it's all been very odd. I think this has been like, I think this has made me feel like a migrant, a lot more than, you know, any of my personal background. Yeah, like the few years have definitely made me feel like a bit more of an outsider, which is not something I've ever felt in this country before." The Future for Valentine's Music Valentine and Gary, Indiana are continuing their music-making in Manchester, having recently signed with a record label, but the ongoing effects of COVID have taken their toll on the band's ability to perform and express their music. "I think obviously COVID is like the main obstacle at the minute. And it's, it's a project that we very much always intended to be experienced live more than on recordings, because there's this kind of like performance side to it that obviously isn't going to translate at all [to socially distanced/online performance]." "I think we all like there's a there's a specific kind of like an artistic vision that we have with this project, which we very much want to stay true to. Like, if if that's not going to be happening anymore, then I don't think there's any point in us making the music." Valentine and her bandmates hope to adapt their performances for socially-distanced gigging spaces when live performance venues reopen. Gary, Indiana- Berlin [see video] Although much of Valentine's musical output is politically orientated, this particular track takes its inspiration in her lyricism from experiences of partying and clubbing in Berlin: "Scott came to me with this song. And there was something about I was like, I just kind of like reminds me of being in that, you know, a dirty basement somewhere in Berlin just like dancing to weird techno... Clubbing in Berlin is a completely different experience!" The music video utilises clips from the 1983 horror film the Boxer's Omen.