Valhalla Lights are Ange Saul (vocals), George Christie (guitar), Brent Crysell (bass) Deon Driver (Drums). George, Brent and Deon have been playing together for 16 years and were the backbone of legendary Australian stoner rock band Fort which did tours with Clutch, Kyuss Lives, Fu Manchu, Brant Bjork and the Bros, Grinspoon and Nebula and shows with Monster Magnet, Helmet, the Black Keys, COG, Shihad, The Hanging Tree, and appeared on the main stage of Splendor in the Grass festival where they played to 10,000 people. Joining the powerhouse backline is Ange Saul who has played Canadian Music Week and was invited to play SxSW in Austin, TX with her previous band The Black Lullaby.
2016
2016 has seen Valhalla Lights headline The Zoo in Brisbane, play Sydney 4 times, Melbourne, and played support slots with The Superjesus and The Art.
As at December 2016 Valhalla Lights is receiving airplay on the following radio stations in the USA and Australia.
Australia
Aussie Music Weekly – syndicated to 45 stations
2MCR 100.3FM Sydney NSW
2BACR Bankstown NSW
River FM 2NCR, Lismore NSW
2RDJ Sydney NSW
Vox FM Wollongong NSW
Valley FM Forbes NSW,
Northside Radio 99.3FM, Chatswood NSW
2EAR FM Moruya NSW
Nambucca Valley Radio, Nambucca Heads NSW
Yass FM NSW
100.3FM 2MCR Currans Hill NSW.
4zZz FM Brisbane QLD
Tribe FM 91.1 McLaren Vale SA
PBA FM Adelaide SA
5GTR FM Mount Gambier SA
100.3FM Forcett TAS
Phoenix FM Bendigo VIC
Mountain District Radio 97.1FM, Emerald VIC
97.9FM Melton VIC
98.9 North West FM Melbourne VIC
106.7 Phoenix FM Kangaroo Flat VIC
Sunraysia FM Mildura VIC
3RPP Frankston VIC
3MDR Emerald VIC
HOT FM Mildura VIC
3MDR Belgrave VIC
Harvey Community Radio Harvey WA
Heritage 107.3 FM Perth WA
US
KAFM Grand Junction CO
WMNF Tampa FL
WWUH West Hartford CT
KPFT Houston TX
KANM Texas University
WRFR Rockland ME
KBOO Portland OR
KDNK Carbondale CO.
2016 has seen the staged release of the album ‘My Gracious Highway’, the band’s first album with vocalist Ange Saul.
‘My Gracious Highway’ has been a slow release album with one track being digitally released per month on the first day of every month for all of 2016, and a final track on 31st December 2016 to make a whole year of Valhalla Lights. The release date of the full digital album is 1/1/17. Every song has a music video. A YouTube playlist of the album can be streamed here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRbRen3vQziSdBZ12Pht6bwuln0QWr6xx
Highlight songs include:
Opposite Sides https://youtu.be/4D_NOLYhF14
World on Fire https://youtu.be/V3jNAWR_vqc
Beautiful https://soundcloud.com/valhalla-lights/beautiful-master-16bit-441khz/s-CLdR9
CD’s of the album can be purchased on the store page.
2015
Valhalla Lights are a band that have has a tragic history. Their first vocalist, Phoebe Black, tragically committed suicide just days before the band was to enter the studio to record properly. Brent, Deon and George were devastated but determined to put out the album to honor her. Krypton was created posthumously using the pre-production vocal recordings that the band had of Phoebe. The band took the vocals into the studio and reverse engineered the album (starting with the vocals and playing music in time to them) which is unheard of in recording. The release of Krypton was charged with emotion for all involved, with Phoebes dark and haunting lyrics sending a powerful message “from the other side”. The band created film clips for 4 songs to honor the memory of their fallen bandmate:
Lights Out https://youtu.be/xB4CM1J-R0g
Travesty https://youtu.be/NRI1LFraD_4
I Wont Be Your Slave Anymore https://youtu.be/4fFONHyHRoA and
Waiting For The World To Start Again – https://youtu.be/TuJAIzDN-QA
2015 also saw the release of the Documentary “Shades of Black – the Valhalla Lights Story” which paid tribute to Phoebe, and documented the process of reverse engineering an album (starting with the vocals). The documentary, which can be seen here: https://youtu.be/fpFrfYhJNC8 was selected from hundreds of submissions to be a finalist in the Salt Lake International Film Festival in the USA.
In 2015 Brent, Deon and George were joined by kindred spirit Ange Saul, who waited patiently for the boys to finish Phoebe’s album.
In May 2015 Valhalla Lights supported the Baby Animals and the Superjesus at the Tivoli in Brisbane and received a massive crowd response to their energetic and melodic live show. See some video here: https://www.facebook.com/valhallalights/videos/703922359713152/