Melanie Valera is the throbbing heart and head philosopher of the solo band, Tender Forever. She cut her performance teeth on the street of her hometown of Bordeaux, France, covering sixties girl bands standards for money for a whole year as part of The Bonnies. Along with this enriching, character-building experience, this hyperactive lady started a long-distance electro-pop project with an American friend she had met on the very last day of her trip to S.F., Ca. Garrison Rocks, a spontaneous love-at-first-sight band, endured and evolved, up until becoming a Franco-American orchestra including 3 new members. The team performed about 40 shows in 7 months, notably with Little Wings (K Records) and Ted Leo (Lookout Records).
Melanie still had room for more action, and in order to play shows and go on tour as much as she could, she created a solo project: Tender Forever was born. “emotional pop” or “lo-fi R&B” are unusual definitions, but do not give the complexity of it at all. In the first place, Tender Forever is a girl performing alone with her diy crafty sounds, a cardboard laptop, a very personal body language, tears, cut-outs, spasms…and more. Tender Forever also means countless people, feelings and emotions living through her music. Tender Forever plays guitar and calls you into play. Tender Forever sings, dances, gets stirred, excited, worn-out, falls on the floor and affects us. Tender Forever is something very, very fragile! And at the same time, it is a great ball of fire dragging along everything in its way, which might wake up intense things that are buried deep in each one of us…|Tender Forever is moving.|Tender Forever is amazing.|Tender Forever is beautifully alive and rare.|Tender Forever is about love.
Melanie’s Franco-American friendship network got even tighter in June, 2005 as she organized through an association of hers a festival in Bordeaux to welcome friend-bands (among which Mirah and Calvin Johnson): the Bordeaux-Pacific Northwest Friendship Alliance meeting (a sister-cities project initially started by The Blow). Since Tender Forever was started in march, 2005, she toured France all over, and also did some summer-camp touring activity in the USA, along with her Bordeaux-based alter-ego Squeeze Me I Squeak and her American friends Anna Oxygen and The Blow.
Tender Forever’s first Album was released in the fall on K Records (www.krecs.com). You shouldn’t wait to check her out, the girl is moving FAST!!! |
