Grrrls will be boys

Hunter Valentine, three hard-rocking
Toronto chicks, make music that
personifies your crush, your
heartbreak and your
inner badass

ELLE-RAISERS: (L to R) Adrienne Lloyd,
Kiyomi McCloskey and Laura Petracca of Hunter Valentine

by LORRAINE CARPENTER

“Hunter Valentine will save us all.”

That’s quite the claim for a mere rock band, but then this is no ordinary outfit. Hunter Valentine is an all-female, all-queer trio formed in 2004 by singer/guitarist Kiyomi McCloskey (now 23), bassist Adrienne Lloyd (28) and drummer Laura Petracca (28). Their melodic punk anthems, lovelorn ballads and hard-hitting rock shows have earned them an enviable reputation, as have their L Word looks—the band pinned a picture of the cast from the lesbian TV drama to the wall of their first rehearsal space, perhaps looking to leech a little dyke-icon power.

With such sweet totems and tons of hard work (these ladies are full-time rockers, day jobs be damned), Hunter Valentine have not only wowed the Canadian queer circuit but attracted a broader audience, people who love them for their tunes and for the good times they’ve brought to venues across the country.

Toronto rawk god Ian Blurton was an early convert, recording their very first demo in 2005, while Julius Butty (Alexisonfire, City and Colour) produced their debut album, The Impatient Romantic, released last year on High Romance Music (an imprint tied to True North Records). Bristling with flash and passion, the record is imbued with a spirit that the band compares to the steely grip of a serious crush, perhaps your first crush on that pretty, popular girl who was the centre of your universe in high school. But, as sketched in the band’s storybook manifesto, your heart soon plummeted, putting the butterflies in your stomach out of their misery, when “the cool guy” stepped in and swept that girl off her feet. And that cool guy is Hunter Valentine.

“We say ‘he’ but anyone can have a little bit of Hunter Valentine in them,” reads the manifesto. “He is the heartbreaker that fucked up your chances. He is the badass inside you that comes out every once in a while. If you don’t love him, then you want to hate him. But you can’t. Because he is just himself and he never promised you anything.”

This attitude is what fuels the music made by these three ladies, who named their band, with typical sass, after a friend’s porn star name (the name of your favourite pet paired with the street you grew up on).

Recently returned from playing the Canadian Blast showcase at the London Calling music festival in the U.K., all three members of Hunter Valentine gathered in a Toronto boardroom last week to speak to the Mirror via conference call.

Mirror: First of all, what are your porn star names?

Kiyomi McCloskey: Mine would be Harley Crawford.

Laura Petracca: Ginger Jade.

Adrienne Lloyd: Brandi St-Clair.

M: Wow, those are all ridiculously good.

KM: Yeah, maybe they should’ve been our stage names.

M: As for Hunter Valentine, is “he” sometimes a starting point for your lyrics?

KM: Yeah. A lot of songs come from being heartbroken, whether it’s from a relationship or losing your friend to drugs or watching your mother go through a difficult time. Then there are songs about love and how great that is too, and it all comes from that idea of Hunter Valentine, where he’s able to break so easily because he’s been broken in so many times.

Superheroine and superheroes

M: Your bio mentions your “rock ’n’ roll superheroines,” Joan Jett, Chrissie Hynde, Patti Smith and Linda Perry—are these the artists that first inspired you to pick up an instrument, or was there some driving force closer to home?

KM: I was obsessed with music growing up, I idolized a lot of musicians, but what inspired me to focus on playing the guitar and singing and writing songs was taking lesssons from a guy named Russell Leon. After every lesson, after going over basic scales and learning Radiohead songs or whatever I was into that week, I’d ask him to play me one of his originals. I was so impressed that, eventually, I tried it myself. It’s sort of addictive, so I’ve been at it ever since.

LP: I come from a family of drummers, so growing up seeing my grandfather’s drum kit set up in one room and my uncle’s in the other gave me a lot of inspiration, just ’cause it was noisy and I’m very, very, very noisy. Growing up in a classic rock family, all those crazy drummers like John Bonham and Keith Moon were heroes too.

AL: I started out on piano when I was really young but I got bored quickly. The only performing I did was at my family Christmas parties and at the exams I had to take at the conservatory. I was ready to quit music altogether when my high school music teacher pulled me in on upright bass. He gave me one for my house and paid for some lessons.

KM: Why the bass?

AL: He said, “You’re nice and tall, why don’t you try this?” But he also commented that I was a pretty terrible cellist (laughter). Initially, I thought it would be an easy mark in Grade 9, but right away, I was hooked. It felt as though everything I loved about music was captured in playing bass.

Choo-choo-choosing you

M: I understand that two of you, Kiyomi and Laura, met in a lesbian bar. How about Adrienne?

KM: We were actually introduced to Adrienne by Lorraine Segato of Parachute Club fame. We met her, started playing with her, and then we had our first show like a week later, to 500 people.

AL: It was during Pride Toronto four years ago. It was a pretty amazing introduction to playing music with these guys.

M: What did you play?

AL: I learned about five of Kiyomi and Laura’s songs from a rough-cut demo.

LM: And we did “Crimson and Clover.”

AL: I don’t know if anybody recorded it, but I’d be pretty happy if no one did.

LM: We were really bad.

M: Since previous incarnations of the band included a couple of guys, I imagine that you didn’t prioritize the idea of an all-female line-up.

KM: It was never something that we were after, but now we’re not sure that we would go back. We play one hell of a show when we’re all on the same cycle.

M: I gather that your fanbase now is more diverse than it was in the beginning, bringing in the queer community and rock fans at large.

KM: Yeah, it’s a very mixed crowd and we’re really proud of that. It’s exciting that it’s not one specific scene, it’s a mélange.

M: Has being pigeonholed as a lesbian band been a problem?

KM: Maybe in the very beginning, but not so much now.

AL: But playing to the queer community in Toronto was also how we got started and we felt very privileged to be a part of it and to be supported by it as musicians.

M: Are you still playing annual Valentine’s Day shows?

KM: Oh yeah, till we die.

M: There’s always some anti-Valentine’s Day action here in Montreal every year, some of it spearheaded by queer groups.

KM: Oh yeah? Tell them to come to Toronto next year, we’ll start a riot. Our Valentine’s Day shows are really cool ’cause we just encourage everyone to come out. If you want to come out as a couple and have a romantic little time, that’s great, but if you wanna come out and cruise for people, then that’s fine too. It’s a celebration of love. However you wanna take that is up to you.

AL: It can be whatever you want it to be. For some people, it’s about romance, but for a lot of other people who are coming to our shows, it’s totally about having a great time with Hunter Valentine.

At Divers/Cité With Patrik et les
Brutes, the Cliks and DJ Frigid at
Parc Émilie-Gamelin’s Loto
-Québec stage on Wednesday,
July 30, 6 P.M., $2 suggested donation