Doomed Confessionary: Sean, Cole & Cody (Valefor)
Hailing from Long Island, New York, progressive sludge/hardcore trio Valefor has been playing shows across the island since 2019. They mix various influences from doom and sludge metal, to prog metal and hardcore, to create their intricate but driving sound. The band was created by bassist Sean Dullaghan and guitarist Cole Fowler in 2016, who were joined by their drummer Cody Phillips in 2022 in order to form the band lineup present today.
Valefor has spent 2024 hard at work creating and promoting their debut album »Persevere«, which since its release on July 31st has accumulated 7000 streams across all major streaming platforms, along with receiving airplay on 495FM and 94.3 The Shark.
Can you say a few words about your band?
Sean: We are a three piece independent prog metal band from Long Island, New York influenced by doom, sludge and hardcore.
Cody: A few words about your band.
What was the biggest challenge for the band?
Cole: Finding reliable people who are talented and interested enough in the music to create with. We got real lucky with Cody, homie fits right in.
What can you be most proud of so far?
Cody: Self recording and releasing our album.
Sean: Everything we’ve done has done has been completely diy including booking shows, making merch, promoting, recording, mixing, mastering and releasing our music. The only other person involved in the process is one of our closest friends Adam Schnepp (@thegravyboi) who’s responsible for designing all of our logos, album art and most of our show fliers.
What was your biggest regret?
Sean: Not getting a light bass and comfy strap sooner.
Cody: Probably what caused my wrist injury, I grabbed onto a car at a red light on my skateboard, and the woman gunned it and I held on, ultimately falling and needing surgery on my wrist. The recovery was painful and mentally tiring. That or not investing in bitcoin
What was the best concert/tour so far and why?
Sean: We’ve had a pretty solid run of shows this summer starting with a packed basement show at a Long Island DIY venue called the Cave where we got our merch cleaned out. This July we played 5 shows across LI leading up to our album’s release, including our first show in Manhattan which was a benefit that raised $16,000 USD in support of the current situation in the Ukraine.
What was the biggest surprise on the music scene for you?
Sean: Seeing the extent that booking companies, venues and managers will go to in attempts to take advantage of inexperienced musicians who don’t know any better. Not to say there aren’t people with good intentions out there.
What is currently in your heavy musical rotation?
Cody: Gojira, Mastodon, Cobalt, Knocked Loose, and some of our friends bands like Goliath, Desolate Sun, and Stonehenge.
Sean: Thrown, Kublai Khan TX, Drain, Knocked Loose, King Bastard and the new Bring Me The Horizon album.
Cole: Honestly, not a lot of heavy stuff, been more with The Band, Bob Dylan, Brian Auger and such. Not that I don’t still love the heavy stuff but there’s so much good music out there to listen to.
What was the best advice you’ve ever been given as a musician?
Sean: You can improve yourself and learn more by doing what you’re not comfortable doing rather than falling back on what comes easy.
What are your guilty pleasures?
Cody: There are certain bands/genres you wouldn’t expect that I listen to, Falling In Reverse, Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas (Japanese metalcore), Lofi remixes of songs from old Pokémon games.
Cole: Honestly, Im a sucker for Tears For Fears.
Sean: Love some newer pop punk stuff like The Story So Far and Neck Deep. Also some drum n bass and house. Got a soft spot for 2010s SoundCloud rap/trap too.
Can you say something more about the music scene on Long Island?
Cody: There’s not alot of metal bands on Long Island that I’ve seen, the biggest scene on Long Island is NYHC/LIHC.
Sean: In terms of metal on Long Island, you can find lots of tribute cover bands and some solid doom/sludge bands but few pushing to more experimental sounds. There are thriving hardcore and Midwest Emo scenes though despite being nowhere near the Midwest.
Where can we see you live this year (concerts/tours)?
8/23 at Club Andromeda in Nyack, NY
8/24 at Someplace Else in West Islip, LI
9/18 at Katie’s in Smithtown, LI
9/20 at Nostalgia Bar in Bethpage, LI
10/5 at Suite 208 in Lake Ronkonkoma, LI
12/14 at Ubergeek Brewery in Riverhead, LI
What are your plans for the future as a band?
Cody: The ideal would be to go on a tour, probably a small one at first around NY’s bordering states, but hopefully we get to the point where we’re playing big festivals and bigger venues.
Cole: Hopefully, keep making music and deepening the bond within the band. We always try to push each other into uncomfortable territory in the hopes of expanding our musical palate.
How can people best support your band?
Cody: Listen to and share our music, wear our merch, read our interviews, and come to our shows.
Sean: Our music is available for free however if you’d like to support us directly, you can pay as much as you want for our album on our Bandcamp. We also ship merch anywhere. Just send us a message on our socials. Our Instagram has links to all of our music and merch.
Do you have any message for your listeners?
Sean: Embrace listening to new music and don’t take anything too seriously. We started this band for fun with no expectations going in yet are grateful for how far we’ve come, and for all of the support we’ve received over the years.
Cody: Whoever’s the owner of the white sedan, you left your lights on.
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well