This is a little tour diary of Tender Forever.
I've filmed most of it and some has been "borrowed" from the internet to awesome people (by the way, thanks for putting them online you guys !!).
Also, this was my third and last tour with Electrelane. I love them forever.
Everything is real, including how i had to get a shot of steroids in my right "butt chick" to perform in Paris for our last show together.
HOW MANY
Music by Tender Forever / Melanie Valera (CD/LP "Wider" on K records)
Film Directed by Bangsandblurry (justin lowe and briana bononcini)
Mural painted by FAILE for WIEDEN+KENNEDY
August 2007
-Dancers: Heather Treadway and DIRK Kinsey
SO WE COULD DEAL
Music By Tender Forever / Melanie Valera (CD/LP "Wider" on K records)
Film Directed by Bangandblurry (justin lowe and briana bononcini) At Wieden+Kennedy
August 2007
MY LOVE - (Tender Forever covering Justin Timberlake)
My Love (Inrocks Session 12) - Film in Paris on the 26th of September 2007
"Tender Forever comes along in tough times. Nobody can ignore the dark places we've watched the world go in the past few years. But as divisions grows in the world, so does our ability to connect. Ours is a world exploding with communication and Tender Forever sits neatly in the center of that explosion. Lots of flights and some missed phone calls, friends here, lovers there. Missed connections and connections made. Melanie Valera's Franco- American pop project spans nationalities and leaps forward towards a world where we can close the gaps between countries, ideologies and ultimately hearts. Move closer.
Valera was born in 1977, the year of the punk, and spent her formative years in the village of Maurr, in south west France. As often happens, this small town kid pushed past the restrictions of that kind of environment, out into the larger world. In this case the city of Bordeaux and the University Michel de Montaigne of Arts. Her years in Bordeaux saw her developing an aesthetic that would transfer into her first musical projects the Bonnies, and later, Garrison Rocks. Armed with Girl Group and R&B classics The Bonnies took on the streets of Bordeaux, and with the partnership of a Californian band mate and intelligent, soulful pop Garrison Rocks took on Melanie's expanding world.
Tender Forever became Melanie's project in 2003, a solo effort which simplified and concentrated her music. A laptop, a long mic cord and almost too much enthusiasm was all it took. Tender Forever from the start was as much an experience as a band. That girl with the mic moves with passion, pounds out fear, falls to her knees, cranks up the visuals and passes it off to you. All of this quickly led her out of Bordeaux to the gentle state of Washington and weird, weird city of Olympia. New friends and collaborators of a like mind, including Mirah, The Blow, Anna Oxygen and Calvin Johnson kept it a busy summer. These new connections would be the beginning of a Northwest/Bordeaux connection sending bands back and forth, and further establishing Melanie's new intercontinental artistic life.
The Soft and the Hardcore, released by K in 2005 was the culmination of everything Melanie had done up to this point and then some. Songs sung in the tiny moments of waiting, hoping and loving that we experience each day, fleshed out in full color and life. The explicitly personal and ecstatically universal rolled into one, filled with the power of international anthems. The Soft and the Hardcore is a testament to the terrifying and trilling first moments of love and self realization.
With her 2007 release, Wider, Melanie stretched out across both the globe and an expansive musical landscape. The album was recorded between Bordeaux and Olympia in the Dub Narcotic studio, hotel rooms, friend's basements and guestrooms. Both lush and focused, Wider portrays an artist and person with new confidence, at home in a big/small world. For all their power Tender Forever songs remain just that; tender. A song is a delicate thing and Melanie coaxes these fragile things into the larger world. Tender Forever is the biggest, softest sound you've heard. It's a kick drum in an empty warehouse while little kids play right outside.
For every connection we make there is a darkness waiting. The darkness of the unknown, the fear of transgression. When these connections we're all making and the risks that they bring catch up with us, we're left only with pushing forward. Melanie says it best, Get on the plane it's too late, We'll decide now if it's fate. No one will tell no one for sure, we're just lovers feeling unsure. All that insecurity just keeps us going, following tenderness out into a bursting new world."
Hola guapa (my only Spanish), ore in the Netherlands we would say Hallo charmant meisje, witch is not so much fun if your from the states couse Hello and Hallo are almost similar anyway, your fast very impressive.
And hope to see your show in the Netherlands one day.
Thanks for the add. Now I can make public what I wrote you on June 21th: "Yesterday I fell in love with you... even I understand you prefere Beyoncé!! :-) Seriously... I go to many concerts every month. There was long time that I have not seen an "artist" that can apply this word in a so wide sense. Your concert (Sonar) was SO GREAT that I needed to give you thanks for this exciting hour of my life (and thanks to Sonar to put you on stage... as I have never had listen about you until then). And let me say also that you look so tender as your "battle name". Really impressed. Un beso." E
hi melanie, je suis tout simplement degoûtée que ton concert à paris ait été annulé, dégoûtée aussi de ne pas avoir été à Bordeaux lorsque tu y étais. La seule que je peux maintenant espérer, c'est un retour aux sources. Alors à quand un concert dans les Landes??? Bonne continuation, et surtout profites bien des States!
Apparemment t'as signé un "autographe" (ouahou la classe) pour moi ce matin. J'ai une amie qui sait que j'aime ta musique et qui a fait une émission de radio avec toi apparemment, et qui a donc pensé à te demander ça ^^. Bin merci pour l'autographe !
Salut salut! Merci pour l'ajout comme on dit par ici. Je vais redire ce qui a été dit précédemment, mais concert bien sympa au son'art! Par contre, si je peux me permettre, grosse faute de gout: rhianna est carrément plus sex que bihoncé!!
Bon, si t'as cinq minutes entre deux concerts, jette un coup d'oeil au myspace de l'asso duquel je t'écris, ce serait un plaisir d'avoir la chance de te programmer l'année prochaine si cela te dis... Bonne continuation musicale en espérant que ton avion pour les USA décolle sans problème...
Merci pour l'ajout!! Toujours aussi bien ce que tu fais... Vraiment bravo! Je t'ai vu filer sur ton vélo dans les rues de Bordeaux, du coup je suis venu faire un tour sur ton myspace et jsuis pas déçue :-) Tu fais de très bonnes choses!!!