Photography // Valid Point. – press.
Words by Josh Abraham.
The creative duo of Valid Point. Have always been producing music separately, but felt it was time to come together and they haven’t looked back since. Thad handles the music, whereas Jonah is all about the business and lyrics. These two have worked in harmony for a while and in this interview we learn more about what makes them tick.
You’re both brothers – what was it that made you go from creating projects separately to making music together?
Thad started making music when he was 12 years old. He would play guitar alone in his room for hours. Eventually, he started playing drums and learning how to produce. We both took piano when we were really young, and Jonah is starting to get back into that now. We had a project a few years back where we both did vocals, but we did not take the project very seriously. A couple years later, Thad was showing Jonah some ideas he had been working on, but we both did not want to put them out under the same project. Jonah was adamant about not being on any of the songs, but he wanted to help push the product and write lyrics where he could. Valid Point. was created and set up to both use our strengths. Jonah handles the business and writes, and Thad makes the music. This has made the workflow much smoother and quicker. We split everything even with our expenses, and agreed to put everything we make back into the music.
Listen to Valid Point. while reading the feature
What is easier to write about – happiness or pain?
Pain unfortunately. The cool part about writing about pain is that a lot of people can listen and relate to the music, and ultimately feel like they can connect and know they are not alone. We both fell in love with music for this reason. We were really big fans of Juice WRLD, and before that we really liked pop punk/emo music. We have always tried to find a way to fuse the two, hip hop and pop punk. Juice, Post Malone, and Iann Dior (amongst others) have helped bridge that gap. The happy part about making sad music is usually you can look back at what you wrote at that time and think “man, I am glad I am not there anymore”, and we hope listeners can feel the same way!
Thad, you live in Memphis, Jonah, you live in North Carolina, what’s the music scene like in those cities?
North Carolina did not really have a music scene that fit our vein (at least not in Raleigh, were we both lived). Now, you can see that DaBaby and obviously J. Cole came out of North Carolina and I am sure that a lot of hidden talent is out there too, but it just never fit our audience. Memphis has a pretty vibrant music scene. There is music all over the place. There have been a lot of big names that have come out of Memphis in the hip hop world like Moneybagg Yo, NLE Choppa, BlocBoy JB, and Tay Keith just to name a few. Memphis has a lot of grit and raw talent in it, and if you can stand out there, then you are definitely on the right track.
You’re both used to creating music at home/studio because of the distance between you, has the pandemic changed your music process or has it stayed the same?
It was nice working together in the studio because we could work on ideas on the spot or nip them if we needed to, but working remotely has been nice too. We are able to dwell on songs more and figure out if it is going in the right direction. It is also nice to be recording and have melody ideas and send them to Jonah for lyric ideas and move onto another song in the meantime. Being separated is tough, but it has helped us both open up to more vulnerable sides of music. It is easier to be alone with your emotions and put them on paper or into Logic than to expose yourself in front of your brother sometimes. The coronavirus sucks, but it locked Thad in his studio for months and now we are sitting on loads of unreleased music. We have some really cool stuff in the works!
Finally, when we’re out of this pandemic, what’s the first thing you’ll do?
Shows, shows, shows. We are eagerly waiting for this pandemic to go away so we can get in front of crowds, and show them what we can do live!
