Hunter Valentine is an

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band formed in 2004 in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. Hunter Valentine have a moderate fan base in

southern Ontario Southern Ontario is a primary region of the province of Ontario, Canada, the other primary region being Northern Ontario. It is the most densely populated and southernmost region in Canada. The exact northern boundary of Southern Ontario is disp ...

History

The current members of Hunter Valentine are Kiyomi McCloskey, Laura Petracca, Leanne Bowes and Aimee Bessada. They signed with

True North Records True North Records is a Canadian independent record label. History True North Records was founded in Mississauga, Ontario in 1969 by Bernie Finkelstein. By 1971, True North was producing albums for various Canadian musicians, including Bruce ...

in fall 2006, and released their first full-length album, The Impatient Romantic, on April 10, 2007. Hunter Valentine has also been the staff band at Buck's Rock Performing and Creative Arts Camp in

New Milford, Connecticut New Milford is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The town is in western Connecticut, north of Danbury, on the banks of the Housatonic River, and it shares its border with the northeastern shore of Candlewood Lake. It is t ...

. In the fall of 2009, the band recorded a self-funded 7 song album with Ian Blurton after they were released by True North Records. The band traveled to NYC numerous times hoping to attract attention from labels, and signed with Tommy Boy shortly after. In 2010, they released an EP titled ''"Lessons From The Late Night",'' which released in Canada on April 17, and then released worldwide on May 11 of the same year. In 2012, Hunter Valentine's tour was documented on Season 3 of the television series

The Real L Word ''The Real L Word'' is an American reality television series aired on the cable station Showtime, where it premiered on June 20, 2010. The show was created by executive producer Ilene Chaiken and Magical Elves Productions, following the succes ...

on Showtime. They were the opening act for

Cyndi Lauper Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper Thornton (born June 22, 1953) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and activist. Her career has spanned over 40 years. Her album ''She's So Unusual'' (1983) was the first debut album by a female artist to achi ...

in 2013 on the North American leg of the She's So Unusual: 30th Anniversary Tour. In July 2014, Hunter Valentine joined the lineup for traveling rock festival

Vans Warped Tour The Warped Tour was a traveling rock tour that toured the United States plus three or four stops in Canada annually each summer from 1995 until 2019. It was the largest traveling music festival in the United States and the longest-running touring ...

, and was featured on VH1's '' Make or Break: The Linda Perry Project'' that same summer.

Members

Kiyomi McCloskey

Kiyomi McCloskey is the lead

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

and

vocalist Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

in the band Hunter Valentine. She has cited

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay ...

Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...

Robert Johnson Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generati ...

Lucinda Williams Lucinda Gayle Williams (born January 26, 1953) is an American singer-songwriter and a solo guitarist. She recorded her first two albums: '' Ramblin' on My Mind'' (1979) and '' Happy Woman Blues'' (1980), in a traditional country and blues style ...

and

Janis Joplin Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American singer and musician. One of the most successful and widely known Rock music, rock stars of her era, she was noted for her powerful mezzo-soprano vocals and "electric" stage ...

as influences. McCloskey was featured on the third season of the series

, a lesbian based TV show on Showtime.

Laura Petracca

Laura Petracca is the

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one mem ...

in Hunter Valentine. She began playing

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

at a very young age, and competed successfully in many local drum competitions. She was inspired by many

classic rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, primar ...

and

grunge rock Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle sound) is an alternative rock genre and subculture that emerged during the in the American Pacific Northwest state of Washington, particularly in Seattle and nearby towns. Grunge fuses elements of p ...

artists.

Leanne Bowes

Leanne is the newest bassist for Hunter Valentine, joining in early 2013.

Lisa Bianco

Lisa Bianco plays the guitar and keyboard and joined the band in 2014.

Past members

Aimee Bessada

Aimee played

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

and

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

in the band. She left Hunter Valentine during the course of the production of ''Make or Break: The Linda Perry Project'' in 2014.

Adrienne Lloyd

Adrienne Lloyd began her musical career at a young age. She studied many bass types, but particularly the

upright bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

performance. She is a classically trained

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a Bass (instrument), bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboar ...

Somer Bingham

Somer Bingham plays

and

. She met Kiyomi when her band shared a bill with Hunter Valentine at a venue in the East Village in 2008. Somer also fronts her own project, Clinical Trials, a grunge/punk/electro duo based in Brooklyn.

Veronica Sanchez

Veronica, aka Vero, left Hunter Valentine earlier in 2013. She played bass guitar.

Touring Bands

They have toured

Southern Ontario Southern Ontario is a primary region of the province of Ontario, Canada, the other primary region being Northern Ontario. It is the most densely populated and southernmost region in Canada. The exact northern boundary of Southern Ontario is disp ...

with bands such as,

The Cliks ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

Dragonette Dragonette is the stage name of Canadian singer-songwriter Martina Sorbara. Originally an electronic music band from Toronto, Ontario, formed in 2005, the band consisted of Sorbara with her husband Dan Kurtz as bassist and producer (also in The ...

Kids on TV Kids on TV was a Canadian punk- house queercore band from Toronto, active from 2003 to 2013. The group consisted of John Caffery on bass and vocals, Minus Smile on drums, electronics and vocals, Chris 'Wolf' Mills on guitar and vocals, and Roxan ...

, Kelly and the Kelly Girls, Scandalnavia, Clothes Make the Man, Dead Letter Dept.,

Hexes and Ohs Hexes & Ohs is a Canadian electronic indie pop group from Montreal, Quebec. Their sound combines 1980s inspired beats and synthesizer sounds with indie pop structures and melodies. They have released three albums since 2005 and have opened for m ...

, Drowning Girl, Love Kills, Dance Yourself to Death, Sam Roberts, Sick of Sarah, Social Code, and Queen Caveat. In 2012 they toured with

Sum 41 Sum 41 is a Canadian rock band from Ajax, Ontario. Originally called Kaspir, the band was formed in 1996 and currently consists of Deryck Whibley (lead vocals, guitars, keyboards), Dave Baksh (lead guitar, backing vocals), Jason "Cone" McCas ...

and IAmDynamite, and in 2013 they toured with Cyndi Lauper as her opening act in North America.

Discography

Album

*'' The Impatient Romantic'' (2007) *''Collide and Conquer'' (2012)

EP

* Hunter Valentine EP *''Lessons From The Late Night'' (2010) *''The Pledge'' (2016)

Music videos

References

External links

Love, sex and rock ‘n’ roll with Hunter Valentine
- TorontoMusicScene.ca
Hunter Valentine official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunter Valentine Musical groups established in 2004 Canadian alternative rock groups Musical groups from Toronto All-female bands 2004 establishments in Ontario