Q&A: Thee Invention on Channeling Their “Evil Nirvana” and the Struggles of Independent Bands
WRITTEN BY HAILEY VALDIVIA
✮ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✩
Music is part of the DNA of Thee Invention's members; for over 20 years, they have been an independent band steadily making music and performing locally in and around the greater Los Angeles area. The band is a family affair, being composed of three brothers, Anthony Valdivia, Michael Valdivia and Eddie Valdivia.
Growing up in a house where music was always present, it turned their curiosity into a need to create music, not just listen to it. Since then, they’ve built a sound that refuses to fit neatly into one box.
Thee Invention, as a band, has been through a couple of iterations of the lineup. Anthony Valdivia is the main singer and plays the guitar; Eddie Valdivia is the oldest and sings backup and plays the guitar. The brothers say that it wouldn’t be fully formed until the youngest brother and the drummer of the band, Michael Valdivia, joined the group. That’s when it clicked.
Read our full conversation with Thee Invention below.
✮ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✩✮ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✩✮ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✩
LIFE ON JUPITER: Can you tell me a little about your background: where you’re from, how you got into music, what has influenced your sound?
ANTHONY VALDIVIA: Well, our grandfather was a musician. He played everything: sax and guitar. We're always surrounded by music. I don't know if that's the reason why we love it so much.
EDDIE VALDIVIA: It feels like we all came from the same place: The Beatles.
AV: But from the earliest, all I can remember is hearing the Beatles and feeling like that's exactly what I wanted to be doing. I never really saw anything else that I wanted to do. And then that changed after Nirvana came out. Then I really, really felt like, “Oh man, that's what I really wanted. I could really do this.” They had more chaos.
Through all those iterations of the band, it was always just me and him [Eddie]. Everyone was always in and out: drummers, bass players, other guitar players. Until Mike said that he wanted to play and he said he wanted to play drums. That was it. That was the final piece.
EV: That’s where it all started. “Shiny Pins” was one of the first songs that we wrote. Very evil Nirvana.
For being a band that has been together for so long, how has the local landscape changed?
AV: Every day, all I see is “Oh, if you want to do this, you got to be on TikTok, and you got to post 500 things a day on Instagram.” At some point, it’s blind faith. The music will speak for itself. But at the end of the day, we accomplished what we wanted to musically. Obviously, it’s not the peak of where we want.
What does an independent artist look like? Do you guys all share the responsibilities of producing a record, not just sonically, but the backend stuff too, such as the artwork?
AV: We do all of that. It’s basically just, “Okay, who’s gonna record us?” With the new one, Whales, that was more of a collective thing because the engineer was the one who was loosely producing it with us, but he got what we were doing, so it was a lot easier. But as far as artwork and producing, it’s us. You have to be able to wear all of those hats.
EV: We’re always the producers. It’s really just feeling comfortable with who’s gonna record us.
Can you walk me through the process of making a song/an album? What comes first, the music or the lyrics?
AV: It’s always the music. I was reading a book by Ed Warren, the demonologist. I got halfway, and I had to put it down because I was so inspired. Nothing that had to do with the context of the book or anything, but I was just so inspired by their words, and I wrote maybe 10 or 15 songs, and I still haven’t finished the book. And it’s the same thing with documentaries: when someone says something, I run away and you won’t see me for a while because I’m writing something. It only takes one word or one feeling.
EV: It’s crazy. It’s like magic.
Since you guys are brothers, does that affect the way you make music? Do you think it’s easier to share that part of yourself with them?
AV: It can be. I write what comes out, and I always want to write stuff that's different. I don't like to repeat myself, but I'm also trying subconsciously to impress them. I don't know if that could be a good thing or a bad thing or edgy. It’s definitely not a bad thing.
What song off of your latest album Whales are you most proud of?
MICHAEL VALDIVIA: I’m gonna go with “Mother Misery.”
EV: The honorable mention, “Red on Spectre”. I heard [Anthony] playing the riff, and when I was going to wash, and he was in his room plpaying his riff, and I remember thinking like, "What the fuck is that?” I'm like, "Dude, I hope that's ours. That is one of ours. He's not learning someone else's song.” I love that song.
What would you guys want your listeners to take away from your music?
EV: I guess the same thing I take away from it. It’s not necessarily what the person was feeling when they wrote it, but whatever it makes the listener feel at the time, whatever that means, whatever that is, and whatever it means to you, and I hope it makes you feel something.
