Chris Nicolaou, a young, rising musician who you will know by his stage name ‘Valence Music’ and by his unique voice, recently released his new single “Never Meant”.
The music talent is in Chris’ family blood, as he states, his dad who is an amazing singer was in a Greek band back in the day in Cyprus before meeting his mum, and his talented sister also sings in a few cover bands. “We’d listen to Stelios Kazatzidis and Manolis Aggelopoulos and sing along in the car or family parties. So it’s in the blood. I started producing music first and then went into singing. Then I was like, why don’t I just do both?” Chris recalls.
At the age of 10, Chris’ mum surprised him with tickets to his first ever concert to see his favourite singer still to this day, Kaiti Garbi. “The first time I saw her was when she performed at the Eurovision Song Contest for Greece back in 1993. I fell in love and I was only 5 then!” As for his favourite English singer, Chris says it is Lady Gaga as “she’s very talented and electric. She can nail every genre with confidence. Her voice is incredible.”
Chris’ life has always been influenced by his Greek Cypriot heritage. He speaks Greek, went to Greek school for 12 years and states, “The Saturday morning sacrifices were all worth it.”
Recently, the young musician moved to Sweden to pursue his music career there, as he notes “the Swedish music pop scene is amazing. It’s also made it easier to be closer to Panik Records in Greece, which is a massive bonus.”
For Chris, the recording studio process is quite different since he produces and records his tracks in his bedroom. “My process is quite different to other artists I think, where I produce my songs first. They’re just instrumental tracks. Then I write the lyrics over the tracks and finally sing over them. That’s how my new track “Never Meant” came to be!”
As for the inspiration behind his latest single, Chris noted that he didn’t know where the lyrics came from at the time of writing the song, “However, after completing the lyrics, I realised that this is actually how I felt after a recent breakup. We were only dating for a short while and we had a positive mutual break up. My sub-conscious mind, however, was thinking a bit differently and the lyrics you hear in ‘Never Meant’ were actually exactly how I felt. We were never meant to be, and I’ll be alone again and that is perfectly fine. It’s a males perspective at being vulnerable. Not many males speak of feelings so I would like for males to feel more comfortable in talking about their feelings with others,” Chris said.
A huge highlight in the career of ‘Valence Music’ has been the recent signing to Panik Records in Greece. In 2014, he also performed in Cyprus on the Eurovision Song Project, a competition that was televised on RIK TV, which would determine who would represent Cyprus and perform at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest. He sung his original track ‘Scared’ and out of 100 or so artists, he came top 20.
Chris’ dream is to perform at the Eurovision Song Contest, representing Greece, Cyprus or Australia. “I would like to perform as the artist with an original track or write and produce for another artist to perform at the contest. That would be wild!” he exclaimed.
His ultimate goal though is to work in the music industry as an artist and as a producer. “I would love to work with many artists and write for them…It’s all about the music and being respected by your fellow peers,” he continued.
In 5 years time, the talented musician who has a bright future ahead noted that he “would absolutely love to be working with the top Greek artists of today, for example, Eleni Foureira or Demy, and English-speaking artists also. I would love to have my own studio and ongoing artists that would want me to help them create their songs! Signing with Panik Records is only the beginning of an awesome journey for me.”
You can listen to his latest track ‘Never Meant’ and other releases here:
