During Valentina’s teen years, she embarked on trips to LA and began writing and recording in studios with established producers. However, it wouldn’t be until she was 19 when Valentina would introduce herself to the masses. In 2020, after waiting years for her moment, she dropped her debut single, “Seven,” a heartfelt piano ballad written about a wasteman she felt let down by. After resonating with listeners, attracting industry buzz, and gaining herself millions of streams, a self-titled four-track debut EP, released under Universal Music, quickly followed and flaunted her potential to rival the artists in the charts today. While making a name for herself, Valentina also wrote hits for Tiësto & Ava Max, as well as co-writing “Mantra” for JENNIE, of K-pop phenomenon BLACKPINK.

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July 2022 marked Valentina’s final release under her major label deal and saw the emerging star take a step back from the industry for over two years. Now, as a re-charged artist in full control, Valentina is back and more assertive than she’s ever been. Following singles “D&G” and “Diamonds On My Teeth,” Valentina is honouring her first release of 2025 with how she kicked things off — with a ballad titled “When I’m High.” In an exclusive interview with Principle, we learn more about the new material, why she disappeared, and her plan for the rest of the year. 

Let’s talk about your single “D&G,” which you released last year and was your first release in over two years. Did the song feel like a relaunch for you?

Yeah, I mean, in many ways because it had been a long time since I’d last released music. That song came after a big change and a lot happened. So yeah, it was a pretty big moment for the beginning of a new chapter.

What was it about the song that made you want it to be the first to be released? I assume you had many others to choose from.

I’ve spent the last couple years making a shit ton of music. I still wanted to work on the project more, and that one felt like it had lots of elements that gave a glimpse of what the project was gonna be like musically. The emotions were kind of more light and fun. I think it was a good way to start this new chapter because I didn’t want it to necessarily be straight into the darkness of this stuff I’ve been through. We’ll be getting into that this year [laughs].

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Some may say that two years is a long time to not release any new music, especially for a new artist still introducing themselves to audiences. What would you say the main cause was for the delay?

I’ve had a very long life in the industry, without people even knowing it. I’ve been doing it since I was literally 10 years old. It’s been a very long journey, and within that, I think I learned a lot of the artist lessons the hard way, which now I’m really grateful for. I think the fact that it did kind of fuck up my journey at the time, it turned out to be the best thing that happened to me. I did not release music because I was in a bad label deal. I left that label, I left my whole team, and I moved to Berlin. I was living in LA at the time and I was a complete mess because I have dedicated my life to music and everything just plummeted. I was just really lost. I didn’t really know how to move forward. It was a very big learning curve. Picking myself up from that point in my career forced me into really realising who I am and learning how to do everything myself. It took longer than I would’ve expected, but I kind of just lost track of time because I was so deep into making this project and the music that I make now as amazing as it could be. It’s been a long process, but I’m really happy that I did it because now I’m in a place where I feel like I’ve learned pretty much every lesson an artist can learn. It feels nice now that I can finally be able to release music again. I have an amazing team that I love.

Also, a lot of the artists we see today have been around many years before blowing up. Do you think the industry has started to recognise that?

Exactly. I also think people really recognise real artists. To me, that has been something that I’ve really been wanting to get across. All of the music is very real to me. It’s not just pop music or anything like that. It’s been my whole life and it’s a much deeper thing. I think that people like RAYE have really inspired me because she has put all of herself into her music and people can see that. You can’t get that without having done it for 10 years. There’s just no way around it. It’s the same as with life, you become a much more stronger, more amazing person the more shit you’ve been through and the longer you’ve lived. I think it’s the same with music. 

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And like RAYE, are you now releasing your music independently? 

I’m with Electric Feel and they’ve been pretty amazing because they’re a boutique situation. They are very chill but also extreme. They mostly focused on the music and the real actual work of being an artist. It’s not a label set up where they have no idea what they’re about. Music or artists, [Electric Feel] are very knowledgeable and very hands on in terms of really making a real thing. That’s where I’m at with the team. They’re really knowledgeable people instead of stupid music industry people. The team is in the studio with me watching as I make the stuff. Their guidance is actually worthwhile and they’re not just telling me to make TikToks all day. They’re actually bothered about the quality of the music. 

Your latest single, “When I’m High,” is your first ballad release since 2020. How long ago did you write this?

I’ve written a shit ton of ballads over the last couple of years and I think they progressively get more and more raw. I’ve wanted to say everything that I’m saying in these songs and the ones to come this year, but I was just always too nervous. I felt I had a lot of eyes on me because I was so young in the industry and I think that stopped me from doing all the shit that I should have done, which is writing songs that were actually very raw and not just trying to be raw. Now, I really don’t give a fuck about anything except the song and the message being exactly what I want it to say. I wrote “When I’m High” not that long ago in LA. What’s nice as well is that I’m making so much music constantly. In my old label deal, we’d decide on the song and then it would be like four years later where we’d actually released the song and I fucking hated the song by the time it was out. I would also be four years older, so I probably wrote the song when I was like 16 [laughs]. Now, I write a song and I’m like, ‘Fuck, maybe I wanna release this one next, let’s do that.’ The decisions are all mine now. It’s a lot more real. For this release, I basically was meant to release a more up-tempo one and then literally a week ago, I switched everything and the team that everyone was like, ‘What the fuck?’ We were shooting a music video this week, and I did the artwork two days before we had to hand it in, but I want people to know that I’m a singer and I feel a ballad would be the right vibe. 

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Do you approach writing ballads differently to an up-tempo? Is it a completely different kind of vibe in the studio? 

Yeah, for sure. Over the last two years, I’ve been really deep diving into my personality and my story and I basically just write down paragraphs of my thoughts. I then bring them into the studio or I record my vocals and write the songs by myself in the bathroom and then take it into the studio and record it. But sometimes, with ballads specifically, it’s a lot more thought out where I have paragraphs written and I bring in my diary to the studio and freestyle the melody with the lyrics. 

You launched your music career in 2020 at the height of the pandemic. What do you remember about that time now? Looking back, that must have been a huge shit show.

I just remember it being so fucked. I remember just being like, ‘Oh my God, I’ve waited however many years to release my first song.’ And then the first week of lockdown was when I released my first song and I did my first photoshoot on Zoom and all that stuff. But to be honest, I feel like I’ve had hilariously bad luck in my career, which is a ‘It is what it is’ type of vibe. I think everything happens for a reason. But yeah, that was definitely fucked [laughs].

How often do you reflect on your early material? Do you still like it?

No, I don’t. I like “Seven,” my first ballad. That one I think is a great song still. It’s a young me singing a very cute song. It’s so far away from who I am now. When I was first signed, I was so excited as it was my dream to be signed to a label. Everything was so exciting and I was down to just go with the flow, even though it was against probably what I would’ve done myself. I think the songs were just young me without the knowledge or artist expression that I have now, which is now two different people. 

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Interesting. I think “4:15” and “Extra Agenda” still pop off.

[laughs] Thank you. I haven’t even thought about those songs for a while. I mean, they’re not bad songs. I just haven’t listened to them since that time. Those songs are more wrapped in traumatising times for me [laughs].

Since coming back with new music, have your goals shifted or changed?

No, I’ve always had big goals. I’m a maniac when it comes to stuff like that as this is the only thing I’ve ever done and the only thing I’ve ever cared about. I still have the same exact goal for what I’m doing, but I think that I’m just doing it in a way that feels like it has the potential to have a long life in it. And I think that especially now, unless it’s a real authentic thing, people just see straight through it, and I think that is what is being shown with music nowadays as well. I love all music, I love every genre, but I’m most inspired by artists that really create a world for themselves and that have something about them that’s different. That’s what I’ve been building for the last couple years.

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It’s funny you say that because I was going to mention that. The last time we spoke, you referenced ROSALIA and Rihanna as two artists you admired because they do exactly that. Has anyone else come along that’s caught your eye over the past few years?

I’m very inspired by a lot of the artists that are happening right now, even if it is not similar to the music I make. Sabrina [Carpenter] and Chappell Roan, they are real artists. RAYE is also one of my absolute favourites because I think you can just see how much emotion she’s put into the project and how real it is to her and how much she’s worked on it. It’s such an amazing like body of work and I think that’s what is mostly inspiring to me nowadays.

You said you’ve been working on lots of new music over the past few years. Is the plan to keep releasing singles or is another project on its way?

My plan is to release a song pretty much like every six weeks. I wanna be super consistently dropping music because I’m making so much material. It is also so much easier now I know who I am or know what I wanna be making. I think the best way for that is just to be consistently releasing music for this world I wanna create for it to come to life. I haven’t decided if it’s an EP or an album yet, but it could be one or the other.

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What is the other material sounding like?

I wanted to make a sound that was like something I haven’t heard before. I have to work with people that know me really well because I will literally spend the whole day just listening to weird sounds until something sparks an idea. If something sounds like something someone else would be able to do or if I’ve heard it before, then I’ll switch off. I’ve been really trying to push myself and my boundaries by listening to all different types of music and mixing genres to create this music. It’s taken a lot of trial and error and playing around but still having a good time with it. I’ve really discovered what my identity is in the sounds of the music. The sound is a melting pot of different genres that’s made its own little world that now feels like I’ve got my life identity in that. It’s hard to explain, but it’ll make more sense when it all comes out.

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