By Lorina B.
Youth Valley return with “cerberus”, the first single from their upcoming album As Passive Aggressive As It Gets, set for release this fall. The track focuses on human relationships and the frustration that builds when attempts to fix things fail.
Formed in Athens in 2019, Youth Valley consists of Joseph Powell (vocals, guitars), George V (guitars) and Dean Jola (drums, percussion), with Aki Rei (guitars, keys) and Alex Bolpasis (bass) contributing to the new album. Their sound blends post punk, shoegaze, and dreamy pop, with layered guitars and a more restrained vocal style.
They first released a self titled three track EP in 2020, which included “Young Sad Lovers”, later aired on BBC Radio 6 Music. Since then, they have performed at events such as Athens Release Festival, Death Disco Open Air Festival and Syd Sessions.
Their debut album Lullabies For Adults, released in 2023, dealt with themes of isolation, growing up and relationships. The new album reflects a point where emotions that have built up over time “explode in every direction”, with themes of internal conflict and emotional tension present throughout.
We spoke with Joseph about “cerberus”, the upcoming album and the ideas behind it.
Your new single “cerberus” feels emotionally raw. What pushed you to write this song?
Joseph: Thank you for listening to our song, first of all! The emotional “rawness” of this track has been a major source of inspiration and motivation for the album as a whole.
The song itself is about human relationships, and how trying to fix things and failing can make you feel angry and then desperate—something that, in the end, doesn’t help anyone at all.
To be completely honest, I felt this way with my bandmates on many occasions last year, so my thoughts and emotions are directly imprinted on the composition and lyrics.
Cerberus is usually portrayed as a terrifying creature from mythology, but the single’s cover art presents a cute three-headed puppy instead. What idea were you trying to express with that contrast?
Joseph: This might sound funny, but this is how I see our band—the three core members who started this (me, George, and Dean). We have a very rare—at least in my opinion—musical communication when it comes to composing for Youth Valley.
It comes very naturally to all three of us, as if the ideas come from the same person—hence the symbolism of one body with three heads.
Also—and I feel this is very much connected to that—I think all three of us have a soft and emotional side that is also quite cute. We’re fully in touch with our tender and caring selves, which is why I felt that a puppy version of Cerberus would be very appropriate.
The contrast between the fierce, three-headed guardian dog and its puppy version is also one of the many contradictions you can find throughout the album—mainly inspired by the difference between how we feel and how we act, and how that often comes across as passive-aggressive behavior.
In the lyrics you sing “we are all slaves to our family’s wishes”. Similar ideas appear in earlier songs like “Untouched” and “Father Forgets”. Do you see family expectations as something people eventually escape from or something they carry forever?
Joseph: Considering that family expectations aren’t really the problem—but rather the way those expectations are imposed on a child—I have to admit that, much like trauma, this is something very difficult to escape from. In most cases, it’s something we carry with us forever.
It doesn’t help that family and society are two very powerful forces in a person’s life, both trying to shape you from childhood into adulthood.
However—and this might be a life’s work, really—through sharing, acceptance, and channeling these experiences into the right outlets (such as art), along with a generous amount of therapy and self-reflection, I believe we can learn to work our way around it.
Your previous album Lullabies For Adults explored themes like isolation, adulthood, and fragile relationships. With As Passive Aggressive As It Gets, do you see the new record as continuing that emotional story, or moving into a different space?
Joseph: Sometimes I see this project as a person who has been growing through every EP or LP, living its own childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Lullabies For Adults represents the transition from adolescence into adulthood—the questioning (“why is this happening?”) followed by the realization of how things actually work in the real world.
In As Passive Aggressive As It Gets, I see this person deep in it—hitting rock bottom and acting out. It’s like you’ve been piling up emotions coming at you from every direction for years, and now you just explode in every direction, because you realize that if you don’t, you’ll keep swallowing everything and eventually destroy yourself from the inside.
Honesty, mistakes, forgiveness, self-hatred, rage, and destruction are all very present in this album, yet they’re expressed the way someone would who is only now learning how to handle these emotions—hence, passive-aggressive.
It’s something we see all around us, every day. This isn’t a special person—it could be me, you, our neighbors, anyone. This isn’t a unique philosophical concept; it’s just… us.
While working on the new album, did you explore any sounds or ideas you had not tried before as a band?
Joseph: Yes—actually, a lot. This time, we spent a lot of time building a wall of fuzz guitars to satisfy our taste for noise and the way we would express it. We also allowed everything to sound more aggressive and less “pop”—from drums to vocals—with no hesitation, as long as it felt honest and true to each song’s emotional core.
Another new element is that the album includes a cover song.
Finally, we experimented with many more pedal combinations compared to Lullabies For Adults—three years ago, we barely used any.
Do you have a favourite moment from the studio while recording the new album?
Joseph: I actually have a handful of moments. All of them were from when we rented a small house by the sea for a few days—instead of going on vacation—to compose and record demos for the album. It felt like we were a family, working, cooking, eating, and just spending time together. It was only a few days, but I cherish every moment, as it felt like time froze and we were able to be our creative selves at 100%.
When you look back at Youth Valley from your early EP to the new album, what do you feel has changed the most in the band?
Joseph: This is a very difficult question to answer, for some reason. It feels like everything has changed. We’ve been through a lot and seen a lot since then—we’ve grown both mentally and musically.
Yet somehow, it also feels like we haven’t even started yet. So maybe that means something has stayed the same?
In any case, I feel that all of us have become better people—better friends, better musicians, better individuals. I think this is already finding its way into the music—and hopefully, it always will.
As Passive Aggressive As It Gets is set for release this fall, with “cerberus” offering the first glimpse into the album.
