Lost Valentinos

Tue 4th Aug, 2009 in Features

Not-so-fresh from his stint at Splendour last weekend, Lost Valentinos frontman Nik Yiannikas lets us in on his dirty little secret. He accidentally missed headliners The Flaming Lips because he was otherwise occupied in the Cube tent. “I was too busy dancing!” he giggles. “I actually didn’t see as many bands as I should have. But I saw Friendly Fires and they were really cool. I’m still recovering from it all.”

Two years since their last EP Miles From Nowhere was released, the Sydney-based five-piece is preparing to release their debut full length album, Cities of Gold, this September. Playfully named after the early-eighties anime cartoon series, Mysterious Cities of Gold, the album is rich with references to the ancient Peruvian and Incan culture with which the boys have become well and truly fascinated. Fortunately, they found themselves with plenty of time to be inspired.

“Everyone knows now that the process was really drawn out,” Yiannikas admits when discussing the making of the Ewan Pearson -produced Cities of Gold. “We felt like we should record something and it was about time to do an album. And somewhere during that period, we realised that we were all really into that cartoon. We found it on YouTube and watched every episode back-to-back. Now we’ve got the box set. We just thought it’d be cool to incorporate that kind of artwork and the ancient Peruvian themes into the album. And Andrew and Pat [Santamaria ] have South American ancestry, so that gave it another dimension.”

And incorporate them they did. With nothing less than great aplomb, they armed themselves with a new genre “conquistadisco” (as coined by Pearson in their honour) and a handful of plucky spirit animals.

“They came to us in a dream,” Yiannikas tells me solemnly. “I think Jono’s jealous of mine because I got the jaguar.” It all called for an elaborate first film clip. For the album’s lead single, Serio, the band enlisted the expertise of director Dave Ma, whose resume includes the enthralling series of clips filmed with dynamic British quintet, Foals.

The beautifully-constructed, cinematic clip features a decorated Yiannikas and co. darting barefoot through sparse woodlands, huddled on expansive sand dunes, and submerged in a steamy fern-enclosed lake. “It only took one and a half days to shoot,” he reveals, “but it was a lot of work, and we didn’t get much sleep the whole time. I think the finished product shows how intense it was.”

Having lost themselves in a world of ancient South American imagery, Lost Valentinos began dabbling in fashion design. They collaborated with Melbourne-based streetwear label, Pigeon Combine, to design its recent Los Trece De La Fama collection. “Tim from Pigeon Combine is a friend of Andrew’s and we’ve known him for a little while. He noticed that the kind of stuff he was doing and the stuff that we were doing was coming to the same pass, with the ancient civilizations and Peruvian/Incan-type themes. So we thought we should collaborate; it just made sense. We gave him a few ideas about what we were doing and the themes we were surrounding ourselves with.”

As it turns out, the project was almost too successful. “We didn’t get any of them ourselves,” Yiannikas sighs. “They ended up selling extremely quickly, and they sold out before any of us could even get some. So we’re going to have to wait.”

And yet, despite appearances, it’s really not all Incan gold and tribal paint for Lost Valentinos as they continue through their winter Conquistadisco Tour this month. The upcoming clip for their follow-up single, Thief, is set to be the ultimate foil for Serio’s primitive bare-footed wilderness romp.

“It’s got a bunch of robots that we set on fire,” says a still-giggling Yiannikas. “The director found them on the Internet and ordered like fifty of them and then we got to destroy them all. It was pretty great.”

Cities Of Gold is out 9 September through Universal Music. Lost Valentinos are currently on a national tour, proudly presented by FasterLouder. These dates are still remaining.

Thu Aug 6 – Moth Presents @ Somabar, Brisbane
Fri Aug 7 – Neverland Bar, Gold Coast
Sat Aug 8 – The Woombye, Sunshine Coast (special guest line up of With I Heart Hiroshima, Ghostwood & DZ)
Thu Aug 13 – Karova Lounge, Ballarat
Fri Aug 14 – Roxanne Parlour, Melb
Sat Aug 15 – Club 4 Play, Geelong
Thu Aug 20 – The Harp, Wollongong
Fri Aug 21 – Club Academy, Canberra
Thu Aug 27 – Jive, Adelaide
Fri Aug 28 – Amplifier, Perth
Sat Aug 29 – Norfolk Hotel, Fremantle