Canadian Band Valley is Full of Praise for When Chai Met Toast’s Cover of Their Song ‘Throwback Tears’
The Kerala folk/indie group have added an acoustic touch to the pop song
Canadian band Valley (left) and Kerala indie-folk outfit When Chai Met Toast (right). Photos: Courtesy of the artists
Recently Kerala folk/indie group When Chai Met Toast released an acoustic-leaning cover of Canadian band Valley’s 2023 single “Throwback Tears,” off their forthcoming sophomore album Lost in Translation.
While the original version is a quintessential pop track, When Chai Met Toast’s rendition is filled with lush acoustic guitar parts, gentle percussion touches and breezy vocals. Speaking about how the band discovered Valley, vocalist Ashwin Gopakumar says, “We were first introduced to Valley by our producer Vivek [Thomas]. We love to play [their music] on drives and introduce others to it.”
Valley are also fans of When Chai Met Toast and were thrilled that the Indian group covered their song. Vocalist Rob Laska says, “It’s a beautiful thing that we get to connect with artists around the world [in this digital age]. It breeds so much creativity and collaboration that wouldn’t be possible 10 or 20 years ago. At least not to the extent that is possible now. We can only imagine that before the internet, we would have never crossed paths with When Chai Me Toast.”
According to When Chai Met Toast, they’ve never been the kind of band to play too many covers. However, they took it upon themselves as a challenge to work on “Throwback Tears.” Guitarist Achyuth Jaigopal says, “It sounded fresh, and the way the original song was produced and arranged was very different from something we’d usually do, so it gave us scope to experiment and try something new. We played around with the instrumentation a bit and tried to give it some of our flavor.”
With this cover bringing both bands closer, we ask them if they ever plan on working together in the future. Laska says, “I mean, it’s possible. If the universe presents the right song and it all lines up, I don’t see why not.” When Chai Met Toast’s keyboardist Palee Francis adds, “Hopefully we will get to meet in person real soon, maybe when we do a Canada show or when Valley plans an India tour.”
Currently When Chai Met Toast have a busy schedule lined up. The band have an EP that is due to be out soon and are also going to be touring the U.K. and U.S. in May and June, followed by an India tour later in the year. “We have a bunch of [new] songs ready, which we can’t wait for the world to hear,” says drummer Pai Sailesh. As for Valley, they are gearing up to release Lost in Translation and are also prepping for their upcoming North America tour. Laska says, “We never stop writing and working on music. We’re obsessed with it. Album three or whatever we do next is already slowly taking shape day by day.”
Stream When Chai Met Toast’s cover of Valley’s “Throwback Tears” below:
