PR-029 - Val Denham with Farmacia – The Devil Knows Your Name Now - CD

The Devil Knows Your Name Now was originally meant to be a solo Val Denham project, but eventually I had so much musical input from Ariel and Diego Sima, of the Argentinian band Farmacia , that I felt that I should add their name to mine as the joint creators of this album. Why do I work with Farmacia? Because they are brilliant collaborators, which means that they are a pleasure for me to work with. They can play their instruments much better than I can. And by instruments, I mean real instruments such as trumpets, piano and traditional acoustic instruments. They also play synthesizers and other modern electronic equipment. They have an innate understanding of my shadowy melancholic undertones and my need for artistic experimentation.

I usually begin each song with a rhythm track and add some synthesizer so that I have the basic structure and feel for the compositions, then I ask Farmacia to make their important additions. I tell them how I feel it should sound; this is the complex bit, as we will do countless alternative takes until it sounds just like it does in my head. We get there in the end, but it is a long and intricate process and they are endlessly patient and always professional with me. I really wanted this album to be beautiful. I wanted to sing as well as I could this time.

I think that this one might be considered a concept album. The tracks and their order all seem to connect to each other, starting off with the psychotic yet optimistic track Dust Devils Spin on Mars with its extended jazz opening.

Gradually The Devil Knows Your Name Now becomes darker, from the heat of the desert to the darkest doubts of the subconscious and murder. This is to illustrate the metaphorical idea that The Devil Knows Your Name Now. It poses the question, what did you do that was so wrong? How did it all go so bad? Will you be redeemed in time?

-Val Denham, 2019

Val Denham with Farmacia – The Devil Knows Your Name Now
Tracklist :
01 – Dust Devils Spin on Mars
02 – Francis Farmeresque
03 – Everybody loves me now
04 – Bride of the atom
05 – Poison from the far side
06 – Apple Tree
07 – Angel of Death ( instro )
08 – Dear Louise
09 – Venus Castina
10 – Black Dahlia
11 – Night will cover you
12 – Here comes the Storm
13 – The Devil knows your Name now
14 – I’m so Shallow