Image credits: @hannahmariefilms Hannah Marie Belisle
Today we’d like to introduce you to Val Lowry-Ortega
Hi Val, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
When I was a little kid, my favorite thing to do was to listen to my father play the Cuatro (a Venezuelan instrument) and sing along to Somewhere Over the Rainbow. There’s an array of home-videos out in the ether somewhere of tiny me singing in talent shows, making music with my dad, performing in school musicals and choirs, and even making stop-motion claymations with my own original music.
I’m from Worthington, MN, and my mother is from Venezuela. We grew up crazy poor–sharing a 2 bedroom apartment as a whole family, and at times not even having running water. I think out of necessity, I became really creative and resourceful; my family couldn’t afford gaming systems, DVDs, or outings, so I learned how to create my own fun.
My love for performing and music was always present in my childhood, but it really grew when I changed schools to go to Perpich Arts High in Golden Valley. There, I really started to develop my voice as an artist, and I went on to study acting at a conservatory-style program.
Acting didn’t really feel like the right fit, and I found myself procrastinating my course work to learn old folk ballads on the guitar (songs popularized by Joan Baez, Dolly Parton, Joni Mitchell), and I started to really hone in on my songwriting. Post graduation, I moved to the twin cities, where I formed a band with some friends and other people I met along the way; this is how Oceanographer was born.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It definitely has been a bumpy road. As I mentioned, my childhood was really difficult and traumatic for a myriad of reasons, but growing up in poverty really colored my experience as an artist. When I started auditioning for acting programs, I was assured by the adults in my life (who were a bit out of touch with the reality of modern college costs) that I had the talent and drive to get a full ride at an acting conservatory. I did whatever I could to make this happen, and I succeeded to some degree, because NYU Tisch offered me a really generous scholarship. Even with the scholarship, attending was entirely out of reach. I worked long hours at the grocery store after school, but couldn’t even figure out a way to cough up the money for the plane ticket there.
That felt really discouraging; I realized that being an artist had a huge paywall, and I started to grow really resentful of my peers who had that financial support. Six figures of debt for a degree in the arts seemed like a foolish decision, so I opted for a program in Wisconsin instead.
It’s probably good that it didn’t work out with NYU anyway, because going through my acting program made me realize how off-path I was. I didn’t want to be told what to do by other people. I wanted to write my own work that I had full creative control over. So, I honed in on my songwriting and started playing small gigs with the folk punk community in Stevens Point. I introduced my first iterations of my songs in grimey basements littered with beer cans, but I finally felt like I was heading in the right direction, oddly enough.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a singer-songwriter and frontperson of a genre-expansive indie rock band. We make music that’s a cross between laurel canyon folk, 90s dream pop, and midwest emo. I would say we are for fans of artists like Faye Webster, Jeff Buckley, The Sundays, and Phoebe Bridgers. I specialize in transparent, but poetic lyrics that really evoke a sense of nostalgia and memory. I play guitar and utilize a lot of crazy alternate tunings and shoegazey voicings.
It’s been so fulfilling to play gigs around the city and have queer teens and early-20-somethings tell me that they relate to the stories in my songs. My hope is that my music can help someone make sense of their pain and trauma, and to help them know that they’re not alone. My music is for the emo kids who were bullied for being weird, the sapphics who dealt with homophobia in their small hometowns, and the kids whose parents weren’t really there, so they turned to relationships with older men with bad intentions.
I have been really proud of myself for finally putting my music out into the world in a permanent way; I am releasing my debut EP on May 23rd, Deep Sea Diver. I have always been a perfectionist, and while there are a few of my home-recorded songs floating around on the internet, this is the first iteration of my music that I am really proud of.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
We have some awesome shows coming up! We’ll be at Yellowbird Coffee on March 28th with Daphne Jane and Trevor McSpadden, 331 Club on April 1st with Eldest Daughter and Clayton Ryan, April 3rd at Underground Music Cafe with Green, and Once More Autumn, April 25th at Soft Cult Studios to raise money for our unhoused community, May 17th at Rochester Pride, and May 23rd at CanCan Wonderland to celebrate our EP release with Crush Scene and Bathtub Cig. We’d love to see everyone there, definitely come say hi after the show at the merch table! Also, give us a follow on insta @Ocean0grapher!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.oceanographerband.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ocean0grapher/%20facebook/
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/track/3F4aXDq7qEBRNyg4Oy4SxI?si=f08d906c1192408e
Image Credits
The individuals are by Hannah Marie Belisle
The band shots are by Sarah Steffen
