Born from Oxford’s famously close-knit and innovative artistic community, Chad Valley’s musical ambition has always stretched far beyond the context of its creation. Early EPs Chad Valley and Equatorial Ultravox were produced in the now-26-year old Hugo Manuel’s bedroom, but conveyed the exotic flair fit for the early hours at a paradisiacal island nightspot, with a whopping soundsystem-appropriate dynamic to boot. The thoroughly modern pop producer is now about to release his debut solo album as Chad Valley, and it’s considerably more consummate than most first outings. Knock-out production, a unique set of influences, unbelievable guest singers: Young Hunger is about having the fire and strength to realise your intentions.

“It’s an ‘80s record in every sense,” says Hugo. “Overdue, over-budget…!” Self-deprecation aside, Chad Valley emerged in late 2010 into a backwards-looking scene that tended to emulate their influences by coating their own music in a layer of dust. “There came a point where there was so much music like mine that was shoddily produced,” says Hugo. “It contradicted the records being cited – ‘80s pop albums that are meticulously produced, really big-sounding and precise. There’s no room for hiss and noise on those records.”

To ensure that Young Hunger lived up to the pristine scale of its transatlantic influences – finding kindred sounds in proto-boyband New Edition, the New Jack Swing movement, the productions of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and classic British acts such as Prefab Sprout, Tears for Fears and Thomas Dolby – Hugo went into a professional studio, working with a producer for the first time. The result is a euphoric gem that blends unusual songwriting sensibilities with inviting, major key arrangements.

“The record started taking shape when I went away for a week and got some ideas down in the mountains in Norway, back in November 2011,” says Hugo. “Then I found Jonathan Shakhovskoy, who has made records with artists like Shakira and Patrick Wolf – that’s why I wanted to go with him, because he’s got a lot of experience with proper pop. We took the ideas that I wrote and roughly recorded in my bedroom to Evolution Studios in Oxford, and made them sound super big.”

“I wanted to challenge myself with something new,” Hugo states firmly. “I always get quite restless. I wanted to recreate sounds, really get into the synthesis side of things – most of the songs on the album feature a certain synth, the PPG Wave, which I have become obsessed by.”

Given the calibre of the guest vocalists and their tremendous parts on Young Hunger, it’d prove little surprise if their parts ended up being sampled by other producers further down the line. “I’d made all these connections over the last couple of years, performing as Chad Valley,” Hugo explains, “and I wanted to make it more than just about me.” His lyrics and vocals on earlier Chad Valley releases were mostly guided by sound and feel rather than meaning; for his debut, Hugo honed his lyric writing, for a collection that tackles tentative transitions into adulthood, the changing phases of a relationship, and “feeling young, but not being so young any more.”

The album opens with ‘I Owe You This’, featuring Twin Shadow, who Hugo had previously toured with in the UK. It’s a nervous love song, where Hugo carefully places his heart on the line, and George Lewis Jr. skirts caddishly around it. “His persona is definitely very different to mine, so I thought he would fit in there – his part is about wanting someone, but being too much of a lothario to admit to it.” Lewis Jr. recorded his part remotely, as did El Perro Del Mar for the classy, fraught ‘Evening Surrender’ – a coup for Hugo, who credits the Swedish Sarah Assbring’s first record as “changing the way I listened to music.” A three-week tour of the States with Active Child led to Pat Grossi recording a part for the celestial closing track, ‘Manimals’.

Hugo’s perpetual touring kept pushing the recording of Young Hunger back and back – he was asked to tour with Friendly Fires and SBTRKT, Active Child and Twin Shadow, he played Japan and China, and spent a surreal week around shows in LA hanging out with his American label boss’ then-girlfriend, Paula Abdul. Whilst she was sadly unable to appear on the record, Hugo’s world wanderings led to some serendipitous meetings that did make the album. In New York, two days before he was due to fly home after a tour, a call came in saying that Glasser had accepted Hugo’s request for her to sing on one of his tracks, and that she could record her part the following day: Cameron Mesirow and Hugo went on to record ‘Fall 4 U’ in a Brooklyn studio. In the hours before Hugo played Oslo’s Oya Festival last August, he met up with Anne Lise Froekdal of Harry’s Gym to record the fragile, Oriental ballad, ‘Fathering/Mothering’ – which he’d only written on the plane over to Norway.

Back at home in Oxford, Hugo tapped up some old friends for the remaining guest-starring songs on the record: Jack Goldstein of Fixers takes the vocals on ‘My Girl’, which Hugo refers to as “the ultimate sugary pop song, perfect for Jack,” and Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs’ Orlando Higginbottom sings on the blooming ‘My Life is Complete’. Members of the blossoming Blessing Force, the OX4 art collective in which Hugo is a prominent member, made the record’s beautifully lit artwork.

Young Hunger may be full of fancy jewels sourced from across the globe, but it’s a personal record at heart. “I spend all my time making music,” says Hugo. “I’m also doing a sideline in some house music at the moment, and planning the next Jonquil tour,” he says of the tropical pop band that he fronts when not busy as Chad Valley. It’s this rare ambition, clarity of vision, and innovative impulse that’s made Young Hunger so essential, a modern, human dance pop record without boundaries.

Chad Valley – Tell All Your Friends by chadvalley

Discography:

S/T EP – Cascine (US / UK), Maman (EU) November 2010

Remix EP – Maman (EU) December 2010

Split LP – Rallye (Japan) May 2011

Equatorial Ultravox – Cascine (US) Co-Op (UK / EU / Australia) June 2011

Shell Suite -  Co-Op (UK / EU / Australia) September 2011

Equatorial Ultravox + bonus disc repack – Rallye (Japan) November 2011

Download Chad Valley tech rider here.