Meet Vali, Rostrum Records' Resident Songstress

Rostrum Records is pretty much an independent rap mainstay at this point, responsible for the careers of both Wiz Khalifa and Mac Miller, and releasing some of the most successful independent albums in recent history. But among the label's small roster is a young singer that's trying to cement her stay on the front stage. Meet Vali, a classically trained musician turned Urban Pop songstress. I met Vali recently at a secret club house for Rostrum that Vali claims she owns (read: an empty restaurant in the East Village) and talked music, fashion, drugs, and ice cream.

Noisey: What's the origin of your name?

Vali: Vali comes from Valentina, which is actually my middle name. My first name is Kelly, so Kelly Valentina. And my mother calls me Vali all the time and it stuck. And When it came with my name with the label, they really liked Vali a lot.

You know your name is on construction site things?
Yeah, I've been getting that all the time! I don't know what it means!

You should co-opt it as a marketing plan.
That'd be dope. I'd be like, "that's me, my team did that."

What are your fashion rules? How do you go about picking an outfit?
Picking an outfit, I go for bright, I go for gold, usually. I like patterns. I love patterns. Like, I can do simple, but I'm all about patterns and colors. When jewelry's concerned, I'm very much an Italian grandma. I wanna wear it all. And I love like vintage styles too. I love like 50s mixed with 80s mixed with modern, if that makes any sense.

You've got a new album coming out?
Well, actually, last year I've been doing nothing but recording. So we have over 100 songs that we've recorded in the last year, and I'm releasing a single first that I dropped the other day. It's called Shut it Down.

You're born and raised in New York City, but I wouldn't associate your music with New York in particular.
I think that some of my songs definitely have a more New York sound. I think my beats do. I love heavy drums, heavy beats. But I moved to California and I got like a whole burst of sunshine and energy and I think that's what really made my music pop.

Your music is classified as Urban Pop. What's Urban Pop?
Urban Pop to me is like a heavy beat, a heavy 808. Some of my songs that I'm gonna release this year are a little more urban, but I have a song "Muah" that to me describes it, where it just has this beat that's definitely more urban but my flow on it is definitely pop.

And you did a song with Juicy J, right?
Yeah, "Bon Voyage." It's the same thing, like urban beat but I flip it and do it more pop stuff over it.

So between Juicy J, and Mac Miller and Wiz Khalifa being on the label, how are you not high all the time?
[laughs] Cause I don't smoke, I'm just around it. You don't need to smoke when you're in a session like that, it's just in the air. They're just so chill. They're all like big brothers to me.

When you record, you don't smoke?
I'll have a drink sometimes, here and there. But like, when I'm writing, sometimes I can write at a party, whatever inspires a moment. But when I'm recording I wanna be clean, just so I know I'm not gonna have to go back and redo it.

Have you heard of molly water?
I've heard what it is, but I've never done it. And I don't do lean either!

That stuff's bad for you!
It's horrible for you! Like, nah I'm good. First of all, Niquil knocks me out. Literally, I'll take a sip of it and two minutes later I'm asleep. I don't know how people do it. Like I wouldn't just be leaning. I'd be upside down dead.

You've been at Rostrum for a year or two?
I got signed last year. But I've worked with Rostrum and with Wiz for years. I'm on the Prince of the City mixtapes, a song called "Sometimes." It was in the beginning before he got signed to Warner.

How'd you link up with Rostrum to begin with? I heard you were a dancer?
Yeah, I was a backup dancer for an artist that was signed to Universal, and my manager now, Benjy, was managing them, and he got sat next to me on a plane and I had my music on me. It was just like every aspiring artist's dream to sit next to somebody who was in the business, but I know he was like "aw, damn it, gotta listen to this girl." But he actually liked it.

How has your style changed since you signed with them?
I think it's evolved. My music before was more like Aaliyah, a little more chill, but then working with Wiz and then honestly I went on the road with Trans-Siberian Orchestra which was more rock, and I just started opening up more as an artist. I grew really fast, and now my music's really fun, up-tempo.

What's the career plan for Vali?
First it's to release more content. My EP came out in the summer and I had seven songs on it that were cool, but the music that we're releasing now are my favorite songs ever. I'm excited, I just kinda wanna release music and get people to know who I am more. And then we'll see what happens.

What are you listening to right now?
A lot of stuff. I'm really feeling Iggy Azalea right now. I'm really digging her. Something about her has really started to catch me. On the pop end, I'm really into Marina and the Diamonds, not a lot of people know them up here yet, but they're pretty big overseas. Something about them just captures me. I love Nicki. I've been getting into Trinidad Jame$. That song "Females Welcome," it just WOO, it took me to a whole nother place.

Y'all could bond over gold jewelry.
I have this red plaid shirt that I wear that has gold studs on it, and when I wear my gold jewelry my manager's like "you look like Trinidad's girlfriend."

If you could model your career on anybody's whose would it be?
Probably Beyonce's. I think she's a really hard worker, she started out in a girl group and came known through them, but now she's just like everywhere, she does film, she does everything. I feel like that's a good role model to have. And I feel like she's a good person. Like, I respect her, she doesn't belittle herself. Even when she shows skin it's still classy for some reason.

Dream collaboration?
Biggie.

You do a lot of covers. You did one recently, which was a combination of The Lumineers and Bob Marley. How'd you think to put those two together?
I'm pretty classically trained, so a lot of time I hear chords kinda differently than I think other people listen to music. I heard The Lumineers and I was like "why does this sound like something else?" And I started singing Bob Marley and it was the same key and everything. So I was like "let me just try it" and it came out really dope.

Do you feel like you still have to do covers to get people to listen to you, or at this point are you like "hey, listen to my original stuff."
I do covers for myself, to be honest. I know that sounds selfish, but I enjoy arranging other people's music and creating my own thing from it. So to me, I really enjoy it, I'll probably do it forever. It's fun to me, it's not like work. And I also like it cause it shows that I sing. My music, some of it is super pop, and it has like effects and stuff like that, but then you can go and look at my covers and be like "oh, she definitely sings."

In your song, "Ben & Jerry," why couldn't you have both Ben & Jerry?
That's such a boy mentality. Like, I wanna find that one. But sometimes you meet two people that are awesome. But you gotta choose one. The purpose of it was like, I think we've all been in the situation where we've had to choose between two people, and it was kinda something I was going through when I wrote it, but I wanted to keep it light. And the track sounded kinda poppy and bubblegum-ish, and thought it'd be dope to have Ben and Jerry represent two guys that I'm talking about, and also we can bring ice cream in there to keep it light.

What's your favorite Ben & Jerry flavor?
Half-Baked. It's got cookies in it!

Martin Spasov ate an avocado salad while Vali ate chicken stroganoff. Tweet them at @RealMarvon.