Balancing Acts is Metal Insider’s new column, in which artists explain the challenges within the music industry by juggling day jobs or multiple jobs while pursuing their musical careers. Metal Insider recently caught up with Valira Pietrangelo of Vesseles to discuss balancing her dual life, being part of the symphonic black metal band, and her work as a mechanical design engineer.
Founded in 2023, Vesseles serve as the sonic vessel for Valira’s true form, a demon exiled to the human world, reclaiming power through music. The band’s latest single, “Flesh Throne,” is a grand, cinematic anthem highlighting their dark world.
Hello, I am Valira and I am a demon. I’m in Vesseles (symphonic black metal), Mortal Filth (death metal) and WarTroll (blackened folk metal) where I play guitar and compose to varying degrees for each project. My main project will always be Vesseles, where I compose everything using it as an outlet for my life and experiences. I also do mechanical design engineering at a telecom company where I help design metal boxes and all the stuff that goes on and in them.
I started writing music shortly after picking up the guitar but let me tell you, my first full song I wrote in 2009 was absolutely horrible. Mainly just because it was boring and predictable but hey, I finally wrote a cohesive song after tons of Guitar Pros that didn’t make any sense.Not long after that first song I was doing everything I could as a teenager to work with music. I would have my high school art teacher play my extremely long black metal tracks for the class, I played Cradle of Filth covers for our home room, I did a solo performance for the winter showcase nights, I had the vocal ensemble cover a Kittie song also at the winter showcase and I did everything I could to form a band with my limited resources.
From 2009 until 2017, I was going in and out of bands trying to find my place. 2016 is when I finally made my own project, Arcane Existence, since for years I was always writing my own music with the intent to release with a project yet, since none of those worked out I finally just went ahead and did it myself. It then took therapy in 2022 for me to realize I need more which is when Vesseles came into view. Vesseles is what truly gave me direction that felt the most true to myself. This was due to finding myself as a demon in 2020.
Oh yeah, there was college somewhere in all of that. I graduated in 2017 with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. People still ask me how I released an album during my last year in college and well, it’s the same reason I’m able to be in 3 bands and work a day job with still time for other activities. Passion and a need.
Vesseles is my main focus and it can consume a ton of my time sometimes but I enjoy it regardless. I write music because it fulfills some deep existential need. Each band gives me a different sense of fulfillment that allows me to feel at peace. That combined with the fulfillment and enjoyment I get from work, I’m able to come home after a long day ready to work on music and dive deep into myself. Deep into a place where I can explore my identity with the effortless freedom I had dreamed of the day I discovered myself. Identity dysphoria will stay with me for the rest of my life but at least I have bandmates and a job where I am accepted for who I am no matter what that is.
