In Conversation with The Velvet Hands

Features

Rosanna McElroy // Photos by Aiyush Pachnanda

28 Feb 2018

As much as they say they sound like The Stones, they’re doing their own thing entirely…

Fresh from their first national tour, supporting The Himalayas, we caught up with London based Cornish rockers The Velvet Hands to talk speeding fines, Cuban heels and their up and coming debut album...

Encompassing elements of The Strokes, The Rolling Stones, and The Clash, The Velvet Hands have been kicking up a buzz since day one, with their bolshy spirit and effortlessly cool style. 

With backing from BBC Introducing, Radcliffe and Maconie, Steve Lamacq and Phil Taggart, and even bagging themselves a mention in the NME, the four-piece garage rockers used their catchy riffs, quick rhythms and tight melodies to win over audiences at Boardmasters, Port Eliot Festival, and Leopallooza last summer.  Now they’re coming for Cardiff.

You’ve been compared to bands such as The Rolling Stones and The Strokes, but how would you describe your sound?

We call our sound ‘garage rock’ – thinking back to bands like ‘The Creation’.

Basically, we’re too accident prone to have any pedals or anything, so our sound is just into the amp - raw.  I think that’s what in a way makes us sound different – most people, when they play their instrument, it’s through various pedals and stuff, we have our own sound by just having nothing – back to basics.  Not necessarily because we want to, it’s because we have to.

So, this is your first national tour, how’s it been going so far?

It’s really nice being able to travel around.  We’d never been to Cardiff before, we’d never even been to Wales before.  We had to pay to cross the border, but it’s been worth every penny.  We went to Manchester for the first time too. And pretty much every date except one sold out, people have been singing along to the songs too!  

I’m guessing you’ve got quite a solid fan base in Cornwall and London, do you ever see any similar faces on the tour?

There’s this guy called Jim Gibb – ‘our man’ -  he lives in Cornwall but works on the tubes in London, so he comes to all of our Cornwall gigs and all our London gigs too.  I think it’s nice when you see those people come along, to talk to them, make them feel like we appreciate them being there, because we do, and the very least we can do is say hello.

Do you have a manager with you on tour?

Dan: He usually comes, he’s just not here today. We do a lot of stupid things, like when Toby fell through his ceiling…

Toby: I was wearing Cuban heels, I was in the loft, it was six in the morning…

We played a gig with Mark Morriss from The Bluetones and we’d all gone back to our manager’s house for a bit of a party.  It was six in the morning, I was in the loft, had gone to get a sleeping bag, and I fell through the ceiling.  Since then, I think he’d rather just Skype us… 

Ouch.

 

You strike me as the kind of band that enjoy performing live - that’s where you seem to thrive.  What do you enjoy most about performing live and touring?

Toby: Doing leg kicks!

Dan: It’s reached the point where people know our songs and stuff, the last gig in London we sold out, at The Monarch, people were going crazy, moshing, falling onto the stage and stuff. I like the chaos of it.

Toby: Speeding tickets – I got a speeding ticket as soon as I came into Cardiff today. One in Birmingham too! Two on the tour.  Mum doesn’t know yet, so this’ll be her way of finding out…

Dan: And the driving for hours and hours in a Fiat Punto with loads of guitars on your legs, lovely! The after parties too - if you see us gig three days in a row, catch us on one of the first two days, don’t see us on the last one…

Toby: The Himalayas came out for a couple of beers after the Manchester gig, and we were thinking - why don’t they party more? Cut to Birmingham the next day and they were there looking lovely, sounding lovely and on time.  We rolled up late and completely dried out… 

   

A definite learning curve for up-and-coming artists I suppose!  BBC Introducing have been backing you since the start, and the support from This Feeling must be helpful too.  Have you found platforms such as these useful as a young band?

BBC Introducing have been great, BBC Cornwall played us, we’ve had airplay with BBC London, Radio 1, Tom Robinson and Steve Lamacq, and now Huw Stephens is onto us.  When they start supporting an artist, they really get behind you.  It doesn’t matter if you have 2 likes or 2000, if you upload a track to their website they’ll just listen to it and judge you on the actual song.

This Feeling are good at creating a scene and they’ve created a sense of community, especially in London. There are people that’ll come to our shows and we’ll go to their shows, everyone’s supporting each other and having a good time doing so.

So, your debut album, when can we hear it?

Star Wars day! May the 4th be with you.  500 physical vinyls will be available on April the 21st and May the 4th is the day we release it as a CD via Easy Action Records, and on Spotify too.  But we have released singles and B sides as we’ve been finding our feet through our website.<h1  Something to flog at gigs and to add to our petrol fund really.

 

Finally, who are you listening to at the moment?

We’ve listened to the new Public Access TV album.  Courtney Barnett – I’ve bought her new single which is pretty good.  And Parquet Courts.

We’ll be sure to check them out, thanks for your time!