A project long in the making, The Velvoids are one of those enlightened ensembles able to create musical wizardry from a few, simple elements. Veterans of the international shoegaze and art-rock scene, the group was founded all the way back in 2003 in Athens, Greece, going through a series of line-up changes and hiatus before appearing in its current form. Boasting a substantial catalogue of releases, The Velvoids stand tall and proud over their meaningful legacy, telling a tale of passion and artistic prowess.
“When you set big goals early on it’s easy to become disenfranchised and lose sight of direction”
The Velvoids
‘While You Shine’ is the band’s latest effort, a worthy follow-up to their 2020’s album ‘Mother’. Celebrating shoegaze tones with dream-pop lyricism, the record showcases The Velvoids’ airy and ethereal character, together with their signature lo-fi and spacious vocals.
Intrigued by the project, we caught up with the Greek rockers to find out more about their artistry and future goals… Interview below!
Hey guys, how is it going? some of our readers might not be familiar with your project, how would you describe yourself, in a few words?
Dorah: Doing good, thanks. We’re a lo-fi-oriented, experimental band from Athens, Greece.
Your current work is the result of a long journey; how did the band get together initially?
Yorgos: I met Vice in 2003, he already had the band going when I joined on guitar, we’d rehearse at my house where I had a decent sound system, a lot of the early material was created there. I eventually left amicably because I wanted to focus on my own music which I still got going today. We’re back together now and I’m on bass, I’m really excited.
Vice: We started out as a two-piece around the time we did our first EP in March 2003; then became a four-piece soon after that and started gigging around November of that year, when Yorgo left we continued as a trio for a while until switching back to being a two-piece after a European tour in 2009, that pretty much lasted until recently.
Dorah: I joined on drums in late 2006, been together since.
George: The current four-piece came about naturally, our personalities clicked. It’s like communicating without words, it’s in the motions, feel, aesthetic, and taste.
You have been navigating the music industry for two decades; has your approach to music changed at any point? What advice would you give to your younger self?
Vice: When we started out we had an exact idea of what we wanted to do and went about it head-on, everything going on around us at the time was a result of that, things just kind of fell apart by 2005, we had just mixed our first album and were looking into touring but I don’t know, when you set those kinds of goals early on it’s easy to become disenfranchised with the whole thing and lose sight of direction, we were really passionate people from the get-go, sometimes it just implodes. We mellowed out since then. I don’t know what advice I could give myself that I’d actually take, I don’t think about that kind of thing.
Yorgos: I’d probably allow myself to make the same mistakes all over again, it’s not necessarily about being right all the time, it’s about learning.
George: My taste in music has completely changed through the years, which changed my approach to things, I’ve been listening to a lot of different genres, it’s nice to progress and evolve through other sounds and cultures. I would advise my younger self to use his brain more and act on instinct rather than pure emotion.
Dorah: Our approach hasn’t really changed too much. Right or wrong, I trust my instincts and I trust my band members. I would suggest the younger me to generally go about things with less stress.
You have just released ‘While You Shine’, a dreamy, shoegaze-y jewel with tons of distortion. The sonic direction explores beefier and more ethereal territories than previous releases (‘Mother’, for instance). What were your references for the new single?
Dorah: It really comes down to how you feel and what you’re going through when recording or making any album. ‘Mother’ was a collection of songs we did around the time I was pregnant, a lot of those ideas came from Vice and I going through the motions of ultimately becoming parents, it was far more polished compared to the previous album we did in 2014 called ‘Polynesia Baby’, which was just a bizarre and obscure experience of sleeplessness and mostly improvised compositions. I love how ‘While You Shine’ turned out; sonically, it’s a natural progression for us, I would say the addition to George and Yorgo in the band played a significant role in how it ends up sounding.
How’s your songwriting process like?
Dorah: Vice is usually the one who’ll come up with a new idea or recycle an old one, a lot of songs start out on his phone or the multi-track as a demo, we’ll go back to it afterwards or rediscover things and work together on the composition and things of that nature. I’ve been writing in the band a lot more lately as well.
Vice: ‘While You Shine’ was tracked on the spot with the Tascam one day at home, a melody playing on the keys and an acoustic guitar vamping on the C chord, it was just a throwaway, a break or moment in between the songs we were actually working on. Dorah laid down the drums and we went back to it with George and Yorgo, I improvised the vocals around 3 a.m. one night when I couldn’t sleep. After that, everybody jumped in and we finished it.
Speaking in terms of business/music industry stuff; do you feel it was easier to emerge as a new band back in 2003? is there one thing you don’t like about how the industry has changed?
Yorgos: I never appreciated how a full-time musician is forced to do so many other things on the side, relevant or not, in order to make a living, that’s never changed.
George: I reckon it’s all a little bit easier nowadays than it was back then.
Vice: Yea, it’s probably easier now.
Dorah: It’s relatively hard for any band or artist to evolve and persevere, that’s the secret. As for the industry, it’s mostly numbers and statistics.
Artistically speaking, what challenges have the last two years presented you with?
George: The challenges I faced had more to do with my personal music project, like learning how to write or create songs by myself and learning how to play different instruments. I also had to get used to keeping up with schedules, deadlines, and generally becoming more responsive or focused on what I was doing. Discipline and consistency are pretty challenging things.
Yorgos: It was a period of constant change for me, social distancing made things tough on many levels, I just made the best of it, wrote new material and made plans.
Vice: I’m not sure, it was surreal. I had to figure out how to record our band using two mics and a 24-track, which kept me busy.
Dorah: We couldn’t track a full drum set during those recordings, we were also stuck at home, it was like rediscovering the drums and percussion in order to play on a lot of those new songs. We ended up recording my drum tracks in the bathroom which has tiles on the floor and walls to help with the sound.
What are the next steps for your project? Anything exciting on the horizon?
Yorgos: We’re finishing the new album, adding a few new elements to it now like piano, cello, and percussion; hopefully we’ll be mixing soon. We’re also rehearsing new material together which I’m really psyched about.
Dorah: The most exciting thing at the moment is the addition of the other two members in the band, and it’s great to be rehearsing again.
Vice: I agree.
George: Recording and live shows baby! Don’t know which of the two I’m more excited about.
