It’s time for us to introduce you to a rising artist based in Los Angeles. Miss Velvet is in the house, full of energy and vision, ready to present to us her new material. We could say that her stage name is her alter ego, the persona she created. But what does she have to say about it? How did she finally end up choosing this name?
Miss Velvet is a mother of two but her own “rebirth” happened in her 30s when she moved in Los Angeles. Recently she released her new, dynamic song, entitled “Strut”, which is the one third of a bigger body of audio visual work, her upcoming EP “Triptych”.
In addition to her professional life, being a working mother is not as easy as it seems and Miss Velvet shares her own experience with us. Could “Miss Velvet” be an escape from reality and a bright beacon?
The young singer manages to harmoniously combine her influences from the 70s and surpass the boundaries of trends and modernity by creating something uniquely new. She never stops exploring and creating new sounds. Who are the artists she would like to meet either for a collaboration or to have a coffee with? What does she enjoy the most in her musical creative process? What distinguishes older and newer artists to her?
Miss Velvet has a lot to give to the global music industry and a lot to say to her fast growing (European) fanbase through an exclusive interview she gave to SounDarts.gr!
by Chris Quinn
Hello Miss Velvet and welcome to SounDarts.gr! Would you like to introduce yourself to the Greek audience?
Hello, Greek audience. This is Miss Velvet in the house. I’m in LA at the moment. I’ve moved to out to L.A. from New York about three years ago and that was kind of post-pandemic when I had come off two world tours with George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic. Αfter those two world tours I got pregnant. I had two babies back-to-back. It was glorious and amazing and there was almost something like a rebirth, a reinvention of how Miss Velvet was going to be perceived now. Even as a mother and a woman in her 30s, I’m always considering what are the dialogues, what are the narratives that I want to say now and so it was really special. I met this woman named Esjay Jones, -who if you look on my feeds and through some of my videos, is this incredible South African blonde woman and she’s like my ride or die- with whom we’ve written a lot of the new record together. We just put together a six-piece band in a way that it can stand even as a solo act but it can go from the two of us playing acoustic -which is amazing that we can strip it down- or it can go anywhere from six piece to four, to three. It’s really interchangeable and I think that’s really cool about the reinvention of what Miss Velvet is now.
What’s the story behind your stage name?
That name was birthed about seven years ago. I went out to work in LA with Nick Littlemore, who is the other half of the duo Empire of the Sun. We were working on a couple of projects together, and we started toying around with the idea of an alias, an alter ego. If you look at the worlds he created, like Pnau, Empire of the Sun and Teenager, he’s such a force when it comes to re-imagining this other personas. We went down a rabbit hole together and we formed Miss Velvet. That was a beautiful moment, working with somebody like that, where we were watching old movies from the 50s, the 60s and the 70s and John Cassavetes movies and we just fell in love with some kind of persona. I think that Miss Velvet has really that name and that feeling and if you see the content we’re doing now and the new music, it really is this escapism. It’s what’s going on currently in my real life, but I take it and it becomes this fantastical, surrealistic world that anything is possible for Miss Velvet. It’s really inspiring to have that other person.
In my mind I had interpreted Miss Velvet as this genius contrast of a beautiful woman and mother with this powerful voice that can give birth to a rougher sound which can really rock your world.
Yes, by the way I love that! It’s true! I can rock worlds. When we’re creating music it’s like we’re in a bubble and we’re not coming up for air but at the end this bubble does resurface. What’s been so interesting is when you are about to become a mom you have to carry your babies, just like the music you carry inside you and then all of a sudden you’re releasing it to the world and it’s not really yours anymore. It’s going to take on its own life and force now. Who knows who’s going to like it and if people are going to be connected to it. When I release my music in the world and I hear individuals say, “Hey, I put that on in my car. I’m singing to it and I’m feeling it”, it’s such a joy to me like when I’m coming up to the surface and I can breathe again.
Recently you released your new single, entitled “Strut”. I could say that it is a triumphant rock song. Can you tell me more about this creation?
So “Strut”, is actually the middle part of this bigger body of work called the “Triptych”. The “Triptych” is a fourteen and a half minute sonic and cinematic short. There are three singles in there and they’re connected by orchestral and choir interludes. It really tells this story and this narrative. “Strut” comes in the middle and we decided to release that as a first single just to kind of set the landscape, set the feeling of where Miss Velvet is going aesthetically and sonically now. It really lives in this bigger story, in this bigger world. “Strut” is in the middle of “Triptych” and it comes after this moment of deep betrayal by someone that I once really cared for, a deep, deep friend that really hurt me after so many years. After that moment from the first song when we enter into “Strut”, it came as this triumphant victory of owning who you are, feeling the respect and self-love of whoever you are truly, feeling good in that skin. I know that it’s really hard sometimes with everything that’s around us to really feel authentic to yourself and to truly want to strut in that feeling. There’s such a deeper meaning to getting up and kind of putting on your outfit and strutting wherever you are. As I say in a line, “life is a runway” and I think it’s so apropos to whatever you’re feeling inside or whatever you put on it externally to have that freedom, to have that power to strut in your true authentic self. Owning that was a big key-element when writing it with Esjay as these two women in our thirties. Especially now women in this culture, among everything that’s been going on in world events and narratives, what we really do is forming a tribe. We’re this unit and it’s sometimes daunting to feel truly and unapologetically authentic.
As you said you’re about to release an audio-visual project, the EP “Triptych” which follows your debut album, “Traveler”, that came out in 2023. What details can you reveal about this EP?
There’s three different songs that are connected by interludes. So there’s a total of seven pieces of music, that go together to a visual. It’s like a short film.
Apart from a singer, you are also a mother of two and simultaneously you have your own record label, Mother Ride Records. You are the epitome of a relentless person. Is it always easy to combine everything? Where do you draw strength from?
Oh my god, it’s not easy. I made a joke to my sister the other day. We were in a deep conversation and we said “we’re out here spinning a thousand plates”, that old saying. I’ve been noticing through Instagram really -and it’s been a beautiful thing on DM where I get these personal messages- of likeminded women in my position that are maybe career mothers or are going through that transitional period of not having a kid to having a kid and the responsibilities that come along and also wanting to play all these different roles and not feel guilty. I’m not gonna lie.. it’s very hard but it’s also inspiring and empowering to know that when I’m out here doing that, there are women that literally feel the same way. They’re writing to me and it’s like I want to go back to that tribe. I can feel it through the phone and I’m like “let’s keep going, let’s keep doing this”. Come to me with the questions and hopefully Miss Velvet -which I want to talk about her almost in a third party- becomes that escapism and that beacon of the unimpossible who has the strength to balance all those things. I think one of the biggest things I told to my team, was having my own label -we’re through The Orchard which is through Sony- by beginning that narrative about young women in in the music industry that need a mentor. I’ve been at this for eight years and just now do I feel like it’s breaking. For me as an artist, it took a long time to find who I was and to find my demographic and my people and ironically I found them better after I had two children. That’s my story but I want young women to have the hope that when you’re in your thirties, it’s not over. That old taboo of being nineteen and being a rock star and pop star it’s not anymore. We don’t have to live in that square. We really don’t. That’s part of that label and I’ve had a couple beautiful artists and women that I’ve started to kind of mentor a little bit. It’s a trickling down effect and I hope to continue that. It’s not easy, but it’s so fulfilling and wonderful.
I wish you to continue for as long as you can.
Thank you, my sweetheart. I hope to be 60 and plus, like Mick Jagger, getting better at age and singing better. I think it’s so important in this world with social media, where there’s so many apps that you change your face and other things to look a certain way, to have role models and women that are doing something against the grain. I hope that Miss Velvet is that person for women in their late twenties and thirties that are like, “where am I going right now? What am I doing?”.
Your energy is so powerful! We could describe you as a rock ‘n’ roll star. What are your sources of inspiration and your influences?
I really pull a lot from the 70s land sonically but the more I get into palettes, colors and aesthetics, I’m almost pushing the boundaries of fashion that is modern and contemporary. It’s almost like this juxtaposition of something that’s vintage and classic sonically against something that is modern and kind of pushing that boundary. I’m always in search, especially for the Miss Velvet Project, of something that feels in a juxtaposition, something that feels almost opposite that would repel, to come together.
So, to make it more clear, if you had the chance to collaborate with your favorite artist, which one would you choose?
I’m going to do my mix of people that I’m very much into. I think Brandi Carlile is an extraordinary storyteller. I like the way she tells her stories now and her voice now. The type of woman she is and what she represents. I would also collaborate with Heart. I’d love to sing next to Ann Wilson, some duet with that type of voice, I think is extraordinary and finally I’d love to have a coffee with Robert Plant.
What part of your musical creative process do you enjoy the most?
I think once the song is done, I call it “marinate”, but I like to marinate in that and come up with the visuals. I think the visuals for me to really express the Miss Velvet world become something that is the greatest interpretation and fantasy. To be able to let the mind become that creative director once that song is done, it’s a happy place for me to find fantasy. That’s really what the “Triptych” is. You can see even in “Strut”, it’s something like having a runway deep in the Mojave Desert. We’re in the Mojave Desert in the middle of California on this stark landscape and it’s dry, surreal and dusty with this incredible 40-foot gold runway, with six choir and 12 dancers and everyone’s in these palettes of earth tones, tans and gold. For me when my mind goes to that place that’s when I know everything’s coming together and the amalgamation is going to bloom.
Are there any topics or stories that you avoid using in your music?
No, I think that the biggest thing is that sometimes older things in the industry used to be nervous of those type of conversations and songs about things like motherhood, which used to be like, “why are we saying that in rock?”. That almost feels taboo. So I’m actually not staying away from those topics. I’m really pushing more of that world and understanding of like, “if we can talk about it, why can’t we put that in rock music? Why can’t that be sexy? Why can’t that be inspiring? Why can’t that be badass and cool?”. I think, I haven’t heard a female vocalist in in my age group and as a mother staying in those things. It’s still interesting.
Alanis Morissette came to my mind with what you said just now.
Of course but that is an older generation. That’s my North Star, my beacon. I think she’s extraordinary for talking about that back in the day when that was even more taboo. So I think right now I would love to kind of own that landscape because besides her and you and I who are in the same page, I’m not sure who’s communicating that. I want to go one step below. Like Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen are taking these stories and they’re going one level below of how serious something really is.
What kind of advice would you give to someone who’s about to start their career in the industry?
If there’s anything I could tell to women and young women and even young men that are coming into rock music, it’s like “Please don’t give up. This is a long game sport. This is a slow burn, especially in rock music. You get better with age”.
What are your future professional plans?
I’m really hoping to get on a couple of tours and start to really bring Miss Velvet over to Europe. That’s a really big point for me and my team. We have all the signs and all the incredible fans that are starting to gather in those areas and Greece is one of them. My fingers and toes are crossed, that 2025 is the goal to get over to Europe and build Miss Velvet over there.
What’s your motto in life?
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