Interview with The Velvet Hands: ‘It’s as if we’ve written it from two different perspectives, which gives it those layers’

Cornwall-born but now London-based garage punk rock band, The Velvet Hands, combine slacker storytelling with belting guitar riffs in their latest single, ‘Star’. They are working on a EP which will likely come out around November.

They comprise Toby Mitchell (vocals and guitar), his brother Louis (drums), Sam Hilder (bass) and Dan Able (vocals and guitar). Toby and Dan met in school in St. Austell when they were 14 and they met Sam, who turned out to live nearby in Cornwall, in a pub in London. Their name was taken from The Beatles’ song, ‘Happiness Is A Warm Gun’: ‘There’s a line in it that goes “She’s well-acquainted with the touch of the velvet hand, like a lizard on a window pane”, which we really liked, and we’re also fans of The Velvet Underground, so it’s also a nod to them,’ Mitchell said. I tell him that I’ve just been listening to The Velvet Underground song, ‘Heroin’: ‘They’re amazing, aren’t they? If you had half the ideas they had, you’d be buzzing!’

When they started the band, Toby and Dan had the idea that they would both do vocals. While Toby has done lead vocals on several recent songs, Dan has taken the reins on ‘Star’, which he also wrote. ‘Dan wrote it two or three years ago after he met someone who went on Celebs Go Dating who thought they’d be a star, even though they wouldn’t,’ Toby said. ‘It’s got a feel good chorus but it’s about how they’re not going to be a star. We knew it was a good one. It’s a bit different, we normally go down a punkier route. Our friend Jazz did the backing vocals and Simon Dobson – he’s been on an Architects album – did the brass.’

‘Lyrically, the new songs are a little bit darker but musically, they’re a tiny bit more feel good and summery’

They’re working on a as of yet untitled EP, which will likely come out in November when they hope to tour, although they’re still deciding what tracks to put on it: ‘The song quality has jumped up massively, we’ve written a lot, me and Dan write a song every day,’ he said. ‘Most are shit but then you get a good one! Lyrically, the new songs are a little bit darker but musically, they’re a tiny bit more feel good and summery.’

Another single from last year, ‘Back on a Winner’, is altogether punkier and was actually recorded after ‘Star’. ‘We’ve never played it live because of COVID,’ Toby said. ‘I sing on that one. It’s about fantasies of seeing people have a better life, lyrically, it’s about this person having more than you. It’s about jealousy and anger, we might have written about different things but the emotions are the same. The last verse is about smashing up his cadillac, it’s just a fictional story, though!’

‘This Feeling’, which they brought out in 2019, is more of a break-up song; ‘When me and Dan write songs together, we rarely go “Oh, this is about…”, if one of us has a couple of lines, you think you know what it’s about but sometimes it’s as if we’ve written it from two different perspectives, which gives it those layers.”

‘Cornwall would be like Brighton if it was closer to London’

Toby describes the Cornish music scene as ‘fucking amazing’: ‘Cornwall would be like Brighton if it was closer to London. I really like The Rezner (infectious indie rock band in Truro, Cornwall), we’ve got the same management.’ His band to watch is Liverpool-based alt rock band, The Mysterines. ‘I love The Clockworks and Lauran Hibberd, she has a song ‘Old Nudes’, it’s almost like pop punk.’

They have been compared to The Cribs and Buzzcocks and have supported some massive names including Liam Gallagher, Fontaines DC, Paul Weller and Frank Turner and I ask him how those gigs came about: ‘With Paul Weller, they asked us if we wanted to support him for a day at Into The Wyldes (a Cornish music festival in June). He was living his best life, playing football backstage with his kids and grandkids. Liam Gallagher was a good one, he played the Eden Sessions (at the renowned Eden Project in Cornwall). We knew he was doing it and we asked Mikey from This Feeling if he could put us in touch. We sent him ‘Star’. He was well late!’ Toby thinks their gig supporting Frank Turner, which they got via DJ Steve Lamacq at BBC Radio 6, was the last gig they played, just a couple of weeks before the first lockdown in the UK. ‘We didn’t know at first that it was Steve Lamacq who had asked us. Frank is really nice, he’s lovely. It was part of Independent Venue Week at Radio 6.’

‘Back Of A Winner’ has already been played by Liverpool and Wolves football clubs in the UK. ‘If they used it in the Euros, that’d be amazing. I used to listen to a lot of 6 music, it’s a weird feeling when one of your tracks comes on!’

If he could tour with anyone, he picks Wakefield, West Yorkshire indie rock band, The Cribs: ‘I’d love to have toured with them in 2003, when they were more reckless,’ he laughed. ‘Oasis would have been amazing.’ I ask him when he’d have liked to tour with them. ‘Oh, in the fighting stage,’ he grinned. ‘Bring it on!’

(Photo from left to right: Toby, Louis, Dan and Sam)