Velvet Two Stripes escape every witch's spell
Always moving, never stopping, always moving forward, allied in threes. Velvet Two Stripes are united by a 15-year band history, and still Sophie and Sara Diggelmann and Franca Mock know only one direction: forward. "Nothing can hold us back any more," says Sara. "We navigate the way we like," adds her sister Sophie, referring not only to the trips across the rusty railway bridge on the Columbia River that took them to the recording studio in the summer of 2022. She also means the meandering between the underground and the music industry that the band has mastered so confidently.
Velvet Two Stripes have never let themselves be taken over by the industry. They have always remained true to their raw rock sound and have developed it further, unflinchingly. The title of the musicians' new fourth album, "No Spell For Moving Water", which will be released on 6 October, also tells of this. No evil spell sticks to flowing water, it cannot be cursed and it flows over every stone that lies in its path. If you keep moving, you escape every witch's spell and remain free.
Spot landing after three weeks in the studio
For the recording of the nine songs, Velvet Two Stripes flew to Portland on the US West Coast, at the invitation of their producer Dominik Schmidt of Rola Music. Just two of the songs were finished, the rest only sketches on the mobile phone, ideas in the head. "We had played a lot of live shows beforehand and therefore hardly had time to write any new songs," says Franca. But she, Sophie and Sara remained calm and turned the supposed hardship into a strength. Sophie: "We couldn't spend much time polishing the songs. So instead we kept a freshness that you can hear on the album."
In concrete terms, it went like this: every morning, the musicians drove across the "Interstate Bridge" - one of the songs on the new album is named after it - to the studio in Vancouver, WA. By noon they finished writing a song, and in the afternoon they recorded another song, together with drummer Joey Harmon. Sightseeing and parties had to be cancelled, instead Velvet Two Stripes worked highly focused on their music. Two weeks later, the nine songs were in the can. Sophie recorded the last vocal tracks just a few hours before the flight back to Switzerland - a precision landing! "We were always sure that the three of us could do it. There was never any doubt about that," Sara describes the familiarity in the band.
Classic Velvet Two Stripes with additional facets
This familiarity also allowed them to dare new things and experiment during the recordings, despite the insane schedule. This is why "No Spell For Moving Water" is Velvet Two Stripes' most multi-faceted album to date. In places it almost sounds like pop. "We have become more grown up and also more courageous. In the past, we wouldn't have dared to experiment like that," says Sara. But of course Velvet Two Stripes haven't changed (style) direction, they still sound like Velvet Two Stripes. This is already made clear by the explicit opener "Fuckboy", a no-frills, snotty piece of garage rock. "I let my anger out there, but otherwise I don't sing as angrily as on the last album," says Sophie.
On "No Spell For Moving Water" she instead also leaves room for spiritual stories and reflects on her own psyche. In "The One", the first single, for example, she processes a nightmare she had during a sleep paralysis. And in "Idaho" she sings about how she reconciled with her former self and made it her best friend. There is also a ghost story, discovered by chance in a local book, on the new album. Two luminaries of the rock scene are responsible for the fitting sound: Vance Powell (mixing, e.g. The White Stripes, Buddy Guy) and Pete Lyman (mastering, e.g. Tom Waits, Weezer).
What next? Always moving forward, always on the move, allied in threes. Sophie: "The music remains the most important thing. We don't have to conform to any trends, we don't have to please anyone, just ourselves."
For fans of:
The Kills, Deap Vally, The Dead Weather, The White Stripes, Sunflower Bean, Bass Drum Of Death, The Picturebooks, Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
