Velvet Bloom & The Build Up To ‘7Hundred25’ – Sonically & Artistically
{interview by Emily-Layne Kapetanovic}
WARRANT had the pleasure of chatting to Maddy from Velvet Bloom ahead of the release of their recent single ‘7Hundred25’
‘7Hundred25’ is an oozy and luscious journey through the feelings of loss and acceptance. The track shows the depth and talent Velvet Bloom display in their knowledge of what a track requires to take it to the next level. Layer by layer, ‘7Hundred25’ blends and weaves elements that lead to an ultimate catharsis of dreamy vocal harmonies and ambient guitar.
We discussed the band’s dynamic leading up to the release as well as what contributed to the sonic build-up in ‘7Hundred25’.
Emily-Layne: I'm going to admit it, I've listened to ‘7Hundred25’ about seven hundred and 25 times.
Maddy: Awww Yay, I'm so happy.
No it is such a good track, I'm so exited to see when it comes out and what everyone thinks of it because I think it’s such a nice listen, just to listen to behind what you’re doing but also when I sat down I was listening to the lyrics I was like oh.
Thank you so much, we had such a good time recording that it was awesome – it was really great. We recorded with Quin, one of our friends, he’s from a band called The Grogans and the song’s actually being released on a vinyl/compilation album through another friend our ours' record label that he's trying to start up. There’s quite a few songs and it'll be the first time that a song of ours has been pressed to vinyl. So that's very exciting.
That's so so cool. So does that mean in the future we might have some more Velvet Bloom tracks on vinyl then.
Yes. Very soon I think. It won't be this year but we're recording at the end of this year and then hoping to release stuff at the start of next year.
Exciting. Obviously, you've got your Bitter Sweet EP but the rest have sort of been singles up to this point.
I mean Bitter Sweet wasn't even really, I don't even count that. I wrote that before I had the band and then people kept on asking for the songs to be up on Spotify and I just did it. But it's not necessarily, like it was great for me to write all that stuff at the time because I learnt so much from writing it and putting it out and stuff. I wrote those songs when I was at school.
Yeah, you're in a bit of a different stage in your life now.
Yeah 100%. So I re-released it last year just because people were asking for it but our EP will be very much more along the lines of what we’re doing now. So yeah, I'm very excited.
Big things to come. Well, obviously we're here to talk about ‘7Hundred25’, I remember for our first interview earlier this year talking about ‘Standards’, there was a bit of consensus surrounding ‘Standards’ and how it was your best track yet. So how does ‘7Hundred25’ compare?
I mean they’re so different. Like ‘Standards’ is like a bop and is a band song but like ‘7Hundred25’ I think is a little more of an ear worm, it'll probably get stuck in people's heads. We've never had a track where we've been able to have some studio time to refine it. Just because usually our studio process is we'll hire the studio for the day and then I'll hire the vocal studio for a day as well and then it kind of comes together that way. We know exactly what we're doing before we go into the studio, everyone's parts are pretty much done before we even get there. So that's our structure usually when we're kind of recording but this time we were recording with Quin and we spent so many sessions on this song and then we had time in between sessions to go back and go alright we want to put this and this in and then like this is something else we wanted to add. We got to really work on the sounds that we were going to be putting into the track so I think that's where it differs. It's kind of like, next level in terms of what we actually want to be creating.
There's so many beautiful vocal layers, there’s so many layers to it that build up towards the end. Do you think that now that you've sort of done that process and you've gone into the studio more times than you usually do, are you more likely to embrace that process for future tracks?
Totally. I think working with Quin as well because he's one of our good friends and he knows our sound so well and he knows exactly how we want things to be executed like working with him as a recoding engineer, I am so excited to continue to. It's so much less stressful. Obviously I love those days when we did go and do an entire day in the studio and I’m so grateful to the people who were there to help us through the process but I think it is really nice to be able to work with Quin and have someone on our track who really knows what we're going for and he's heard all of the songs like millions of times anyways, he seen us play live heaps so he's just kind of the best person to be working with on an EP.
So let's talk about the writing process, it sounds like a very personal track about loss but also accepting that sometimes things have to happen. What was the writing process like for you?
Yeah, I mean I guess it was a pretty big acceptance track and at the time that I wrote it I was still quite hurtful about the relationship and I hadn't given up on it completely, I guess. But I'd accepted that we were going in different directions and that was fine, I still have so much appreciation for the person that I wrote the song about. We just weren’t going in the same direction in life and that was fine. It was just kind of a track about here's what's going on and I'm okay with it. Obviously it’s sad but I think the both of us are in a better spot so it’s good.
It's good that you can take an objective step back and write music about it and be like no, it's fine.
I feel like that as well. I'm very lucky to be able to have a creative outlet for things like that, because I feel like my coping mechanism is writing music and then kind of figuring out how I feel once I'm writing music so I'm very lucky to have that. Writing that song I guess sort of gave me a clearer picture of how I saw the relationship.
When you write a track, does it take you a while to get them together or with this one especially because it's so personal and you were still in the moment, was it an easier one to write?
I think that usually when I write and when I'm in a headspace for writing, I'm very lucky that I can kind of just write songs and they’ll come out and I finish them quite quickly usually. But then the refining process, especially at the moment not being able to see the band and stuff, that’s been the hard part because I haven't really wanted to make demos for certain songs because sometimes I think the magic with Velvet Bloom is that all of my members come from pretty different music backgrounds. So when I do show them a song instead of already having a preconceived idea of what the song is going to sound like, I think its really great to have them go oh I think this would sound really good here or whatever because it wouldn’t necessarily be what I would think of. So, I've been trying not to refine them too much even though it's really hard because there's not a whole heap to do but I've just been trying to smash out song ideas and have them pretty much finished but have room for the band to be able to have an input.
Like everyone can add a bit and that's what makes it a group piece.
That's the thing. If I play solo then it can be whatever I want but like I really enjoy having everyone I have in the band have their piece on the track. It's really nice.
Well the track has a really lovely build up throughout, sort of adding piece by piece until it’s like, how did I even get here and it kind of creeps up on you to an extent but its so lovely at the same time. What was the thought process behind building it up like that?
I'd had that idea from the start when I wrote this song. It's kind of like a ballad but I didn't want it to be some massive finish with like drums and bass and everything. I mean we could've put that in at the end but I just didn’t think that it was necessary and I think that it was important for us to have a song where it’s still a band song but its very minimal. In saying that, it's probably one of our most layered songs as well. I mean, the process of deciding to build it up, we made that decision very early on in the track and then we'd kind of just been figuring out where we actually wanted to put instruments and how we wanted to bring them in. But that's what was really great about being able to have so many sessions on the song. We first recorded my guitar and then a very rough guide vocal with Yara and I and then we recorded Alex's guitars and Yara's piano and then a droning kind of flute sound as well. From there we were able to leave the studio, listen to the very very raw version of the track, then go oh okay maybe this would sound nice if it came in at whatever time and there were certain elements as well that sounded really nice as they intertwined. It kind of made it really easy to figure out where things were going to go and then from there, there were certain things that were added like piano parts. I pretty much had all the harmonies and stuff, I’d done a very rough demo and sent it to Quin and told him exactly what I wanted and the vocals turned out exactly how I wanted them as well. We also decided that we wanted an ebow in it which is kind of like, Alex has this, it's called an ebow and you put it on the strings of your guitar and then you can play a note and it vibrates the string and it creates like this violin noise. We decided that we wanted that in the song very early on as well and created some almost chord sounds with that and some harmonies and that kind of lifts the song up as well.
It's effortless but so complex at the same time. How does it feel to have a band that's so in touch with the sound and what will elevate tracks?
I think they know exactly what my vision is with a lot of the songs like I don't really have to explain it to them and even if I do, it ends up clicking quite quickly. I mean, that happens when you've been playing with people for so long and when you have a really good relationship with them. I've been playing with Rennick and Nic for almost four years or something now and I've been playing with Alex for almost three years and Yara and I have a soul connection, from the moment we met. That was also very good, we love singing harmonies together. So, it's great to have a band that knows exactly where we want the sound to go and it's even greater to have that kind of connection with your band members.
Now, one of my favourite questions to ask artists when it comes to tracks or EPs is if listeners were going to take away one thing from the track what would you ultimately want it to be?
Yeah okay. Maybe for this track in particular, accepting things for what they are and knowing that no matter what happens you're going to be okay.
Now, I feel like for Velvet Bloom, you guys are everywhere. What are the hopes for the band say next year? Ideally, if you were to end up exactly where you wanted, where would that be?
Well we hope to be invited on the next Great Gable tour, obviously before this year turned into what it has, that was the most exciting thing that's happened to us. Being invited on a national tour with the band just sounded like the best thing in the world and going basically on a holiday and playing music and having a great time with your band members and a group of friends and experiencing so much together. I think that was going to be the biggest take away from this year. But, I mean we're kind of progressing in exactly the same way that I've been envisioning for a really long time so, this time next year, if the world is back to some form of normality, I would like to have gone on a national tour with a band, whether it be Great Gable or someone – I think that would be really fun. I think that would also be a very great thing for the band members as well because everyone has been feeling down and I think it would be really really nice for us to all basically go on a holiday together. Also, this will be our first real EP that we put out so I hope that's received really well and with the songs that we have on it – we've kind of been making decisions on what we're going to be putting on it – but I think that or I hope that people are going to really like our tracks.
I'm sure they will. I have no doubt in my mind.
You can stream 7Hundred25 here.