THE VELVET HANDS INTERVIEW| TRUCK FESTIVAL 2023

To the untrained eye (or ear), The Velvet Hands could easily be mistaken for a band formed in the 1970s.

Leather jacket clad and head to toe in vintage, the London based four piece are effortlessly cool and embody the spirit of the late 1970’s British Punk scene in an almost time capsule like fashion.

Despite not quite having the notorious punk attitude off stage, (they are welcoming, friendly, polite and possibly one of the most down-to-earth bands that we have ever interviewed), they do have the tunes to match.

Their 2^nd studio album ‘Sucker Punch’ brings comparisons to all-time greats like The Clash and The Jam with rabble rousing choruses and lyrics brimming with youthful abandon. The album’s closing track Devil’s Tale, shows off the band’s more experimental side, a track that could fit easily onto a The Doors album.

After releasing ‘Sucker Punch’ in February of this year, The Velvet Hands hit the road, playing gigs up and down the UK, including a sold-out headline show at London’s Iconic the Lexington.

We sat down with lead singer Toby and guitarist Dan, at this year’s Truck festival where they arrived in one piece – just about, and filled us in on everything from their pre gig rituals, to a Close Encounters of the Third Kind esque meeting with Gaz Coombes.

NE: So we’re here at Truck Festival, how are you finding the festival so far?

Toby: We’re absolutely loving it!

Dan: We only managed to catch about 5 minutes of Red Rum Club, but they were good.

Toby: We saw Sasha earlier, our mate Sasha Assad, playing on the This Feeling stage. She was great, and now we’re talking to you, so yeah, it’s all good!

NE: Sounds like a good start to the day, you guys had to get the train here today didn’t you? How was the journey?

Dan: Yeah, we basically forgot that we had to get here. When you’re headlining a stage that’s probably something you should think about isn’t it?

So we got our drummer Louis to buy tickets for the train here, but he got them to the wrong place, he didn’t realise that Oxford and Oxfordshire weren’t the same thing.

Toby: We had an absolute shocker, I think what happened is that everyone thought I was gonna organize it, but I didn’t. So we had to get a few train tickets and a 40 quid taxi down here but we made it!

NE: Are you usually the organiser then, are you the mum friend?

Toby: I usually would sort it all out, yeah. I’m bad at organisation but the others are more stubborn and just will not do it. So it ends up that if I don’t book a taxi, we don’t play the gig, so I have to do it.

NE: At least you’re here and ready for the day, is this your first time at Truck?

Dan: So we played in 2019 before Covid, it was the same stage we’re playing today but it was called The Barn Stage.

Toby: Yeah it was weird at the back stage area there were just cows. It’s funny because you forget that you’re actually on a farm. It was also raining so badly to the point that after we played I had to go and get the car and dressed completely head to toe in bin bags. I was walking back and I saw Gaz Coombes from Supergrass smoking out of his tour bus and I was like ‘oh wow it’s Gaz Coombes, he’s in one of my favorite bands. Bear in mind I must have looked like a maniac. But I walked up to him and he stepped inside and just pressed a button and the door shut.

Dan: Yeah and to be fair you’d ripped a hole in the bin bag so it was just a face coming out of these bin bags in the middle of a storm.

Toby: It was probably about midnight as well, imagine it, just a face coming up to you like ‘ooh are you Gaz Coombes’. I’m not surprised he got back in the van.

NE: You’re closing out the This Feeling stage tonight, what can we expect from your set?

Toby: Yeah it’s gonna be full on, I think we’re only doing half an hour so it’s gonna be like greatest hits.

Dan: We’re not gonna do a lot of talking cause we don’t have much time, we’re gonna play as many songs as we can.

Toby: I think we’re on after The Vaccines on the main stage, they finish as we come on. They’re gonna finish with a banger so we need to keep the energy.

NE: Do you have any pre-stage rituals to get you hyped?

Dan: We need to invent one I think, cause people ask us quite a lot, but we just sort of stand around and go- “Oh we’re on in 5 minutes we should probably get excited”. And usually we’ll all be tired cause we’ve decided to eat a roast dinner and drink a pint of stout or something.

Toby: Something that I do, especially at festivals – I never look at the crowd. So when I go out there I either get loads of energy when the tent is packed, or if no one is there I know we’re going to have to do a lot of convincing, and then that itself hypes me up. It’s not even really a nerves thing for me. If you save the excitement of seeing the crowd for the first time for the moment that you pick up your guitar, you’re ready.

NE: How important do you think organisations like This Feeling are for emerging artists?

Dan: They’ve sorted us out since when we started out really. They put us on their big in 2018 and we’ve been working with them ever since. We’ve saw loads of bands come through, like Red Rum Club, we did a co headline tour with them around the same time and now they’re massive. You couldn’t even get into the tent where they were playing today.

Toby: It also feels like people are really starting to sit up and listen to what This Feeling have to say. They’re great and they put on some amazing acts.

NE: You have quite a retro sound and look, is that intentional?

Toby: Yeah I mean our influences are pretty retro and I think we were just born grumpy old men. I don’t know if it’s intentional but that’s what’s happened.

Dan: Cause we can’t really play very well punk music was the only option.

NE: What do you have planned for the rest of 2023?

Toby: We’ve got a vinyl version of our record coming out in a few months, and then a new single coming out in October, and a tour in November around the UK. That will be announced next week, we’re hoping to play in France too.

NE: Why France?

Toby: We do really well in France, we have more fans in Paris than in England. I don’t really know why.

Dan: We played at a place called Supersonic, and it was free entry but it was ‘Sold Out’. It was fucking mental, everyone knew the words and was going for it.

To keep up to date with The Velvet Hands head to: The Velvet Hands