I don’t know how it happened, but with their debut album “Earth” VELVETHELL totally surprised me. I mean, a lot. This Indonesian sludge-doom-heavy band has brought to the table an immensely powerful material, so it comes as no surprise I had to learn more about the band itself.
So, prepare yourselves, we’re descending into hell…Velvethell!
Hello, guys, thanks for your time doing this interview! And all the best in 2023! How did the band started the new year? I hope all is OK with you over there in Indonesia…
We are all doing great here in Indonesia. We’ve started this new year by working on some of our material and already started to record some of our songs.
Velvethell is still quite a newcomer to the music scene, therefore there is not that much info about the band available. So, let’s start from the very beginning. How did the band come to its existence? What town/city in Indonesia do you come from? What is the current line-up, any line-up changes from the time when the band started?
Velvethell originally was a solo project from Alvino Ganesha (Alvin) which is rooted in Heavy Metal and Southern Rock in November 2018 as a form of maintaining their sanity by being one of the corporate slaves in the capital. Formed from Alvin’s meeting with his old friend which is one of talented musicians from the city of Padang namely Bardi Rahmawan (Bardi) on mid-2019 which helped in the cultivation of his solo project. At that time, Bardi succeeded in completed some musical material that was still raw and without vocal. Due to busyness and Bardi’s limited time, Alvin was finally helped by one of his college friends which also a talented guitarist namely Gholid Tamazu (tmz) to finish some music material without vocal even more. After that, tmz was invited by Alvin to join as a guitarist in his project, then Alvin departed again again to try his fortune to the capital in 2020 and become another private corporate employee in Tangerang.
When Alvin was in Tangerang, Alvin was close to the heavy music scene in Tangerang and met with one of the vocalist who felt suitable for the project he was working, that vocalist name is Joan Hidayat (Jo) and invited him to join the project. But Jo didn’t immediately agreed to the invitation and choose only to assist in filling out the vocals for the project, and Bandung was the place where the recording process for the vocals because Alvin has some friends there who can help complete the musical material he and tmz have composed previously. Jo finally agreed to Alvin’s request to become a vocalist on his project and immediately declared the name “Velvethell” to be used for naming the trio.
With a composition consisting of Jo (Vocals and Bass), Tmz (Guitar), and Alvin (Drum) finally without further ado was able to finish their first mini album and still continue with this composition until now.
To be honest, I am quite surprised by the music you play, as I am not aware of many Indonesian sludge bands…Did you want to play sludge/doom since the very start, or is it the result of the ongoing progress and development? What bands have influenced you in the beginning of your music creation?
Not really, there’s a process and maturity that made our style of music to be like this. We are heavily influenced by the pioneers of Bergen, such Turbonegro, Kvelertak, Satan Satyrs, Toronto, Cancer Bats, Alabama Thunderpussy, Orange Goblin, High of Fire and band from New Orleans like Down, Eye hate God, and Crowbar.
Interestingly, despite the album title in English (aforementioned “Earth”) your songs titles and lyrics are in your native bahasa Indonesia. Myself I am delighted by it (I think it’s a perfect combination), does it mean you try to appeal to the Indonesian audience in the first place?
Well, we’re glad that you feel delighted. Thank you. Obviously we hope to get attention from International scale audience, but there are still a number of points that we must fix to get to that stage, we’re still enjoying our progress in the local scene first.
Talking about lyrics, can you briefly tell us what are your songs about?
Our lyrics deal a lot with the theme of our daily life which tells about the complaints of daily life as corporate slaves, the environmental damage that is happening in our country, and also about our enjoyment of the time that we can gather (due to busy work that makes this band doing a long distance relationship).
Also interesting is the album cover art, is there any symbolism in it? What does it represent and who’s the artist responsible for it?
This is an interesting question. We raise the “Earth” theme which has a deep connotation of a forest where our imagination depicts a beautiful forest occupied by ghosts (we call it “Lelembut”). For the artwork itself was done by our brother @mozaricalvins who perfectly executed our imagination into a beautiful image.
“Earth” was released in June 2022, so I think it’s safe to ask – what were the reactions from the music public to the album?
Until now we have received some positive reactions for this album because we managed to bring something fresh and beyond. It can be said that this first full album is a good foundation for us.
Before this debut album, you have released an EP back in 2021, titled “Thunder”. Can you tell us something about it – did it differ in any way from the style you’re playing at the moment?
Well, “Thunder” is a form of regret that we express due to the non-stop exploitation of nature in the song entitled “Negeri Abu” or “Country of Ashes”. That was an experience of one of us had worked in Industrial areas such Cileungsi and Balaraja, then telling about criticism the social and our corsa sense to aspire something free in the song entitled “Sound of Freedom”. And gloomy feeling and depressive sound when every problems are always repeated, it’s like a never ending problem in the song entitled “Depresif”. Maybe there’s a little difference between Thunder and Earth because it’s part of the musical process.
In July 2022 you did your Earthling West Java Tour, which comprised of 4 gigs. What can you tell us about this tour? How successful was it, in your opinion? You’ve been supported by quite a few bands of different genres (I know, because I know Hawthorn)…which of these 4 gigs would you consider the most successful?
Wow, that’s very interesting and something we hope we can do again with the aim of cities to be visited even more, hopefully this can be realized. For all the citiez that we came have their own stories and they really made impression on us, thanks to all friends who helped us in the series of “Earthling West Java Tour”.
As we’ve mentioned earlier, the debut is over 7 months old…have you already started to work on a new material? If so, when do you think we can expect any new songs from Velvethell?
Yes, we were preoccupied with the production agenda which caused this interview to be delayed hahaha (two fingers sign). Hope that we can finish it this year because on this year we will still gonna make more chaos hahaha.
How about other plans? Is there anything you want to achieve in 2023?
We hope we can finish our EP this year, and we remain solid as a band. Hopefully the sustenance between the members will also run smoothly
For those interested in any Velvethell merchandise, do you or the label offer any items of interest to your fans?
Of course you can contact our label as there are some t-shirt stocks available as well as enamel pins.
Before we finish this little interview – any bands from your area you would like to recommend to those wanting to explore your local scene a little more?
Komunal is a heavy rock itself, so please listen to them from the album Panorama, Hitam Semesta, Gemuruh Musik Pertiwi and Komando Badai Api.
And we’re at the and of this interview…Final message to our readers?
There are no limitations in creating if you guys want to work, you have to go on that. But if you only explain your music formula without an execution of work it’s the same as zero, you decide for yourself!!
