words rachel mok

Velvette Vendetta’s new EP taps into the other side of beauty

Sitting in a cozy al fresco area of a bar in Tsim Sha Tsui, the manager of Velvette Vendetta hands me an official bio of the band. The headline reads ‘Vampires Demonstrate Desperate Romance & Vandalism in New Age’. You’ve got to resent it when someone has summed up everything you may have wanted in your article in such a few words. Nevertheless, the title – and especially the word ‘vampires’ – is an apt descaription of the band’s image. Whether you see it as gothic or dazzling beauty, their presentation does remind me of the elegance of Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles. Though sadly a friend of drummer Andre sees him as an ‘old drag queen’. ‘I just laughed and said “yea, right,”’ chuckles the drummer.

The insistence on image comes mainly from vocalist and guitarist Jacky (wearing a pair of Ray-Bans and a jacket under the burning sun and with two people helping him to carry his instruments, the frontman was mistaken for Bon Jovi on a recent tour of Manila) who started the band after graduation. Still, bassist Ken is also a fan of male grooming. ‘I like nail polishing… but cannot do it often because I work in an office. I once tried to paint [my nails] with a permanent marker, but the colour faded away quickly.’ The band isn’t all metrosexual – Andre prefers a cap, shorts and a pair sneakers on stage but manages to fit in, as the band believe a live show should entertain both visually and aurally. ‘We play happier if we dress nicer,’ says Ken. ‘I think people who come to the show will enjoy it too – because there should be a greater variety of bands in one show.’

The band’s debut five-track EP, Beautiful Vision Distorted, is due to be launched on May 1. Its title explains the band’s ‘concept of revealing the dark side of gracefulness’. Says Jacky, the mastermind behind both the music and the lyrics, ‘I think a lot of things have a beautiful facade, but underneath there may be a lot of ugliness. It is just covered by beauty.’ Opener Too Late is the imaginative reflections of a soldier about to board a plane going to war, where A Gloomy Day For A Funeral Of My Friend describes contradictory feelings at the last rites for one beloved. ‘When someone you love departs, you are sad and at the same time you feel a little bit of hatred, asking why they had to leave you so soon.’ La Chanson de Depart is a love song about cheating, while A Very Pale Rose depicts the romance of vampires. And Night Before The Snow Storm questions the belief that a natural disaster is God’s punishment for the sins its victims have committed.

The composer admits that he is imaginative and likes telling stories that reveal his thinking indirectly. ‘He is rather poetic right? But whether you understand his lyrics is another matter. He is very naughty… [To Jacky] Did you grow up reading Dickens?’ teases bassist Ken, who, before joining the band, played classical guitar to impress girls but ending up impressing Jacky instead. The five-piece are very much a united collective now, but that could have been very different after their ‘disastrous’ first jamming session back in 2006. ‘I went for a drink with Ken and Andre after the session and I had to ask them if they really wanted to play as a band,’ recalls Jacky. Both were willing. ‘I know when you don’t know each other well it is difficult to start playing, but I believed with time we could improve. So the next time we met, we were already renting our own rehearsal room.’

The band members’ various influences are pretty extreme. Out of Andre’s devotion to American rock and David’s upbringing with the classic rock of the likes of Led Zeppelin and AC/DC, Ken’s fondness for J-Rock and Jacky’s love of Scandinavian extreme metal, they have built a sound that is now recognizably Velvette Vendetta. Yet in the beginning they seemed to owe much to bands like Muse. ‘Whenever a band comes out people will say they sound like another band. People used to say Muse sounded like Radiohead. If you think a band sounds totally new, that’s probably because you don’t know where the influence of that band comes from,’ says Jacky. The early days of the band did see them cover songs of the Devon trio, though Andre regards the influence as negligible – he claims he never listened to Muse in depth before joining Velvette Vendetta. ‘When we started we sounded a bit like them because we had no direction at that time. But now we definitely have our own style,’ Jacky concludes.

Velvette Vendetta are Jacky (vocals/guitar), Andre (drums), David (guitar), Ken (bass) and Traven (synthesizers/keyboards). Catch them at the Beautiful Vision Distorted EP Release Ceremony on May 1 at Backstage. Doors opens at 10pm and entry is $150 at the door, which includes a free drink and a special edition EP. Born to Hula and Innisfallen support.