Some Velvet Morning talk Fidel Castro and Fleetwood Mac

Some Velvet Morning are set for big things. We first found them on a London rooftop back in January playing a gig to raise awareness on musician’s rights and to commemorate 40 years since the Beatles last performance. Since then they have finished writing their second album and are ready to unleash their gargantuan riffs and all out vocal performances on the public.

Last week we caught Some Velvet Morning as they came off stage at Islington Bar Academy to talk Festivals, Fidel Castro and Fleetwood Mac….

Introducing Des Lambert (Lead vocals and guitar), Gavin Lambert (Bass) and Rob Flanagan (Drums).

Des and Gavin, being brothers, did you play music together growing up?

Des: No, we fought! Then we became buddies in the band

Rob, how long have you been playing drums?

Rob: Probably about ten years, quite a long time. I started on cardboard boxes….still playing on cardboard boxes now!

How did Some Velvet Morning come to be?

Rob: I met Des in Denmark Street, the shop has just burnt down actually. It wasn’t us! Des used to work in a piano shop, I went in with a massive poster saying ‘Drummer available’ and he was like “this is a piano shop get out! You can put your card up but you’re not putting this big poster up!”

Rob: He just took my number because he saw I was local and lived near and we got together for a jam and Gavin was just there, his brother.

Did you have a specific sound in mind from the start?

Des: No, some bands start that way. We just had the people and worked out what the people could do. We went the long way around. It’s only really in the last couple of years that we’ve gone “oh, that’s what you can do Rob, that’s what I can do and that’s what Gavin can do. And then suddenly, that’s what we can do”. Some bands will go “this is the concept and this is the band we want to sound like……” We unfortunately didn’t have that shortcut at the beginning; we didn’t know what the hell we were doing. Just happened that I had a brother, a drummer, what can we do?

Rob: Des started on keyboards at the beginning then thought we need a guitarist

Were there some bands around at that time where you thought, that’s what we want to be doing?

Des: We got together during a desert period, there was a bit of a drought going on, the biggest things were Britney Spears and Ricky Martin. There wasn’t really much to look up to, and then there was a bit of a guitar revolution, bands like Franz Ferdinand and The Libertines, all of these bands started coming out that had guitars. It was all a bit more exciting, because at this time we were a guitar band and suddenly we noticed that on the live circuit bands were getting better, the live side of things just got better from then on, and then we had to improve our game.

How has your sound progressed since the last album?

Des: Well the first album, we had a large amount of time for the songs. We have songs that span a five year period.  Then the record company came along saying “I like that song and I like that song” and that became the first album. This album has been written since we learnt from the mistakes of the first album. The first album is good but obviously you want to improve it, so I think we’ve honed down our sound further and just understood the process that we need to go through. So for example, I think we got the album order wrong on the first album and so hopefully we will rectify that this time. Sound wise we have got a bit tougher, harder, probably more raw. I think we were hiding behind a few more things on the first album.

You worked with Rik Simpson on your last album (co-producer of Coldplay’s albums and Grammy Award winner), how was that?

Des: He was a great guy and unfortunately Chris Martin sort of kidnapped him! He keeps him in a cupboard and it’s quite hard to get him out of that cupboard! He’s on tour with Coldplay at the moment; he co-produced their album and won a Grammy. He’s in Chris Martin’s cupboard and it’s kind of hard to tempt him out!

Rob: I hear from him now and again, he’s a great guy, absolutely focused on the job and the task in hand.

How far along are you with the next album?

Des: We’ve recorded about fourteen (tracks) and we have pretty much selected the ten that we think are the album, and the order that I like!

Rob: I, I, I, I…

Des: Well I’ve said come up with a better one so we’ll see! No, we’ve come up with an order that we like and it’s sort of ready. But we were on an independent with the first album and unfortunately financial things happened and the first album didn’t get a full release. It got more of a release in America than the UK. So we have seen what happens if you have a good album but no muscle behind it, so we’ve got the album but we don’t want to just sort of dribble it out. We want to find someone to kick it out there.

Obviously you have a lot of new tracks now but are there some tracks from the last album that you will always want to keep on playing?

Des: Well we did two songs tonight from our first album ‘Losing My Mind’ and ‘Propaganda’, I think we all agree that they are two of the best songs on there. There are a few songs on there that we get a lot of positive feedback from; ‘Stolen Love Song’, ‘Nightshift’ and ‘Godless’ as well. When you’re in a club you have to keep the energy up so unfortunately we don’t get to play some of our beautiful ballads…

For someone who has not been to one of your live shows, how would you describe it to them?

Des: We are x good and then the crowd have got to bring….I will try and encourage the crowd to bring in that x amount and obviously some nights they are really up for it and its great, other nights it will just be as good as we are. Like any band, a full room and a lot of excited people is great. We’ve had a great run this year where it has been full crowds, so long may it continue

Are there any bands you have seen live recently that have inspired you, new or old?

Rob: I saw a band called The Jessie Rose Trip last week

Des: What about Blur?

Rob: Blur were amazing live, they were very, very good

Des: You get to see a lot of the bands that are on the same bills as you, unless you are doing interviews behind the stage and missing the gigs! Apart from that you are busy and rehearsing. I don’t think personally that it’s healthy to be too obsessed with what’s going on because obviously that is just going to affect you. I’m easily influenced! I don’t want to hear about record companies and I don’t wanna see other bands! Maybe I’ll just go sit on a mountain!

What other bands do you listen to?

Des: The record that I put on probably the most this week was ‘The Chain’ by Fleetwood Mac.

Gavin: You’d know it; it’s from the Formula One soundtrack

Des: I played it to these boys in rehearsal the other night and we then started playing it, and we do sound good doing it. So maybe a Fleetwood Mac tribute!

Gavin: U2 is always on the radar, who else?

Rob: The Beatles for me, I don’t really listen to anything else, twelve albums, that’s about all I can manage…

Gavin: On rotation

Des: Recently there have been some good isolated tracks out but I have not really passionately got into an album in the past year I don’t think.  Kasabian are a good band

Rob: Razorlight we like…

Des: We sound like a married couple when we say “we like”

Gavin: Razorlight, White Stripes, Franz Ferdinand, the big bands basically

Are there any particular songs that are your all time favourites?

Rob:  ‘Come Together’

Gavin: ‘Seven Nation Army’ by White Stripes, always!

Rob: I know what you’re gonna say. ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’ by Marvin Gaye

Des: No that’s my favourite intro of all time, not my favourite song of all time. Mine changes every half minute, so I’m not answering that one!

Gavin: What about ‘The Chain’ by Fleetwood Mac? That can be your favourite song of all time!

Des: No, I like about ten seconds of it

Rob: You can see Des later this year can’t you at a Fleetwood Mac reunion!

Are there any festivals that you would like to play next year?

Gavin: One thing about festivals is obviously they are the big thing at the moment. However, we have a thing about a lot of our favourite bands who don’t do festivals, for instance U2. So it’s something we are toying with! (laughs)

Rob: James doesn’t know, he has his wellies out ready!

Gavin: When you first do the festivals you are obviously lower down the bill and you generally get the worse stages. We might try and avoid that until we have built up a bit of a profile

Des: I kind of think that people shouldn’t get to see us at festivals because you pay like a hundred pounds to see thousands of bands. If you come and see us, you pay your whatever and just come and see us and that’s it. Go and have fun at your festivals and when you’re ready come and see us! I’m actually serious and these guys laugh! I can see me having lots of arguments with the band about this!

Rob: We’ll have a big cardboard cut out of Des in the middle of the stage!

Do you have any more shows and tours planned?

Rob: We are going to be doing something with The Yardbirds I think

Des: Anywhere that does good scones and cream. You laugh but that is actually on the rider!

James: They’d play in the middle of a field in Devon if they had good scones and cream!

For a limited time only you can download Some Velvet Morning’s ‘How To Start A Revolution’ exclusively from Muso’s Guide by clicking on that very link.