July 17, 2025 • 20 mins
Normally when a band starts to click with the mainstream its after they've been at it for a long time. That's not to say Velvet Chains haven't been grinding, but bassist and founder Nils Goldschmidt didn't even start the band until he was in his early 30s, and they started as cover band playing little bars in the Vegas area. Then inspiration struck and the Velvet Chains we now know was born.
"Ghost in the Shell" by Velvet Chains is out now.
"Ghost in the Shell" by Velvet Chains is out now.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
My attention plays and no cutters rock cat.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I just did ninety minutes of fucking peloton, dude, I'm
beat up as fuck, so.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
My eyes are all bloodshot and shit.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Yeah, ninety minutes of peloton.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
No. Yeah, I'm like a fucking hardcore peloton rider, like bad.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
I do that. I do like seven hours a week
or so. So it's just it's ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Okay, dude, I know we're gonna we're gonna talk about
the band, but you gotta explain this to me because
I don't understand the peloton thing. I do not at all.
I'm like, yeah, I come from a cold climate. I'm like,
we get twenty nice weekends a year. I'm like, I'm
going outside, you know what I mean, Like I don't
if I'm going to ride a bicycle, I'm going outside,
or I'm gonna ride my motorbike instead and get fatter.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
But no, dude, I get it. I just hate nature.
I just like being indoors. Like I'm in San Diego
right now to escape from fucking Vegas because I have
a place here. So I spent like most of the
like half of the summer here. Yeah, but like I
do Cardio not to enjoy the ride. I do it
(01:07):
because I need to burn calories and I like to
take my t shirt off on stage, and it's like
the only reason I do that.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
I gotta look good. I gotta look good with my
bass hung though. I'm I'm gonna do nineteen eighty nine
Duff McKagan style just so that's it.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
That's that's why I got him tattooed on my arm. Dude.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
That's hilarious.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
I know, when I let my hair down, I'm wearing
porting too. But when I let it down, dude, people start.
Like we were in Brazil opening for Slash for a show,
I had my hair down and people started screaming Duff duff,
and I'm like, I am never wearing my hair down again.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
That's hilarious. I Hey, you can be confused for way
worse people, especially as a baseboard in a rock band.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
I appreciate that. I appreciate and.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Opening for Slash at the same time. Come on, that
just seemed too obvious.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
That is yeah, yeah, but yeah, I don't know, all right,
that was kind of like that.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Yeah, that was one of the best things I've ever
done in my life.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
If I died, I always say, if I die tomorrow,
I opened for Slash, Dude, I'm.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Ready to go. That's it. That's it. You should take
that to the grave for sure. Here lies here Lies.
Is it Niles or is it Nils? Nils, Nils Niels? Sorry,
here lies Nils. He had a band, but he once
opened for Slash, And that's it.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
I'll be angry if that's what my say.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
That's awesome. That band of that band, of course, is
called Velvet Chains.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Dude.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Okay, so this band, you have to explain this to
me because I remember when you guys came out a
few years ago, quite a few years ago, probably what
right at the start of it was right around the pandemic,
because I remember when I first started hearing the name,
like right before. I think it might have been Vegas.
Actually it might have been you know what it was
it was. Were you at the there was a rock
radio convention right before the pandemic hit in Vegas?
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Oh No, I wasn't at that one.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Were you in a different one radio.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Thing in like twenty twenty three years so twenty four maybe?
Speaker 3 (03:04):
All right? Yeah, because there was I remember that the
name started getting tossed around and you're you guys are
a Vegas band, So I just thought, but I know
what that was either way, and I could be confusing
the two time lines. It's like watching Marvel in twenty
twenty five. I'm just I'm getting timelines all mixed up.
(03:26):
But either way, I know. You guys launched as a band, right,
this was your thing, this is your baby, your deal,
and then you had some songs out and then you
kind of everybody left and you relaunched as a new band,
but the same like catch me up, man, it give.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Us the details at your lineup changes.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
We started as a cover band in twenty eighteen, and
all we did was play covers and shitty bars.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
That's all I wanted to do.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
And found a bunch of musicians on Craigslist and that's
how we got going. Then COVID hit and all I
was doing was staring at the wall and drinking whiskey,
sitting on the couch.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
And I'm like, I can either do this or I
can stare at the wall, drink whiskey, sit.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
On the couch and write lyrics. And I'm like, okay,
let's try the second option. And I hooked up with
a songwriter composer out of La my buddy hooked me
up with and I started doing some original like demo stuff,
and I went to the band and I said, guys,
I'm gonna do this with you or without you, like
who's in?
Speaker 1 (04:21):
And they're like, yeah, yeah, we're all in. And they
just kind of fizzled out a little bit.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
We we got a couple of good songs that we
put an album out called Chorus, and we even had
our first single we ever released. We had a collapse
from Richard ford Is, a feature from Richard Fordis. So yeah,
that kind of messed me up because I'm like, shit,
on my first single release ever, i can get Richard
Fordis from my favorite band dude, like fucking Sky's the
Limit dude, and little did I know, just joking, but
(04:50):
but we did that, and then they kind of fizzled
out where like they didn't really want to do the
original thing because it's a lot more work. It's a
whole different world than just playing covers in a bar, right,
So just started finding other musicians out there and and yeah,
I had to replace my singer and then we kind
of started doing the original thing hardcore full time, and
(05:10):
and just like that, like a lot of people didn't
know how hard this thing is and they're like I've
had enough, or we had a fallout and then eventually
we landed on this new lineup or new new ish
lineup that we have where where we're yeah, we have
Chas Philip, Jason Vumboldt and me.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
So that's a very short version of it.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Well, you know, as a as a band, bands go
through these changes that that happens right when you when
you fall in love with your favorite band. Generally speaking,
that's not the original lineup. There was a guy or
a girl who came before, who played the drums before
the thing you saw them on, or played bass or
you know whatever it maybe, so that's not a normal
thing for that to happen. But to go all originally
(05:56):
to it's balls. It's a ballsy move right to start
out as a cover band and go, you know what,
screw this, I'm gonna write instead, because normally it's like
you started as a cover band and go. But the
goal is I'm going to write not as a fuck this,
I'm going to write.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Yeah, no, that's a good point. I guess ignorance is bliss.
It's like, fuck, let's write originals. How hard could it be.
We write a good song, I'm sure it'll blow up.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
But it was all kind of in spurts, like small,
like I never had the big vision of like, oh,
let's go and try to be a mainstream rock band,
which we're not.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Quite there yet, you could argue. But at the same time,
it was like, can.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
We put an album out, can we have music on
Spotify or Apple streaming whatever, can we do a music
video challenge?
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Accepted, Let's go.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
So it's always been kind of like that, Like even
when I first started as a cover band, it started as, Hey,
anybody want to jam over at Jeff's house once a week,
and then it told like the story of my life
and my wife the moment I said I'm gonna start
jimming out over at Jeff's house, She's like, ah, fuck,
what are you getting into And I'm like, nothing, I
just want to hang out with Jeff and have some songs.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
And she's like, nah, I know you, she knows.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
I'm like, you're crazy. She said you got to start
playing gigs. I'm I don't want to play gigs. I'm
no interest in that. And then that she was right
like two months later, Jeff's like, hey, I know a guy,
well to play, let's go play a gig and like
that's over the years and she but she always saw
it from day one and.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Uh, and I never did.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
I just kind of go tunnel vision and I just
go what's next, what's next, what's next?
Speaker 1 (07:36):
And uh and yeah, So.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
What at what point were you at in your life
when you when you picked up a bass guitar then,
because it sounds like I mean, you're you're doing all
the steps later in life that we all did when
we were fourteen and then fizzled out and got no.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
So my music story is kind of weird because I
played violin from like age five to fifteen. I would
do like ensembles orchestra concerts in front of you know,
one hundred people or whatever.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Classical violin and I was I hated it.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
I was forced to do it by my parents, but
I absolutely hated it because I wanted to be, you know,
twelve years old. I'm like, I'm starting to chase chicks,
you know, and nobody wanted to hook up with a
violin and hook up I mean like hold a hand
or like I give the kids on the cheek, right,
That's why. But I want to get telephone numbers, and
nobody wants to like hang out with a violin player.
They all want to hang out with the guitar players.
(08:24):
I'm like, Mom, I want to learn electric guitar. She's like, no,
that's not a real instrument, blah blah blah, A real
different time, but no, So then I just I dropped
it and I went the the business route.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
I started a couple of businesses and I did that.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
So most of my life I have an education in classical,
classically trained violin player.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
I don't think I can grab a violin today and
play anything. I could read music and everything.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
And then fast forward to the next what twenty years
I did nothing, And then I went back to that
and I'm like, I made money, I've done well.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
I did bins. I guess all odds.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
I was succeeded, but I'm like, I'm not really happy,
like I want to go back to what made me
happy per se. And that's when I picked up a gates,
like at basically like twenties, early thirties something like that.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Okay, yeah, early thirties.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
And that's when I picked up a base and it
just felt so natural. It was four strings, you know,
one finger at a time. You can do other things
right obviously, but right and that's when it just turbo
propped into playing gigs at Jeff's house too now opening
for Slash.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Or right in Brazil.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
You know that's insane to go, Yeah, to go from
that to a real proper rock band that actually has
a chance to do something that's it's pretty incredible, honestly
when you think about it. You know, like you said,
like you said, ignorance is bliss, and maybe that's a
blessed thing in this story because you didn't have that
chase chase, chase, chase to the point of exhaustion, and
(09:54):
it was more of a Okay, well the next step
is this, and then.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
I guess I did it.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
No, you're fine, I guess I did it a little bit.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
In business, and the same thing, right, ignorance is place.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
If I would have known how incredibly difficult being an
entrepreneur was, I would have probably never done it.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Right.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
It was like the darkest time in my life until many,
many many years later it kind of started working out.
And the music thing is the same, Like I known
how incredibly difficult this thing is.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
The industry is I probably would have never done it.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
But dude, I swear like my next settoo is going
to be the Ignorance.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Why not? Why not? All right, so let's talk about
this band. So let's talk about this band, and let's
talk about your music. Velvet Chains the name of the band,
of course. Latest single is a song called ghosts Inside.
You got over a million streams, and the last single
dead or I mean ghost in the Shell. The last
song was dead Inside, so I didn't have them written
down in front of me doing that off memory. But
(10:48):
that song goes over a million streams and does pretty
well and kind of sets you up to where you
are now. Obviously, like you said, you had a song,
Richard ford Is, you had some singles out, you know,
years ago that did what they did. But this seems
like a real right opportunity here right now for Velvet Chains.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
I think I love ghosting the Shell. It's got our
our our new singer chat and then I'm never replacing
any bad members again.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Dude, I'm done with all that.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
You say that.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
On that note. No, I do think ghost in the
Shell should go a long way. We did a killer
music video with it.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
We have.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
I don't know we have this whole campaign going, we're
trying to have it blow up.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
I don't know, it's I guess, I guess. The point
My point is you're doing the right thing. You're doing
the you're doing. It's the normal thing. It's not the
not the uh see what happens, See what happens, See
what happens. But it's the there seems to be people
behind it. There's people behind you, there's a there's there's
all the things right. It's a proper rock band and
(11:56):
a proper rock single that is looks like it can
do what those songs do, and that is, of course
rise up the radio charts and the YouTube and all
of that.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Yeah, I appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
And we're pretty much trying every angle right three hundred
and sixty degree approach, where we have the radio thing going,
we have the streaming goal on YouTube and the social media,
and we're just waiting. We're trying to light little fires
everywhere and hopefully something just catch us on and it
becomes huge, massive success. But I guess that's the only
way to do it these days, because you never know
what's going to ignite and what's going to work and
(12:29):
what won't. But it seems like dead Inside got way
further than the previous song that we had on radio,
which was Stuck against the Wall, and hopefully this and
we'll do the same.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Right, Yeah, that sort of natural progression. Why Ghost, What
is it about this song that made you guys want to,
you know, really showcase Chazz's vocals on this and put
this out with the new lineup first.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Yeah, it was a great way to introduce him to
our fan base and to listeners out there, because this
was the first song he's on.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
We have. We're working on like four or five different
songs right now.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Summer stillost things down a little bit, but we should
start releasing it about a month again.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
And it's just a little bit on the harder side,
and we're trying to be a little bit less predictable.
The bridge on this song is kind of thrash. It
kind of brings back metallic.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Eighties or whatever, and we really think that, so we're
trying to go a little bit of a route that's
a little bit less traditional format, a little bit more unpredictability.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
And this is kind of like a light version of
what's coming.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
But we are not we're trying not to just follow
what everybody else copypaste formula and try to just be
ourselves and be honest to ourselves.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
And the music that we like.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
So we're definitely a little harder than when we started,
and I think that's the route we're going, but without
losing like our grungey alternative roots and the melodic rifts
in there, yeah, buried inside.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
You know, in the early two thousands, when there were
bands coming out, it was considered new metal, right, but
there were these, you know, bands outside of the Seven Dusts,
I mean like the sort of third fourth tier bands
that never really got a shot, But there was these
bands coming out. Were the choruses you could tell they
listened to a ton of Alice and Chains, you know,
(14:01):
or or G and R or whatever. Like there was
sort of that like, oh that band was listening to
soundguarded NonStop for a minute, even though it's down tuned
and heavy. I got that same vibe listening to this song.
I really did of like, oh, there's a killer, catchy
chorus on that that like hearkens back to some of that,
you know, there's there's what's the word I want to use.
(14:26):
There's layers of vocals you know that just a lot.
It's it's real easy to get stuck in your head
and sing along to a little.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
No.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
That's a great observation and that's definitely one of our
biggest influences, I think everything we're doing. When we talk
to the producers we're working with, we're like, hey, we
definitely don't want to lose our Alice and Chains influence
in there. And we have such talented singers Chest and
also vom Bold, who both sing incredibly well and they
do harmonies together. So we're definitely trying to always maintain
(14:57):
our roots in there.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
But be more modern and relevant and try new things. Right.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
But dude, I love that you mentioned that because that's
one hundred percent of what we're trying to do without
trying to, you know, be Alison Chains or copy them
too much, even though it's in our name Velvet Chains,
but yeah, we're trying to rip them off.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Of course, does Velvet chase the name right from the beginning,
like as the cover band two, Yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
The reason the name exists, like we have different versions
of it right there. We found a t shirt on
eBay that said Velvet Chains Spanish Club and like drawing
off some like half Naked.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Lady, So we bought a couple of those.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Yeah, no, she's stoked about And I don't know, there's
some books out there called Velvet Chains are all like
erotic adults whatever. I don't know, but no, so we
we we used to play nineties and two thousands covers
of hard rock, alternative rock Crunch and we're like, I
love Velvet Revolver, and my drummer at the time like
(15:50):
Telson Chains, let's Velvet Chains, Tonight drive the message like, oh,
probably nineties two thousands.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Covers, and then you know, I'm like, oh, we have
a fan base.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
We had a little bit of a fan base in Vegas,
even they stayed when we went the original route, and
I'm like, ah, let's keep the name, you know, not
to confuse our fans. And in hindsight, I probably would
have changed it. But it works whatever. It's familiar, so.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
I think it absolutely works. But that to read the
story that you guys are a cover band first, I'm like,
I bet those guys were doing Alis and Chains, Velvet
Revolver covers. They're playing They're open in that show with Slither,
you know, going going into going in a man in
the box and seeing what happens after that.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
That's right, that's it.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
I think my first cover band also was called Stone
Velvet Pilots.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
So it was really funny, dude, because I played guitar,
and uh, the most recent cover band that I was in,
we just called it a day. My best friend and I.
He had have to have some elbow surgery so they
just can't play right now. And either way, I'm like,
you know, I love all those guitar riffs from like
the like Pinnacle of Rap Metal, you know, Rage Against
(16:57):
the Machine and Lincoln Park, and like there's there are
some cool you know, some even some of that mixture
Anthrax stuff, some biohazard, you know that, Like, there are
some cool riffs. I want to just start a I'm
gonna start a rap metal tribute band but from like
the good days and call it Lincoln the Lincoln Biscuit Machine,
just you know, so dumb. It's so dumb.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Forget that name.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
That's just it. That's just it. And I told my
wife and she just looked at me like you're an idiot. Okay,
You're right, I am.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
That's amazing.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
Don't steal that.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
I'm gonna change our bad name to that.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Well, when you're bored, if you want to play bass,
I'm gonna try to get that going. What's next for you, guys,
I mean, what's the rest of this year looks like?
I know you said you have a few more songs
kind of in the pipe or we're still working on
obviously the song's out now.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yeah, we're, like I said, a bunch of songs that
we're working on right now a couple of different producers.
We are trying to find out if we're jumping on
a tour to Latin America later this.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Year, tour of fifty to fifty bed obviously.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Is it bad? Is it opening for Bad Bunny?
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Oh dude, I wish we'd have way more fast.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Statistically, because everybody listens to Bad Bunny, everybody. Statistically we
got one percent of those fats we blow up in rock.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
That's awesome. I'm gonna tell people that. But yeah, we're
obviously we can't share.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Any of that, but I'm working new music, trying to
see if we get on that, and then for for
next year. Really we're focused because we're already what halfway
through the year, so any O Yeager stuff is already
in the worst for twenty twenty six. But we recently
signed up with the booking agency out of Germany, so
we're probably gonna do some stuff in February and Europe,
a small tour over there and play.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
A few festivals, so that should be fun.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
That buried in the European snow to be fun, but hey,
we'll take anything.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
The European snow ain't that bad. It's okay, No, yeah,
you're probably right. We've been unless you get stuck in
the else as long as they don't take you to
scan the navy. Yeah, you know in February you'd be
all right, No, I.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Can't we can't wait.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
That'll be our first time in Europe, so yeah, hopefully
that that'll be a lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
I wish you nothing but the best.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
The song is that now it's called Ghost in the Shell.
There's some past obviously velvet chain stuff. And I'll play
a couple of those teams on my show of the
Cutting Edge Countdown. Yeah, I appreciate it because there's always
three there's always at least three songs we play, so
I'll play one old school and a couple newer. So
we'll do that over the weekend. But yeah, go check
out that song. The video by the way, nice nice
making me relive high school nightmares. So thank you for that.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Yeah, we uh, I'm glad you liked it.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
We uh.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
That's the first time I've probably been in an actual
high school since I graduated many many months ago.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Well why else you go to high school? Exactly, And
unless you got a kid in high school, there's no
reason to go to the high school.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Good point, Good point, dude. I walked in a classroom,
but there I got PTSD. Like immediately, I'm like, oh
my god, I don't want to be here. Let's cancel this.
I don't feel good.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
I didn't study.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
It was fun.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Yeah, that's awesome. If anybody who doesn't know what I'm
talking about, you'll be able to see the video cutting
discountdown dot com. But you guys are basically bad. Manager
books to you as a prom band and they all
hate you, except for the one kid at the end
who is the hero of the story. And it has
a happy ending.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Yeah, yeah, very nice.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Velvet Chain is the name of the band. Dude, Thank
you so much for a quick conversation. Appreciate and let's
do it to get down the road.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Oh my man, thank you for having me. This is great,
it's a good time. Thank you, Cutters rock Cast.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Don't forget to tune in exactly
My attention plays and no cutters rock cat.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I just did ninety minutes of fucking peloton, dude, I'm
beat up as fuck, so.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
My eyes are all bloodshot and shit.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Yeah, ninety minutes of peloton.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
No. Yeah, I'm like a fucking hardcore peloton rider, like bad.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
I do that. I do like seven hours a week
or so. So it's just it's ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Okay, dude, I know we're gonna we're gonna talk about
the band, but you gotta explain this to me because
I don't understand the peloton thing. I do not at all.
I'm like, yeah, I come from a cold climate. I'm like,
we get twenty nice weekends a year. I'm like, I'm
going outside, you know what I mean, Like I don't
if I'm going to ride a bicycle, I'm going outside,
or I'm gonna ride my motorbike instead and get fatter.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
But no, dude, I get it. I just hate nature.
I just like being indoors. Like I'm in San Diego
right now to escape from fucking Vegas because I have
a place here. So I spent like most of the
like half of the summer here. Yeah, but like I
do Cardio not to enjoy the ride. I do it
(01:07):
because I need to burn calories and I like to
take my t shirt off on stage, and it's like
the only reason I do that.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
I gotta look good. I gotta look good with my
bass hung though. I'm I'm gonna do nineteen eighty nine
Duff McKagan style just so that's it.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
That's that's why I got him tattooed on my arm. Dude.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
That's hilarious.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
I know, when I let my hair down, I'm wearing
porting too. But when I let it down, dude, people start.
Like we were in Brazil opening for Slash for a show,
I had my hair down and people started screaming Duff duff,
and I'm like, I am never wearing my hair down again.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
That's hilarious. I Hey, you can be confused for way
worse people, especially as a baseboard in a rock band.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
I appreciate that. I appreciate and.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Opening for Slash at the same time. Come on, that
just seemed too obvious.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
That is yeah, yeah, but yeah, I don't know, all right,
that was kind of like that.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Yeah, that was one of the best things I've ever
done in my life.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
If I died, I always say, if I die tomorrow,
I opened for Slash, Dude, I'm.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Ready to go. That's it. That's it. You should take
that to the grave for sure. Here lies here Lies.
Is it Niles or is it Nils? Nils, Nils Niels? Sorry,
here lies Nils. He had a band, but he once
opened for Slash, And that's it.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
I'll be angry if that's what my say.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
That's awesome. That band of that band, of course, is
called Velvet Chains.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Dude.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Okay, so this band, you have to explain this to
me because I remember when you guys came out a
few years ago, quite a few years ago, probably what
right at the start of it was right around the pandemic,
because I remember when I first started hearing the name,
like right before. I think it might have been Vegas.
Actually it might have been you know what it was
it was. Were you at the there was a rock
radio convention right before the pandemic hit in Vegas?
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Oh No, I wasn't at that one.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Were you in a different one radio.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Thing in like twenty twenty three years so twenty four maybe?
Speaker 3 (03:04):
All right? Yeah, because there was I remember that the
name started getting tossed around and you're you guys are
a Vegas band, So I just thought, but I know
what that was either way, and I could be confusing
the two time lines. It's like watching Marvel in twenty
twenty five. I'm just I'm getting timelines all mixed up.
(03:26):
But either way, I know. You guys launched as a band, right,
this was your thing, this is your baby, your deal,
and then you had some songs out and then you
kind of everybody left and you relaunched as a new band,
but the same like catch me up, man, it give.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Us the details at your lineup changes.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
We started as a cover band in twenty eighteen, and
all we did was play covers and shitty bars.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
That's all I wanted to do.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
And found a bunch of musicians on Craigslist and that's
how we got going. Then COVID hit and all I
was doing was staring at the wall and drinking whiskey,
sitting on the couch.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
And I'm like, I can either do this or I
can stare at the wall, drink whiskey, sit.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
On the couch and write lyrics. And I'm like, okay,
let's try the second option. And I hooked up with
a songwriter composer out of La my buddy hooked me
up with and I started doing some original like demo stuff,
and I went to the band and I said, guys,
I'm gonna do this with you or without you, like
who's in?
Speaker 1 (04:21):
And they're like, yeah, yeah, we're all in. And they
just kind of fizzled out a little bit.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
We we got a couple of good songs that we
put an album out called Chorus, and we even had
our first single we ever released. We had a collapse
from Richard ford Is, a feature from Richard Fordis. So yeah,
that kind of messed me up because I'm like, shit,
on my first single release ever, i can get Richard
Fordis from my favorite band dude, like fucking Sky's the
Limit dude, and little did I know, just joking, but
(04:50):
but we did that, and then they kind of fizzled
out where like they didn't really want to do the
original thing because it's a lot more work. It's a
whole different world than just playing covers in a bar, right,
So just started finding other musicians out there and and yeah,
I had to replace my singer and then we kind
of started doing the original thing hardcore full time, and
(05:10):
and just like that, like a lot of people didn't
know how hard this thing is and they're like I've
had enough, or we had a fallout and then eventually
we landed on this new lineup or new new ish
lineup that we have where where we're yeah, we have
Chas Philip, Jason Vumboldt and me.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
So that's a very short version of it.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Well, you know, as a as a band, bands go
through these changes that that happens right when you when
you fall in love with your favorite band. Generally speaking,
that's not the original lineup. There was a guy or
a girl who came before, who played the drums before
the thing you saw them on, or played bass or
you know whatever it maybe, so that's not a normal
thing for that to happen. But to go all originally
(05:56):
to it's balls. It's a ballsy move right to start
out as a cover band and go, you know what,
screw this, I'm gonna write instead, because normally it's like
you started as a cover band and go. But the
goal is I'm going to write not as a fuck this,
I'm going to write.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Yeah, no, that's a good point. I guess ignorance is bliss.
It's like, fuck, let's write originals. How hard could it be.
We write a good song, I'm sure it'll blow up.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
But it was all kind of in spurts, like small,
like I never had the big vision of like, oh,
let's go and try to be a mainstream rock band,
which we're not.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Quite there yet, you could argue. But at the same time,
it was like, can.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
We put an album out, can we have music on
Spotify or Apple streaming whatever, can we do a music
video challenge?
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Accepted, Let's go.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
So it's always been kind of like that, Like even
when I first started as a cover band, it started as, Hey,
anybody want to jam over at Jeff's house once a week,
and then it told like the story of my life
and my wife the moment I said I'm gonna start
jimming out over at Jeff's house, She's like, ah, fuck,
what are you getting into And I'm like, nothing, I
just want to hang out with Jeff and have some songs.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
And she's like, nah, I know you, she knows.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
I'm like, you're crazy. She said you got to start
playing gigs. I'm I don't want to play gigs. I'm
no interest in that. And then that she was right
like two months later, Jeff's like, hey, I know a guy,
well to play, let's go play a gig and like
that's over the years and she but she always saw
it from day one and.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Uh, and I never did.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
I just kind of go tunnel vision and I just
go what's next, what's next, what's next?
Speaker 1 (07:36):
And uh and yeah, So.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
What at what point were you at in your life
when you when you picked up a bass guitar then,
because it sounds like I mean, you're you're doing all
the steps later in life that we all did when
we were fourteen and then fizzled out and got no.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
So my music story is kind of weird because I
played violin from like age five to fifteen. I would
do like ensembles orchestra concerts in front of you know,
one hundred people or whatever.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Classical violin and I was I hated it.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
I was forced to do it by my parents, but
I absolutely hated it because I wanted to be, you know,
twelve years old. I'm like, I'm starting to chase chicks,
you know, and nobody wanted to hook up with a
violin and hook up I mean like hold a hand
or like I give the kids on the cheek, right,
That's why. But I want to get telephone numbers, and
nobody wants to like hang out with a violin player.
They all want to hang out with the guitar players.
(08:24):
I'm like, Mom, I want to learn electric guitar. She's like, no,
that's not a real instrument, blah blah blah, A real
different time, but no, So then I just I dropped
it and I went the the business route.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
I started a couple of businesses and I did that.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
So most of my life I have an education in classical,
classically trained violin player.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
I don't think I can grab a violin today and
play anything. I could read music and everything.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
And then fast forward to the next what twenty years
I did nothing, And then I went back to that
and I'm like, I made money, I've done well.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
I did bins. I guess all odds.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
I was succeeded, but I'm like, I'm not really happy,
like I want to go back to what made me
happy per se. And that's when I picked up a gates,
like at basically like twenties, early thirties something like that.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Okay, yeah, early thirties.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
And that's when I picked up a base and it
just felt so natural. It was four strings, you know,
one finger at a time. You can do other things
right obviously, but right and that's when it just turbo
propped into playing gigs at Jeff's house too now opening
for Slash.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Or right in Brazil.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
You know that's insane to go, Yeah, to go from
that to a real proper rock band that actually has
a chance to do something that's it's pretty incredible, honestly
when you think about it. You know, like you said,
like you said, ignorance is bliss, and maybe that's a
blessed thing in this story because you didn't have that
chase chase, chase, chase to the point of exhaustion, and
(09:54):
it was more of a Okay, well the next step
is this, and then.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
I guess I did it.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
No, you're fine, I guess I did it a little bit.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
In business, and the same thing, right, ignorance is place.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
If I would have known how incredibly difficult being an
entrepreneur was, I would have probably never done it.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Right.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
It was like the darkest time in my life until many,
many many years later it kind of started working out.
And the music thing is the same, Like I known
how incredibly difficult this thing is.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
The industry is I probably would have never done it.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
But dude, I swear like my next settoo is going
to be the Ignorance.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Why not? Why not? All right, so let's talk about
this band. So let's talk about this band, and let's
talk about your music. Velvet Chains the name of the band,
of course. Latest single is a song called ghosts Inside.
You got over a million streams, and the last single
dead or I mean ghost in the Shell. The last
song was dead Inside, so I didn't have them written
down in front of me doing that off memory. But
(10:48):
that song goes over a million streams and does pretty
well and kind of sets you up to where you
are now. Obviously, like you said, you had a song,
Richard ford Is, you had some singles out, you know,
years ago that did what they did. But this seems
like a real right opportunity here right now for Velvet Chains.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
I think I love ghosting the Shell. It's got our
our our new singer chat and then I'm never replacing
any bad members again.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Dude, I'm done with all that.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
You say that.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
On that note. No, I do think ghost in the
Shell should go a long way. We did a killer
music video with it.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
We have.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
I don't know we have this whole campaign going, we're
trying to have it blow up.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
I don't know, it's I guess, I guess. The point
My point is you're doing the right thing. You're doing
the you're doing. It's the normal thing. It's not the
not the uh see what happens, See what happens, See
what happens. But it's the there seems to be people
behind it. There's people behind you, there's a there's there's
all the things right. It's a proper rock band and
(11:56):
a proper rock single that is looks like it can
do what those songs do, and that is, of course
rise up the radio charts and the YouTube and all
of that.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Yeah, I appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
And we're pretty much trying every angle right three hundred
and sixty degree approach, where we have the radio thing going,
we have the streaming goal on YouTube and the social media,
and we're just waiting. We're trying to light little fires
everywhere and hopefully something just catch us on and it
becomes huge, massive success. But I guess that's the only
way to do it these days, because you never know
what's going to ignite and what's going to work and
(12:29):
what won't. But it seems like dead Inside got way
further than the previous song that we had on radio,
which was Stuck against the Wall, and hopefully this and
we'll do the same.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Right, Yeah, that sort of natural progression. Why Ghost, What
is it about this song that made you guys want to,
you know, really showcase Chazz's vocals on this and put
this out with the new lineup first.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Yeah, it was a great way to introduce him to
our fan base and to listeners out there, because this
was the first song he's on.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
We have. We're working on like four or five different
songs right now.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Summer stillost things down a little bit, but we should
start releasing it about a month again.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
And it's just a little bit on the harder side,
and we're trying to be a little bit less predictable.
The bridge on this song is kind of thrash. It
kind of brings back metallic.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Eighties or whatever, and we really think that, so we're
trying to go a little bit of a route that's
a little bit less traditional format, a little bit more unpredictability.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
And this is kind of like a light version of
what's coming.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
But we are not we're trying not to just follow
what everybody else copypaste formula and try to just be
ourselves and be honest to ourselves.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
And the music that we like.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
So we're definitely a little harder than when we started,
and I think that's the route we're going, but without
losing like our grungey alternative roots and the melodic rifts
in there, yeah, buried inside.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
You know, in the early two thousands, when there were
bands coming out, it was considered new metal, right, but
there were these, you know, bands outside of the Seven Dusts,
I mean like the sort of third fourth tier bands
that never really got a shot, But there was these
bands coming out. Were the choruses you could tell they
listened to a ton of Alice and Chains, you know,
(14:01):
or or G and R or whatever. Like there was
sort of that like, oh that band was listening to
soundguarded NonStop for a minute, even though it's down tuned
and heavy. I got that same vibe listening to this song.
I really did of like, oh, there's a killer, catchy
chorus on that that like hearkens back to some of that,
you know, there's there's what's the word I want to use.
(14:26):
There's layers of vocals you know that just a lot.
It's it's real easy to get stuck in your head
and sing along to a little.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
No.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
That's a great observation and that's definitely one of our
biggest influences, I think everything we're doing. When we talk
to the producers we're working with, we're like, hey, we
definitely don't want to lose our Alice and Chains influence
in there. And we have such talented singers Chest and
also vom Bold, who both sing incredibly well and they
do harmonies together. So we're definitely trying to always maintain
(14:57):
our roots in there.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
But be more modern and relevant and try new things. Right.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
But dude, I love that you mentioned that because that's
one hundred percent of what we're trying to do without
trying to, you know, be Alison Chains or copy them
too much, even though it's in our name Velvet Chains,
but yeah, we're trying to rip them off.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Of course, does Velvet chase the name right from the beginning,
like as the cover band two, Yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
The reason the name exists, like we have different versions
of it right there. We found a t shirt on
eBay that said Velvet Chains Spanish Club and like drawing
off some like half Naked.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Lady, So we bought a couple of those.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Yeah, no, she's stoked about And I don't know, there's
some books out there called Velvet Chains are all like
erotic adults whatever. I don't know, but no, so we
we we used to play nineties and two thousands covers
of hard rock, alternative rock Crunch and we're like, I
love Velvet Revolver, and my drummer at the time like
(15:50):
Telson Chains, let's Velvet Chains, Tonight drive the message like, oh,
probably nineties two thousands.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Covers, and then you know, I'm like, oh, we have
a fan base.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
We had a little bit of a fan base in Vegas,
even they stayed when we went the original route, and
I'm like, ah, let's keep the name, you know, not
to confuse our fans. And in hindsight, I probably would
have changed it. But it works whatever. It's familiar, so.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
I think it absolutely works. But that to read the
story that you guys are a cover band first, I'm like,
I bet those guys were doing Alis and Chains, Velvet
Revolver covers. They're playing They're open in that show with Slither,
you know, going going into going in a man in
the box and seeing what happens after that.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
That's right, that's it.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
I think my first cover band also was called Stone
Velvet Pilots.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
So it was really funny, dude, because I played guitar,
and uh, the most recent cover band that I was in,
we just called it a day. My best friend and I.
He had have to have some elbow surgery so they
just can't play right now. And either way, I'm like,
you know, I love all those guitar riffs from like
the like Pinnacle of Rap Metal, you know, Rage Against
(16:57):
the Machine and Lincoln Park, and like there's there are
some cool you know, some even some of that mixture
Anthrax stuff, some biohazard, you know that, Like, there are
some cool riffs. I want to just start a I'm
gonna start a rap metal tribute band but from like
the good days and call it Lincoln the Lincoln Biscuit Machine,
just you know, so dumb. It's so dumb.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Forget that name.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
That's just it. That's just it. And I told my
wife and she just looked at me like you're an idiot. Okay,
You're right, I am.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
That's amazing.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
Don't steal that.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
I'm gonna change our bad name to that.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Well, when you're bored, if you want to play bass,
I'm gonna try to get that going. What's next for you, guys,
I mean, what's the rest of this year looks like?
I know you said you have a few more songs
kind of in the pipe or we're still working on
obviously the song's out now.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yeah, we're, like I said, a bunch of songs that
we're working on right now a couple of different producers.
We are trying to find out if we're jumping on
a tour to Latin America later this.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Year, tour of fifty to fifty bed obviously.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Is it bad? Is it opening for Bad Bunny?
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Oh dude, I wish we'd have way more fast.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Statistically, because everybody listens to Bad Bunny, everybody. Statistically we
got one percent of those fats we blow up in rock.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
That's awesome. I'm gonna tell people that. But yeah, we're
obviously we can't share.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Any of that, but I'm working new music, trying to
see if we get on that, and then for for
next year. Really we're focused because we're already what halfway
through the year, so any O Yeager stuff is already
in the worst for twenty twenty six. But we recently
signed up with the booking agency out of Germany, so
we're probably gonna do some stuff in February and Europe,
a small tour over there and play.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
A few festivals, so that should be fun.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
That buried in the European snow to be fun, but hey,
we'll take anything.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
The European snow ain't that bad. It's okay, No, yeah,
you're probably right. We've been unless you get stuck in
the else as long as they don't take you to
scan the navy. Yeah, you know in February you'd be
all right, No, I.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Can't we can't wait.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
That'll be our first time in Europe, so yeah, hopefully
that that'll be a lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
I wish you nothing but the best.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
The song is that now it's called Ghost in the Shell.
There's some past obviously velvet chain stuff. And I'll play
a couple of those teams on my show of the
Cutting Edge Countdown. Yeah, I appreciate it because there's always
three there's always at least three songs we play, so
I'll play one old school and a couple newer. So
we'll do that over the weekend. But yeah, go check
out that song. The video by the way, nice nice
making me relive high school nightmares. So thank you for that.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Yeah, we uh, I'm glad you liked it.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
We uh.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
That's the first time I've probably been in an actual
high school since I graduated many many months ago.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Well why else you go to high school? Exactly, And
unless you got a kid in high school, there's no
reason to go to the high school.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Good point, Good point, dude. I walked in a classroom,
but there I got PTSD. Like immediately, I'm like, oh
my god, I don't want to be here. Let's cancel this.
I don't feel good.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
I didn't study.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
It was fun.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Yeah, that's awesome. If anybody who doesn't know what I'm
talking about, you'll be able to see the video cutting
discountdown dot com. But you guys are basically bad. Manager
books to you as a prom band and they all
hate you, except for the one kid at the end
who is the hero of the story. And it has
a happy ending.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Yeah, yeah, very nice.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Velvet Chain is the name of the band. Dude, Thank
you so much for a quick conversation. Appreciate and let's
do it to get down the road.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Oh my man, thank you for having me. This is great,
it's a good time. Thank you, Cutters rock Cast.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Don't forget to tune in exactly
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