Velvet Two Stripes (Sophie and Sara Diggelmann and Franca Mock) came to this realization after their liaison with Berlin for the Got Me Good EP in 2017.
Interview conducted on Ma26, 2021
By Dan Locke
Blending bluesy riffs and classic rock, the unmistakable force of female trio Velvet Two Stripes returns with their upcoming release ‘Fever’. Alluringly sweet vocals complement the powerful rhythm, making ‘Fever’ the most irresistible blues-rock anthem this year. From The Kills to Deap Valley to the Yeah Deep Yeahs, Velvet Two Stripes slot in perfectly reminding us of the sheer force of women in rock music. Taken from their upcoming third album due for release this October, ‘Fever’ is an empowering track that packs a punch.
What is your upbringing?
We all come from a very musical background. Franca’s dad is a music teacher and played in two different bands, one of them together with Franca’s mom. Sara’s and my dad used to manage a rock band in his college years and our mom used to play in an orchestra
How did you discover music?
Pretty much through our parent’s vinyl collection. Both families have an extended collection and pretty good taste in music.
Your band has been around for 10 years. Tell me how you got together?
Sara and I are sisters, so we have always been making music together. We met Franca through music school and connected instantly. Shortly after, we formed our first band with some other friends.
How did you get your bands name?
Velvet Two Stripes was a rather rash decision, really. We had just broken up our former band at the time and just wanted to jam together without playing shows. Then we got a gig offer and had to decide on a name rather quickly. A few searches on the internet and some brainstorming and Velvet Two Stripes were born.
Describe your music.
It’s a mix between bluesy riffs and classic rock dynamics. We all have different influences in music which we want to give enough space to.
What was your first performance like?
I remember we were all very nervous, including our parents. We didn’t expect such a turn-up and all our friends were there. I can’t remember how the gig went but I guess we did quite a good job since my dad bought free rounds of beer to all our friends. I don’t know if we blew his mind or if he just was relieved that we didn’t fuck up too bad.
Royalties never appear like magic. Royalties are only sent to you through work undertaken by a PRO to ensure that their members are getting paid. If you’re not yet signed up to a Performing Right Organization like ASCAP, BMI or SESAC, you may not be receiving all the royalties you deserve.
Yes, that’s something we had to learn the hard way.
Do you belong to any to songwriters’ organizations like the international singer-songwriter association, SESAC, BMI or ASCAP?
We belong to SUISA. That’s the Swiss equivalent to ASCAP.
What makes a good songwriter?
I think honesty makes a good songwriter. And the boldness to rely on your own guts and go against the mainstream. It’s not always easy having to defend your work, but in the end of the day you could hear if someone wrote a song because it felt right or because they want to fit in.
What was the title of your first original song? Did you record it?
I don’t remember our very first original song, but Cloud 7 was definitely one of the first ones. We recorded it in our rehearsal room with the help of a music teacher of our music school. We even did a little music video for the song.
What is the process of writing your music?
It usually starts with an idea in our rehearsing space. We just jam around and suddenly there’s a melody or a riff we like and then we start building up that idea.
Tell me about your upcoming album “Sugar Honey Iced Tea”, which comes out Oct. 15th?
It sounds definitely angrier than “Devil Dance”. For this album, we worked with new people and new surroundings. We switched from the legendary Hansa Studios in Berlin to the beautiful and secluded Relief Studio in Belfaux, Switzerland. So instead of Curry Wurst and city distractions, we were surrounded by nothing but cows and fresh air. It is more experimental than before. You can really hear that we didn’t do much else than music 24/7 for fourteen days. Also working and exchanging ideas with our producers Nick Kauffman and Ramon Wehrle on drums was a whole new work experience.
Tell me about your release “Fever”?
Fever describes an obsession that almost turns into a kind of mania. The atmosphere of the song is very mystical and it embodies our musical development throughout the years. Especially our openness towards trying new methods of recording stands out in this song. This is particularly noticeable in the polyphonic vocals, the bass that is played with a bottleneck, and our beer organ specially created for the song.
For the Fever video why did you pick Bilder und Freunde to direct it?
We wanted to work with them for a while now but somehow our schedules always collided. It finally worked out for “Fever” and it felt right to have a Swiss film team working with us since we filmed in the Swiss Alps.
What is your favorite track on your album?
It’s really hard to decide. Every track is so unique and different from the rest. But if I had to choose, it would be “This House Is Built On Sand”. It has this western movie vibe and there’s so much happening musically during the song if you listen very closely. I’ve been listening to it so many times already, but I still discover new lines.
What are your feelings about streaming music?
It feels like a guilty pleasure, especially being a musician myself. Obviously, everyone uses it and it’s a great tool to get out there in the world. But the dark side is that music becomes taken for granted and algorithms decide whether you win or lose. I try to buy the music myself if I really like a band or an album to even out my streaming use.
Digital vs. vinyl?
Always vinyl. Nothing beats the feeling of taking out a vinyl off its sleeve and of course the quality of the music itself.
What song from the past is in your mind right now? Moreover, what is the meaning that song means to you?
“Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac. But only because I had to write a piece about Stevie Nicks the other day. “Dreams” means a lot to me. It means childhood and road trips but also heartbreak and joy. It’s probably the only song that has accompanied me through every stage of my life since the age of five or six.
How is it to be a DIY band?
It’s hard work, I’m going to be honest. I think none of us expected this kind of workload when we decided to release on our own. It’s a lot learning by doing and we learn through our mistakes. But then we just got to get back on our feet and do it better next time. We learn so much with every new release. I think it’s so important to know the business you work in as a musician. You deal with many different people and agencies during a release and unfortunately, it’s often not very transparent. You must learn to ask the right questions to get the answers you’re looking for. But it’s also a lot of fun and very empowering knowing that everything we achieve is because of the work we do
Last year you posted that you used the Swiss Covid app. How well did that work?
It worked quite well at first, I guess. None of us got a notification. But it fell out of hand when numbers were rising. I still think the approach was right, but it is impossible to maintain control with such high infection rates
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If “Video Killed the Radio Star” do you think that the Covid-19 virus has killed live music?
It’s tricky to foresee what Covid did and will do to live music. I know a lot of musicians are struggling right now and the next couple of weeks will be essential for a lot of people in the industry. But it also feels like live music will have a comeback and finally be appreciated again. People long for that crowd feeling and just letting go while dancing to a guitar solo. I really hope that this break reminds people of the beauty of live music and that they are willing again to pay for a ticket.
Do you think that Covid-19 has been a plus to an artist career?
I think that’s different for everyone. Covid allowed us to work on a much more extent album release with more singles and videos. Usually, we don’t have time for that between touring and studio. But I feel bad for all the bands having had to cancel their entire tour. It takes time to recover from this.
What have you been doing with your self-quarantine?
Luckily, the restrictions in Switzerland weren’t that hard. The three of us could still meet up and make music together. So, we used the time to renovate our rehearsing space and started writing on a new album.
How do you stay healthy during the lockdown?
Checking in regularly with each other helped a lot. Everyone deals differently with the current situation, so it’s important to leave space for everyone’s thoughts.
Have you discovered or rediscovered any new hobbies?
I think mixing drinks and coming up with new recipes was something every one of us attempted at one stage of the pandemic. Who knows, maybe we’ll create our own “Sugar Honey Iced Tea”.
Many artists are doing nightly concerts over either YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. In October that is going to change at least on Facebook. Facebook is cracking down on livestreamed shows that include recorded music with new terms of service, preventing artists from using the platform for “commercial or non-personal” purposes, unless they have obtained the relevant licenses.
I think livestream concerts were a really good alternative during the Covid-situation, but for us, as a band, it could never replace the feeling of a real concert, neither as artists nor as an audience, so we were not really planning on using these platforms in the future anyway. But I feel like it was only a matter of time until these platforms would catch on to the trend and demanding their slice of the cake.
The updated music guidelines state that users “may not use videos on our products [which include Instagram] to create a music listening experience […] This will include [Facebook] Live,” and stipulates that such content should be posted for the enjoyment of friends and family only. How do you think this will change the landscape of Facebook?Facebook
As far as we understood, this mainly concerns the licensing of the songs. So, if you as an artist hold the licenses to your songs, you can still share them. Maybe it will become like YouTube where people without the licenses only can use a certain number of seconds of a song in order to be able to post it.
How can bands keep their fans if they cannot play live in front of the fans and sell merchandise to them at the show?
It’s important to keep in touch with your fans. Letting them know that you are still around working on new material. It is definitely harder for us to build a fanbase depending on social media only but that’s how the business works nowadays. At some point, you must go with the times, even if this means dealing with social media.
Is pay to play still a thing? Now pay to play also means thinks like playlist on the internet and opening slots for a major band on tour.
We actually never had to do that officially. But as a band you invest a lot into your music and your project anyways, whether this is a tour, instruments or promotion. So, I guess, paying to play concerts might just be the tip of the iceberg.
If you couldn’t do music, what would you like to be doing?
I would probably put my fine arts degree in good use and work as an artist or in a gallery. But honestly, I would miss making music way too much. Even thinking about this makes me sad.
What is your happy place?
Our rehearsing spaces! Since the renovation, the whole vibe changed. It is a space where we have our creative safe space. No idea is too stupid to try out and often makes the best songs.
Do you think you would be willing to sale your back catalog if someone like Universal is will to buy everything, such as all the rights to all your songs?
Tough question. I don’t think so. If Universal wants to buy our back catalog, then this means there’s potential. We’d probably want to make the big win ourselves then.
At the beginning of the year Spotify deleted 750,00 songs, mostly from independent artists. What do you think what that could mean to independent artist?
Of course, this is really difficult for an independent artist, because Spotify has become such a huge player in the music business. I think Spotify has a really difficult role: on one hand it is this platform that can distribute your music all over the world and therefore create huge opportunities. On the other hand, Spotify is very mainstream oriented and creates a lot of inequities in terms of playlisting and payoffs. Maybe there should be some kind of alternative to all the big streaming services that puts its focus on independent and smaller artists in order to create a more balanced music market. Or there should be some kind of regulations in terms of allocation so that independent artists could get a fair chance.
Sony Music in November and Warner Music Group in December, The ByteDance-owned video app revealed on (February 8) that it has struck an “expanded” global licensing agreement with Universal Music Group. Now that TikTok is now fully licensed by all three major record companies, will you start using TikTok more?
So far, we’re not on TikTok but it’s definitely something we watch closely to see how this evolves in the future.
Anything you would like to say in closing.
Thank you for the great questions, that’s not to be taken for granted! It’s fun to answer questions coming from someone who spent some time researching who we are and what we do.
