Chasing Velvet Interview

Resonating R'n'B Influenced Vocals

Soon to make their foray onto the pop music scene, Chasing Velvet are Australia's freshest all-female pop duo, who's debut single If I May suggests they're a new breed of rising talent. The Gold Coast pair are quirky, energetic and have their sights firmly set on new horizons.

Forming in early 2017 having met through mutual friends, Chasing Velvet consists of vocalist Amira Talbot and Vocalist/Drummer Naomi Grashuis – their sound a very R'n'B influenced vocal backed by catchy melodic pop tracks that shows a very sassy and edgy side on one hand and a vulnerable expose on the other. Having spent much of the past year readying their debut EP titled 'Replay', the pair are bursting at the seam to finally release the first taste of their seven-track extended play in the form of lead single If I May.

Upon hearing If I May for the first time, it welcomes for a pop lightness that progresses out into lush and subtle vocals that embrace right and true of what is primed to be an amazing EP.

Having initially held roots in the pop-punk genre, the pair consciously embarked on transforming their direction in to a more mainstream pop genre, gravitating to the sounds of Clean Bandit, Dua lipa, Julia Michaels and Maroon 5.

If I May surfaced after a bout of writers block. "After spending a couple of day's songwriting in the studio, we were getting frustrated that the words were just not coming to us… we were on a wave of different emotions and perspectives," says Naomi. "We started writing lyrics about how we weren't able to write a song and lyrics like 'tying my tongue around the things that I mean' were born".

On Replay, each track is diverse in musicality and feel, "we hope that it resonates with a wide variety of people".

Naomi grew up in Indonesia and frequented Australia performing as a session musician before making the move permanent in 2016. Amira grew up in Sydney also getting into performing at a young age and made the move to Queensland in 2016 after doing Musical Theatre during her high school years.

Well in their youth as a musical duo, Chasing Velvet have already gained multiple endorsements with the likes of Yamaha Music Australia and Collision Drumsticks and have built an impressive fan base.

With a pop sound that is synonymous to that of Little Mix and Destiny's Child, Chasing Velvet will have fans and listeners alike hungry for more.

www.chasingvelvet.com
www.twitter.com/chasingvelvet
www.facebook.com/chasingvelvetofficial
www.youtube.com/user/chasingvelvet

Interview with Chasing Velvet

Question: How would you describe Chasing Velvet's music?

Naomi and Amira: We would describe this new era of Chasing Velvet as modern, mature, current and an all-round good vibe.


Question: Can you tell us about your recently released EP?

Naomi and Amira: It's been such an exciting achievement to see it finally complete and ready to be released on the 4th of August, we worked really hard with our producer to create an end result that we can be proud of, and I believe we achieved that.


Question: What inspired the track If I May?

Naomi and Amira: If I May as a whole, is about someone pushing though a situation, for us? The music industry. And in doing so, finding ourselves and sticking to that. On a funnier note, the initial ideas for the song were created out of writer's block, so the first two lines were written about not knowing what to write about.


Question: Which is your favourite song to perform live and why?

Naomi and Amira: Collectively, If I May is one of most fun to perform. For shows like our release show, we will be both performing fun and playful choreography to match the words and style. Being the first single, it is also the most known and seeing people in the crowd singing along is super cool.


Question: If you could have anyone, in the world, attend your show, who would it be?

Naomi and Amira: Just one? How about if we could have the highest number of people attend our shows as possible? Seems much more fun.

Question: Do you prefer performing live or recording?

Naomi and Amira: Live performing. We both thrive on the excitement of others, seeing people enjoying themselves and rocking out just as hard as we are is one of the best feelings in the world and something we want to continue and share.


Question: What is the story behind the name, Chasing Velvet?

Naomi and Amira: The name Chasing Velvet was chosen is a very random and boring process, we brainstormed interesting sounding words that fit and made at least a little bit of sense and after a bunch of quite interesting phrases we came up with Chasing Velvet, that's the story. Exciting I know!


Question: How did the band come together?

Naomi and Amira: The band formed through our blatant passion for music, we had met online through a mutual friend and realised that we were both serious about making it in the music industry and decided to try to make music together.


Question: What motivates you most when writing music?

Naomi and Amira: A huge motivation for us when writing is creating something that will resonate with people, we really wanted to be able to relate to our listeners through the sharing of feelings and experiences; reassure them that they are not alone.


Question: Which music/artists are you currently listening to?
Naomi and Amira: We both have our own personal favourites but there are quite a few crossover artists that we both love listening to, e.g. Twenty Øne Piløts, Paramore, Clean Bandit, 5 Seconds of Summer and Dua Lipa.


Question: What or who was your inspiration to go into the music industry?

Amira: A common thing for us is that our families were very into music while we were growing up, weather it was the constant presence and types of music that my mum played, or Naomi's families involvement in music that really bloomed a love for it ourselves.


Question: If you could collaborate with another artist, who would it be?

Naomi and Amira: Most definitely, Dua Lipa. She has been a huge inspiration for us during the making of the EP and seems like such a cool and down to earth girlie.


Interview by Brooke Hunter