Winkle Pickers and Wallace & Gromit: The Velvet Hands’ Dan Able and Toby Mitchell
I meet Dan Able and Toby Mitchell of the Velvet Hands in a pub in Camden for a pint and a chat. They come across like regular down-to- earth boys, well, apart from the winkle pickers. Dan is wiry and represents the leather-jacket- and- semi-mullet side of rock ‘n’ roll, while Toby sports a blonde mop top and a boiler suit;
‘It’s like being a huge baby, in a huge baby grow’ he says proudly. I am uncertain but charmed nevertheless. As we sit down to talk they seem as interested in what I do as I am in them; “Can we interview you after?” says Dan. When I humbly set my iPhone 4S down on the table to record the interview, they laugh and each present one of their own of the same model. At this point, I know we’re all going to get on just fine. I begin simply:
How are you feeling right now, what are you thinking about?
Toby: There’s an accordion over there that I’ve been thinking about for quite a while (he signals to a decorative object by the window) I don’t really know how an accordion works, but I’d like one.
Could you bring that in on your act?
Toby: Second record I could see some accordion going on… somewhere
Dan: On a B-side
Toby: On the unreleased demos of the second album
Dan: ...Also, I’m alright, thanks for asking.
I like your looks tonight, do you think fashion is important to a band?
D: Yeah, I think a band has to look like a band, that's why I like bands like HMLTD who really dress
up, it's part of their performance. That being said though, this isn't put on, because we've been dressing the way we do since we were 16 and getting shit thrown at us for it
T: It's funny because when we first started it was like: Dan would come in in a roll neck jumper, and I'd go, ‘Cool! so we can wear roll necks now’ and then I’d turn up the next day in a fur coat, you know? We were just slowly upping the ante like that, until suddenly I'm wearing velvet flares
D: If you think about big bands like the Clash or especially the Ramones: they had a look, all the
leather jackets, and the Stones, they dressed sort of like Oscar Wilde characters, and it conveyed that
kind of hedonistic thing they had going on. I think basically a look captures an intention quicker than
music sometimes, loads of people first listen to bands because they like how they look.
T: We wouldn't want to be too safe anyway because that’s boring, we've got to try things...
D: While we're young
T: Before we lose our hair...
Is hair important to a band?
T: We were talking about this the other night! Yes but I think if you're going bald you just have to do it, like Brian Eno, he did it with style.
D: or the comedian Paul Foot…
So let’s talk about the sound behind the image, you mention the Clash and the Rolling Stones,
I’ve seen you compared to them as well as the Strokes and other mid-00s bands, how do you
feel about that comparison?
D: I mean I learned how to play guitar by playing the Clash and the Strokes basically, so that’s why
that happens.
T: I never learned to play guitar, that’s how I get my sound (laughs). To some degree though I feel
like we started saying ourselves what we were influenced by, and then people said we sound like that, even though we didn’t at all… so yeah we get that and we get the Libertines.
D: I think our sound is fuller than the Libertines though, we’re more Strokes than Libertines, but
again we do play guitar in the same way that they did: by taking inspiration from the Velvet
Underground and the Ramones. It’s just a similarity in influences.
I see on your Spotify you have two playlists, one for classics (‘VH favs’) and one for newer
stuff (‘NEW SONGS WE LIKE XX’ featuring tracks by The Orielles and Sisteray, who they will
play with for one show at the beginning of December)
D: Well the old one is all my stuff and the new one is basically Toby’s. He’s more modern and I’m
stuck in 1973.
T: Dan’s just had his Beethoven phase
D: Yeah, love a bit of Ludwig Van... Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers are one of my
favourite bands, we’re really into them at the moment. I’m a big fan of like, ‘Raw Power’ Stooges too…and I don’t know what modern stuff
T: Parquet Courts? Their sound is like, heavily inspired by 70s bands as well, but they’re current and genuinely good.
Did you think it necessary to specify that you like new music, to kick back at critics who would call you too nostalgic?
T: No not really, we just genuinely feel there’s good new music out there and we want to promote that mindset.
How refreshing! In other news, you guys just finished supporting VANT on the southwest leg
of their tour, how was that?
T: I mispronounced their name as ‘vahnt’ once and everybody took the piss forever
D: We kept getting called ‘the dead hand gang’, apart from that it was great. Every night was sold out.
Did you have a favourite show?
D: Definitely the maddest show was Plymouth, during ‘Games’ particularly we kept getting hit in the face with the mic stand because so many people were falling on the stage
T: That was kind of the first time we played that song and everyone in the room was singing along
D: Outside of London, Plymouth is the best place for us, all the kids are fucking crazy there (he
realises how old he sounds, and repeats this line in a stock old man voice) the kids are fuckin’ crazy...
‘Games’ is the latest single, which has seen a lot of airplay from the likes of Radcliffe and
Maconie and Steve Lamacq. Huw Stevens also added the track to his BBC introducing playlist.
Hows it to feel to see it so well received?
D: It's interesting actually because that song is recorded in one take; we’d already done a demo of it last year so we felt we could do it that way, and it has a lot of mistakes
T: You can hear me singing the solo, because it was the last song we recorded and I'd become...
not pissed off but a bit bored I think, so I just sang through the solo like ‘duh duh da duh’ and no one turned it down.
D: Yeah, so it’s really cool that that in particular has been our best received song so far.
Speaking of demos, an interesting conversation comes about when I check my dodgy old phone is still recording:
T: We actually record demos on our iPhone 4’s too.
Really?
T: Yeah we do! And then send them to each other, for the other person to do the verse, chorus,
lyrics, whatever. Sometimes I'll come up with something I think is gonna be a banger, and then I have
to delete everything on my phone to be able to record it.
D: Sometimes ideas do come to you in the weirdest places though, so it's good to be able to sing it into your phone, in the toilet or something.
T: I've done that at gigs where a band has had quite a nice melody, but I think, it could be a better
melody...
D: Toby admitting to stealing ideas there!
T: Uh, improving them.
D: (leaning further into the phone) Whereas I only have original ideas, write that down:
Toby steals, Dan has original ideas.
Duly noted. Did you have any rituals while on tour?
D: We don't have a pre-gig ritual! I always think we should have one, I think we should do what the
Red Hot Chilli Peppers do, or other big bands like that, where they all have a hug and say
"Yeah, we're gonna rock tonight!" But it isn't like that, Toby's stuck outside because the bouncers don’t believe he’s in the band, I'm coughing up because I'm the phlegmmy-est man on earth (genuinely said in an interview) and Sam (bassist) is probably eating something...
T: The only thing we did thing every night was we did the Wallace and Gromit theme as a sound
check, and as soon as we've done that we are ready to rock. The sound guys love it as well.
D: That’s because Wallace and Gromit is an institution, it’s the only thing that the UK has to export,
once we get fucked by Brexit.
T: Dan has a tattoo of Wallace and I have one of Gromit (disclaimer: may be untrue).
The offending winkle pickers...
So what’s next for the Velvet Hands?
D: Well we’re supporting Mark Morriss (of the Bluetones) in Truro next month. Mark’s a really nice
guy. That show is going to be acoustic as well which we don't really do, so it should be interesting
T: He’s cool to work alongside, one of our first gigs was with the Bluetones because our manager
used to manage them, for the first two albums.
D: It’s good to go back to Cornwall too, we owe it a lot. It’s a good place to learn what works and
what doesn’t without too many people seeing it, so you can hone your craft there and really
understand how to work as a live unit. We’re playing the beer festival at the St Austell Brewery the
night after that because that’s a bit of a laugh, we did it two years ago when it started and it was
hilarious. Got a few covers in mind for the drunkards this time.
And then theres the London gig with Sisteray on the 1st of December, which isn’t too far off
Dan: I’m excited for that, it’s the eve of my birthday so drinks all round! Sisteray are great and it’s in
this tiny dress shop so it’s going to be very sweaty probably. It’ll be a laugh!
Is there anyone else well-established you’d particularly like to work with in the future? Maybe
you could do some sort of crazy collaboration one day...
T: I'd like to work with Stormzy as a collab, but only if he came to us, I'm not going to him
D: We could have Mick Jagger come on and do something like he does in that Will.I.Am song where
he rides into J Lo’s booty... we'd collab with Will.I.Am! That's it though.
2017 has been a pretty big year then!
T: Yeah but 2018 is gonna be our year
D: Trust me, how old are we now? I'm 37 now and (laughs) next year’s our year
Any closing words?
Dan: We're pioneers of the anti-tech movement, iPhone 4 is where it all went downhill
Toby: We want 2007 back in every way, the golden age of rock and roll
I don't know how serious you are...
Dan: if I'm serious about one thing it's that...
You should listen to Mott the Hoople, the album ‘Mott’,
that's my closing statement, I want it in big letters.
So there we are.
(All photos taken by Rozzie's iPhone 4!)
You can listen to the Velvet Hands on Apple Music or Spotify, or their website
The Velvet Hands play with Mark Morriss: The Old Bakery, get involved here.
Oh, and you can hear Mott the Hoople's Mott album in it's entirety here!