We had the chance to catch up with Demi Demitro and Baby Pottersmith of The Velveteers last month. The Boulder, Colorado-based rock band formed in 2014 by Demi and Baby, and soon after became a trio with the addition of Jonny Fig. You can currently catch them on tour with Greta Van Fleet.
MSM: What’s the inspiration behind the music video for ‘See Me’?
Demi: We basically just let the song guide us. We have a special place here in Colorado that we like to go to shoot a lot of our music videos, so it only felt right to shoot See Me there since this song is kind of closing out the era of Nightmare Daydream. We only had a week home from tour and we needed to shoot the music video within that time frame, so we decided to go out there and shoot something spontaneous. We camped for two days and didn’t have a plan or anything, but we knew we wanted a music video that felt magical and dreamlike. Sometimes the simplicity of not having a solid plan can make for really beautiful art.
Baby: It was really last minute. We had been struggling to settle on an idea and then a couple days went by and we realized that evening that if we didn’t shoot the video the very next day that we weren’t gonna have another day free to film before we left for tour later that week. We quickly just decided on a really loose idea that night and then got everything together the next morning and shot it later that evening with the sunset and into the sunrise. We got the bed and bathtub for free off marketplace in the morning and then painted them, our instruments, our shoes and everything we could purple and then drove out to the middle of nowhere to film and hope for the best. I kept on accidentally kneeling on cactus’s because it was the middle of the night and we were in a prairie filming by candlelight.
MSM: What’s your favorite song on your discography and why?
Demi: See Me and Dark Horse are both my favorites. See Me is a very personal song to me, so it has a very special place in my heart and the melody and lyrics really resonate with me. Dark Horse is one of my favorites to play live.
Baby: I love Limboland. It has really pretty strings. Someone reviewed our album and thought it was cringe that we had strings on a song. I don’t understand that take but I do know we need more strings going forward.
MSM: When can fans expect new music from you?
Baby: I’m not sure but however long the wait ends up being, I think it’ll be worth it. We just put up wallpaper in our demo making space, so there’s that.
MSM: What has it been like opening for Greta Van Fleet?
Demi: Opening for Greta Van Fleet has been a dream. They are really cool people and its been super inspiring to watch them perform every night on stage. When you go to a Greta Van Fleet show the air is filled with good energy and magic. It’s been really special and an honor to be apart of it. I’m going to cherish these memories for the rest of my life.
MSM: What has tour been like so far, and are there any favorite behind the scenes moments you would like to share?
Demi: Tour has been wild. For me, opening for The Black Keys has been surreal because they’re people I’ve grown up listening to and sometimes I have to pinch myself that I get to share the stage with them every night. Sometimes it just feels like an actual dream and at some point I need to wake up. One of my favorite moments from this last tour was getting to play a ping-pong tournament with Patrick Carney backstage. He won, but only by a point.
Baby: It was 2am after our first show opening for The Black Keys, we were driving to the next city. We were all a little bit bummed because we thought we’d only sold two pieces of merch at a show in front of thousands of people. Then we realized we were reading the count wrong and that it was actually a lot better. Everybody in the van screamed pretty loudly out of excitement when we found out the actual count. Our phones starting immediately blaring out a super loud emergency alarm because apparently the combined screaming of 5 people in a moving car at 2:00am triggered the phone’s sensors to think we were getting in a car accident.
MSM: What inspired you to start making music? Was it a certain artist that you grew up listening to or maybe a family member?
Demi: I think I always just had this strong desire to create and music was the platform that resonated the deepest with me. I grew up in a musical family, so music and art were constantly around. It always just felt like a natural step. I knew I wanted to start a band though once I started getting into rock n roll. Just being able to be as loud as I wanted and to play the guitar felt really empowering to me. I was inspired by artists like Heart, Grace Potter, Deap Vally and PJ Harvey.
Baby: I was ill and was in hospital for 2 months or something. Music was the only thing keeping me from throwing myself out the window.
MSM: Who do you take inspiration from now?
Demi: I take a lot of inspiration from all the bands we’ve been lucky enough to play with this last year, especially within our live show. Some artists I really love at the moment are Lisa Germano, Nikki Lane, and Sierra Ferrel.
MSM: You’ve played at a number of different places varying in size, would you say you prefer larger venues or smaller venues?
Demi: They are all so different. Each venue has its own special energy. When we do headline shows its fun because we’re able to be really close to our fans in a small club. its just very intimate and usually a little more rowdy. At the arena shows there is so much energy coming together and its beautiful to look out into a huge room and see people with their lighters up.
Baby: I love both for different reasons. I get more nervous for smaller shows. Bigger shows feel fake. It’s nice doing both, they balance each other out nicely.
MSM: What is your dream venue that you would like to perform at?
Demi: Red Rocks or Madison Square Garden.
Baby: Red Rocks and then the next night do someone’s basement.
MSM: Lastly, how would you describe yourselves as a band and your sound for any potential new fans?
Demi: I would say we are a rock band, but we’re constantly changing and evolving. We just make music that we love. Who knows what that will sound like next.
*INTERVIEW BY FORMER CONTRIBUTOR BELLA WAGNER
*HEADER PHOTO BY IVEY PEACOCK
