New York City’s Velvet Sun encourage deep thought with new single, ‘Empire’, the title track from their latest EP.
Released on April 4, the four track EP harks back to a simpler time, of rock bands with lead guitar, bass, keyboards and drums; there’s no bells and whistles to distract the listener, just pure melody and rhythm with the vocalist delivering lyrics that, while impactful, ensure the listener spends considerable time working out what they mean.
On the surface, ‘Empire’ feels like a straight forward love song – perhaps unrequited – but dig a little deeper into lyrics like, “All around the empire all the talk’s of victory / But the dream’s already broken”, and, “All around the empire all the bridges are pristine / But the dream’s already broken and they fall into the sea”, and you wonder if it’s actually a dig at capitalism – particularly with, “All around the empire seems that everything’s complete / But the war’s already lost”.
‘Empire’, comes with a music video that appears to be set in London, and this further convolutes the storyline of the song. We follow two lovers across a truncated City Centre, where we see St Paul’s Cathedral and Tower Bridge in the one shot, while another bridge, festooned in statuary, is in the foreground. Later, the lovers visit the Albert Memorial, and there’s further shots of London at war. At first it appears to be World War 2, but later we see eerie figures in silhouette (perhaps the lovers?) watching explosions via a computer screen. All while this is occurring, there’s clips of the band performing. It’s all very thought-provoking.
‘Empire’ features Scott Weinkle on vocals, guitars and drums (as well a co-production with Ferny Coipel, who also handled the engineering). Eric Gould is on keys, and Marcel Salas on bass. Weinkle’s vocals are shoegazing perfection, while the pulsing basslines pull the instrumentals together.
You can watch the music video for ‘Empire’ below, and find out more about Velvet Sun and their music online via their official website, YouTube, and Instagram.
NOTE: We received an email from Scott Weinkle:
Hi Lisa,
Thank you for the concise and perceptive review.
You are the first reviewer who picked up on the anti-capitalist (and more so anti-military industrial complex theme).
Glad you liked the sonic vibe and thank you for all you do to promote indie bands.
The city is actually Prague but London looks similar and has the same old world power structure feel.
Scott
