LA Psych Rockers The Velvet Starlings Return With Blistering New Single 'Bullfight'
"Infectious Rock and Roll" - Earmilk
“Blistering rock and sizzlingly dizzy psych-weirdness” - Grimy Goods
“British Invasion-flavoured psychedelia with garage-rock immediacy and reading-room sophistication.” - Buzzbands LA
Los Angeles-based Velvet Starlings have announced the August 9 release of their new album Pacific Standard Time. Today they share lead single “Bullfight,” an Oh Sees-inspired shredder that begins with a rockabilly stomp before descending into sinuous, hypnotic sludge. Velvet Starlings is led by 20-year-old Christian Gisborne who shares, “‘Bullfight’ is our off-kilter psychedelic punk epic about bloodsports set to a cacophony of noise by means of flute, theremin and a guitar running through a pedal collection to rival Kevin Shields’ board.
The song explores the concept of adrenaline addiction, whether it’s caffeine, moshing, playing FPS video games, spectator sports, or going to a bullfight. The song is filled to the top with samples and I’m very excited to see how many of them are recognized.” The video for “Bullfight” was shot by Jared Martin at LA’s iconic DIY venue The Smell.
Reviewing a recent show Grimy Goods said “(‘Bullfight’ is) a lightning-quick and feral blitz of breakneck riffs and screeching sonics that was clearly designed to spark a firestorm of energy for whatever crowd that found itself in its wake.” The single will be part of Velvet Starlings’ setlist tonight as they support Olivia Jean at Los Angeles’ Moroccan Lounge. They are on at 8pm and tickets are available here. Velvet Starlings have also confirmed a headline show at The Troubadour in Los Angeles on July 15, with more dates to be announced shortly.
Pacific Standard Time is the follow up to 2021’s Technicolor Shakedown which PopMatters called "one hell of a good time" and The Honey Pop noted “you’re going to have each track stuck in your head after listening.” Five years in the making, the new album is a musically vast gut-punch – a swell of unusual samples, melodic left-turns, and devastatingly incisive lyricism - and marks the debut of a newer, sharper iteration of Velvet Starlings. Initially tracked with Joel Jerome (Cherry Glazerr, Sloppy Jane, L.A. Witch) and then re-tracked in part and re-mixed by Christian, PST introduces Gisborne as one of his generation’s most compelling front persons and premier studio tinkerers, a bandleader who pays as much attention to recorded innovation as to live impact.
Key to Velvet Starlings is Christian’s own sense of fandom: he’s been going to gigs from a young age, and has met many of his closest friends (and even bandmates) lining up for shows. Now, he’s an omnivorous consumer of all genres, waxing lyrical about Ty Segall and King Gizzard as passionately as he does 100 gecs and Charli XCX. The only common link between the kinds of artists that Christian loves is hard work, dedication, passion, and keen attention to the way that genre classifications are a starting point, rather than gospel.
Through his own fandom, Christian found an entirely new way of thinking about music, as well as a community to surround himself with. Naturally, live performance has also been key to Velvet Starlings’ rise: the band has played iconic LA venues like the Troubadour, Lodge Room and The Echo; showcased at SXSW; toured the UK multiple times and played at festivals including Summerfest, Beachlife and Isle of Wight.
By the time he started playing guitar in elementary school, Gisborne already knew intimately the structures and chord progressions of much of the foundational pop songbook. His first introduction to performing live music routinely began at 7am when he would head to the local farmer’s market, a move that would eventually become an essential, irrefutable part of his life. At the same time, Christian was educating himself, naturally gravitating towards studio-rat producers making lush, expansive versions of indie-rock: “I have always been a bit of a loner, spending a lot of time in my room and going on walks, just listening to music for like, four hours every day,” he says. “I love producers who you can tell they just kind of sat in a dark room and hung out with themselves way too much, making music. That ethos inspired my recording process for Technicolor Shakedown and Pacific Standard Time.”
With the current iteration of Velvet Starlings, Christian has found a set of bandmates who share his omnivorous tastes, including flautist/vocalist Amaya Montgomery and drummer DeRon Monroe, both members of The Intelligence (with Thee Oh Sees’ Lars Finberg), and keys player Aaron Hoang. “The goal of Velvet Starlings isn’t even for people to like it – it’s for people to hear it,” says Christian. “I’d rather listen to something objectively bad than something that doesn’t make me feel anything. The goal for me is to make people feel something.”
Having already turned heads across the UK back in 2022 with two hugely well received tours including one with This Feeling and a second including esteemed venues such as The Cavern in Liverpool and Glasgow’s King Tut’s. Anyone who caught one of those shows will be pleased to hear the band are returning to UK shores with another full run in 2023 and with previous radio support in the UK from the likes of the BBC and XS Manchester, it’s clear the band’s reputation over here is snowballing.
