The Velveteers Are Back With a Highly Anticipated Album-Release Show at the Hi-Dive

When Dan Auerbach asks you to hang out, you accept the invite without question — even if it was totally out of the blue and a little befuddling at first.

That’s what Boulder band the Velveteers experienced in 2020, when the trio got a call explaining that the Black Keys frontman and owner of Easy Eye Sound wanted to host a brief meet-and-greet in his Nashville digs.

Guitarist/vocalist Demi Demitro, drummer Baby Pottersmith and multi-instrumentalist Jonny Figg weren’t totally sure what was going on, but they later learned that someone had sent Auerbach a video of a live gig, and the prolific singer-songwriter liked what he heard. “We were like, ‘What?’ We were really taken aback, like, ‘What does that mean?’ Demitro recalls. “We flew out to Nashville and we went to his studio and he showed us around.”

The introduction wasn’t necessarily a formal interview or tryout, but more of a vibe check. The band had been a budding local darling for nearly a decade at that point, tearing up stages across the Front Range with its modern take on classic rock, complete with dynamo vocals and a dual-drummer attack that includes Pottersmith and Figg sharing a conjoined kit. It’s unique and a little zany — and it turned out to be exactly the type of setup and sound Auerbach could relate to.

“The next day we got a call saying he wanted to sign us, which was pretty insane because we have known the Black Keys our entire childhood, just hearing them on the radio,” Demitro adds.

It was a 48-hour whirlwind, as the Velveteers were plucked from the DIY scene of their native Rockies and dropped into the glitz and glam of Music City to record a debut album, Nightmare Daydream (2021), with one of the best producers and musical minds of the 21^st century. They had officially been discovered, a random twist of fate that Demitro and Pottersmith could never have conjured up when the two became songwriting partners as young teenagers, before either possessed a proper driver’s license, armed only with their instruments.

Pottersmith (they/them) admits to experiencing some anxiety while working alongside Auerbach for that first record, especially when he’d offer up some advice about tweaking songs. “He would just look at the song from a fresh perspective and we were, maybe on the first record, a little scared, because we had never worked with Dan. So when he’d start changing things, I think we’d get a little scared,” says the 26-year-old drummer.

But that fear didn’t last long. The three musicians trusted whatever Auerbach suggested, and the result, Nightmare Daydream, is a hell of a major-label introduction. The ’70s psychedelia sound is a bit Led Zeppelin-esque, as can be best heard on songs “Dark Horse” and “Charmer And The Snake,” with a more beefed-up, fuzz tone reminiscent of the 2000s garage rock that the White Stripes and, well, the Black Keys popularized (see “Motel #27” and “Devil’s Radio”). “We’d get a lot of White Stripes comparisons, which I loved,” Demitro recalls.

The Velveteers have since learned to employ the spider-like kit with synchronized success. While still drum-and-guitar based, Pottersmith and Figg, who joined in 2020, also play a sample pad and keys from their seats. The result is a thicker, more varied sound without the use of a traditional bass at shows. “I just wanted to do something that would make people be like, ‘What are you doing?’” Demitro admits. “The two drummers was inspired by trying to find a loophole in the two-piece band, while still keeping it drums and guitar.”

Now, it’s “our own little, fun thing,” she adds. And it works. After Nightmare Daydream dropped, the Velveteers opened for Guns N’ Roses, the Smashing Pumpkins, Greta Van Fleet and the Black Keys.
Touring with such groups taught the Velveteers many lessons, including some hard truths, but left them embattled and banged-up and in need of a respite back in Boulder to recharge before diving back into writing. “When we get back from a tour it’s like we’re all abused by ourselves,” Pottersmith says. “We’ll have bruises and cuts. I literally can’t walk — I have to use a cane after our tours.”

“For me, I was just in a place of feeling a little bit tired,” Demitro adds, explaining that spending so much time away from home the past three years wore on her mind and body.

Processing the rockstar experience served as the main muse for the band's sophomore effort, A Million Knives, set to be released on Valentine’s Day via Easy Eye Sound. The Velveteers are also playing a release show that night at the hi-dive, with local openers Cherry Spit and Diva Cup.

Four previously released singles from the album are a searing array of “fuck you” attitude and disco dance beats. Demitro spent a week in an isolated cabin to work on the words that she’d eventually weave into A Million Knives, aiming to “make something I felt passionate about,” she says.

“I think I was just really processing my emotions and wanting to write something that felt honest, and getting back to the roots of what made me want to start playing music in the first place,” Demitro explains.

For example, with “On and On,” featuring Cage the Elephant guitarist Nick Bockrath, Demitro says she takes aim at “predatory men in the music scene.”

“I always wonder if there will be a day when I won’t feel the need to write about this subject, but unfortunately misogyny is far too rampant in the music industry, and I refuse to put up with it,” she told us when came out in December.

Meanwhile, “Bound In Leather” is a queer-punk anthem “inspired by a type of dysphoria,” according to Demitro. “Feeling trapped by your own skin and wishing you weren’t bound by its limitations here on Earth."

“Suck The Cherry,” more of a raucous rager, and the swooning “Go Fly Away,” the album's first single, are both poppier ballads filled with hooks and sing-along choruses. Patrick Carney, the other half of the Black Keys, helped to kickstart “Go Fly Away" while he was hanging around the studio and decided to hop on drums, giving the track three drummers. Auerbach added his own guitar, bass and backing vocals. This marked the first time Auerbach and Carney produced together outside of the Black Keys.

It’s safe to say the Velveteers are no longer fretting about jumping into Auerbach’s sonic lab to cook up something catchy and killer. That confidence is evident between the first and second albums. “This time around we were like really like, ‘Come on, let’s take advantage to collaborate with someone like Dan and really encourage whatever comes to mind when we’re working with him,’” Pottersmith says.

“We really pulled that out of him and encouraged him to tell us exactly what he thought, so years down the line, we’ll never be like, 'We never took advantage of that opportunity of working with someone like that,'" they add. "We set out to make sure that it sounded like he was producing our record.”

The group learned some more tricks of the trade, too, such as how Auerbach would sometimes listen into, and record, what they were working on in the tracking room, eliminating any nerves that may be lingering amongst them. “We’d just be trying to work out a riff or something, and be like, ‘Is this any good?’ Then we’d hear Dan on the speaker, and he’d be like, ‘Okay, great, let’s double it,’” Demitro recalls. “We had no idea that he was recording, then out of nowhere it was a whole song.”

His preference to double-track pretty much the entire record made the final cut sound even more massive. “Dan really left us no time to think, in a good way. There was no time for us to think about what we were doing because before we knew it, we’d record the song twice over on top of each other,” Pottersmith says.

“The whole album is like two albums on top of each other. Every single thing is doubled. We’d record double drums live, then he’d have us double that. I’d have a heart attack,” Pottersmith concludes. “I’d get so stressed out because I thought it was going to sound insane or so bad, but Dan knows what he’s doing.”

And at this point, the Velveteers know exactly what to do, too.

The Velveteers, with Cherry Spit and Diva Cup, 7 p.m. Friday, February 14, hi-dive, 7 South Broadway. Tickets are $29.