Velatine : Loki Lockwood / Maggie Alley Photo: Matthew ElleryVelatine is a duo comprising long-time Melbourne producer Loki Lockwood (The Drones, Spencer P. Jones) and rapidly ascending vocalist and songwriter Maggie Alley. The duo spent most of 2022 making it.
Pre-release singles No God, Comic and Whisper Park have seen healthy and repeated airplay on Triple R, PBS FM, 3MDR, 3CR, 2XXX, 3BBB in Ballarat , 4ZZZ in Brisbane and several others around Australia,
Internationally Velatine has been added to blogs Death or Desire [USA} and online playlists in Portugal, the USA, the Magneticos 90 online radio show that is syndicated all over South America, Zonenights in Argentina, Shellshocked Germany Industrial music show [YouTube], Spinesaw Germany, Radio Indie Alliance – Number 1 Whisper Park [UK Independent chart Dec 26, 2022] – shared by Sword Radio UK, Pop Radio UK , Warmradio UK, Bunka Radio Columbia and Charlie Mason radio in the USA) and on it goes.
The film clip for the title track ‘I Won’t Be Civilised’ directed by Mark Bakaitis who’s worked with Amyl and the Sniffers, The Fauves and Spiderbait and shot by Manav Lakhiani. The cover art painting is by Lauren Wicks whose recent solo show at One Star Gallery [owned by Mick Harvey and Katie Beale] sold all her paintings.
VELATINE: BIO
Velatine’s true beginnings were around 2018 when Loki Lockwood re-invigorated a long lost music career, after being sidelined producing numerous records and live mixing for a string of Australian artists.
At the beginning Loki delved deep into the world of electronica in an unconventional way, combining a love of cinematic soundtracks, industrial and orchestral music. Along with respect for a great pop song , he hatched “The Velatine Plan”’. Loki always wanted to collaborate with a female vocalist but lock-downs made this virtually impossible so Velatine released two instrumental albums Store Atmospherics and The Trap and single We Are [are you alright?] in 2020 whilst the hunt was on.
In late 2021 he came across singer Maggie Alley: after the first session they hit it off. In March 2022 they released their first seven inch Comic / No God which achieved strong breakout community radio airplay. They followed this with an industrial / scream track Deadly Requiem in August and another seven inch Whisper Park / One and Only in November, with accompanying clip by Mathew T Ellery. The latest release is a remix of No God with a film clip cut from footage from Frankenstein [1973]. There’s no stopping this dynamic duo with the album I Won’t Be Civilised slated for release Feb 17 – 2023 on Spooky Records.
“Velatine mixes elements of styles such as Alternative Rock, Electronica and Dark Rock, generating a dark sound, but at the same time energetic. Highlight for the great vocals and the intelligent use of the mentioned elements of electronic music”.
Roadie Metal, A Voz do Rock [Brazil]
Loki Lockwood – BIO
You could say Loki is a lifer of the Australian music scene, He started young, graduating in music from Box Hill Tech which soon found him playing / fronting various bands but with a taste for the different and weird this led to playing regular shows at places like the Seaview Ballroom, The Venue, Macy’s and The Club supporting some pretty big names from The Church, The Saints, InXS and even Divine to name a few.
A stint playing with Ollie Olsen to record the Orchestra of Skin and Bone album led to him playing and performing guitar on the song Shivers in the legendary Dogs in Space with Marie Hoy along with a minor role in the film. During this time he also became an accomplished live and studio engineer, even recording the first Spiderbait records for AuGoGo, then touring extensively both here and OS.
By the end of the 90s and honing his skills as an engineer mentored by Tony Cohen and Dave McCluney he established the independent label Spooky Records working with amongst others Spencer P. Jones to produce, engineer five albums and recorded the now regarded classic, The Drones – Wait Long By The River…Others artists included SixFtHick, Beasts of Bourbon [live album] Digger and the Pussycats but there’s 100s more records recorded and many more records released via Spooky which still is still very active. A longtime FOH engineer for Rowland S Howard still sees him often behind the desk for Mick Harvey shows. Loki also has done FOH for Dirty 3, White Stripes [first Aus shows], Buzzcocks, Dead Moon, Earthless, Andre Williams & Beasts of Bourbon to mention some notables.
A long time association with Beast Records, France has helped break numerous bands into the European Market like Six Ft Hick, Digger and the Pussycats, Gentle Ben and his Sensitive Side. This year the annual Binic Festival that’s closely aligned with Beast Records sees 3 Spooky Bands on the bill including the new Spooky discovery Long Hours.
The last 10 years Loki has also worked at RMIT as a studio mentor and teacher. Alongside all this with a continuing love of Industrial and Electronic Music it’s not surprising Velatine is a new passionate adventure with this album being a culmination of 4 years work leading up to the release of “I Won’t Be Civilised”
Loki is also guitarist in Brat Farrar who will be heading to France and Spain in July to play a series of festivals and club dates most likely followed soon after with Velatine shows in the Northern Hemisphere..
Maggie Alley – BIO
Collaborative guest vocalist and established singer-songwriter Maggie Alley grew up in the city, moving to the country in her teens. She took the formative energy of the sprawling, heated suburban cauldron that is Melbourne to quieter, darker, greener places, and used the space and time to develop a voice and songwriting talent that has seen her described, at just 20, as akin to “a young PJ Harvey or Patti Smith”. (ABC Radio).
Alley’s two digital EPs (Beasts, and Live at the Brunswick Ballroom) have gained strong community radio and ABC airplay, with devastating vocal performances described as “banshee like”. She’s currently working on her debut album, with contributions from Matt Walker (Lost Ragas), Fenn Wilson and George Wilson (Pollyman) in 2023.
Drawing inspiration from the influences as diverse as Kate Bush, David Bowie, Courtney Barnett, The Triffids and The Bad Seeds, her expression falls into their individuated and sometimes iconoclastic tradition – music infused with something felt, not just heard. This quality made her a perfect fit to sing and collaborate on Velatine’s – I Won’t Be Civilised.
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