Hailing from Los Angeles and the beach cities of Southern California, Velvet Starlings has released a handful of EPs, singles and its debut album Technicolour Shakedown all before the band members could legally drink. Founded by Christian Gisborne (who incidentally tracked, engineered, mixed and produced their debut album), Velvet Starlings rose to national prominence when they won the “Emerging Stage” competition at Milwaukee’s Summerfest 2019. In 2021, the band returned to Summerfest, but this time on the main stage alongside with Black Pumas, The Struts, Pixies and Cold War Kids.
Technicolour Shakedown is the follow -up to 2019’s EP Love Everything, Love Everyone. Gisborne (who turned 19 in May) released his debut self-titled EP Velvet Starlings when he was 15. Both EP’s charted in the top 5 at Specialty Radio and hit #1 on KROQ’s “Locals Only.” Gisborne also caught the attention of, among others, BBC Radio, Shepard Fairey, and The Kinks’ Dave Davies who all count themselves as fans of Velvet Starlings.
Speaking about the album which hearkens neo-’60s garage – best described as beach-fuzz-psych with a big cheeky nod to the UK Invasion, Gisborne says “in the doom and gloom of Covid I found myself reminiscing all the time about the days when we would wait in line for hours to see our favorite bands. The songs on the first album reflect everything I felt I was missing out on.”