Our Velocity

An Interview with Our Velocity

A glut of people have asked us about how Our Velocity started. Well, here's a look into how we sprung into being after bursting forth from Zeus's head:

Our Velocity was taken from the title of a book by Dave Eggers. In the book, You Shall Know Our Velocity, two main characters fly around the world, giving away their money and experiencing the people of the different lands that they visit.

Our Velocity started in the summer of 2007 with founding members, Evan Redmon, 22, Matt Stottmann, 22, and Tim Karrer, 24. After writing four powerful original songs, Our Velocity went on a two-year hiatus. An opportunity had arisen for Evan and Matt to join forces with rocker Douglas Lucas as part of his Sony/ATV Records act The North, and Our Velocity was put on the backburner for a time.

It wasn’t until summer of 2009 when Matt, Evan, and Tim would join forces again, two years older and much more experienced.. They entered the studio in early June, the afternoon of a full moon, and recorded ‘No Excuses’ and ‘Tangerine Sunshine’ at Jeff Carpenter's Al Fresco's Place Recording Studio in the Highlands.

Going into the studio, ‘No Excuses’ had been completed for two years, but ‘Tangerine Sunshine’ still had loose ends. There was a middle eight that was yet to be defined until Matt and Evan sat down at the piano and improvised a classy duet.

“t was later that year, in October, when Evan and Matt would go out promoting their music by way of open mics and acoustic sets. They started looking around their hometown of Louisville, KY for venues where they could just show up and play. They came across the Best Of Louisville award-winning open mic night that took place at Bearnos pizzeria located on Bardstown Road. Bringing out a massive audience of family and friends, Evan and Matt used the show to shake off the ‘live rust’ after a year of constant songwriting.

“I remember being so nervous,” admits Evan. “Matt and I went out the back door of the venue and tried warming up and brushing up on the songs we were about to play, also trying to settle our nerves.”

"In the end," says Matt, "We did really well. I think people were surprised at how polished we were musically when they hadn't either seen or heard from this incarnation of us before.”

Our Velocity continued frequenting this location and others in the next two months. Then, in January, they went back into the studio, working once again with Jeff Carpenter, to record two more songs. ‘Flight,’ that had been around for a few years at that time, and ‘The Wind is Back‘, which was a work of magic, as Evan explains.

“It came out all at once. I was sitting on the couch, getting ready to go to work on the night shift, and I picked up the guitar and started strumming. The melody just came to me and the lyrics came flowing out over the next few hours. The song wasn’t completed for another six months, though, when Matt would add more to the lyrics and also take the listener on a ride with some adventurous guitar work.”

Our Velocity burst forth into the music scene after this second recording session, playing shows across Louisville at Headliner's, Hot Topic, The Monkey Wrench, Bearno’s, the BRYCCHouse, and anywhere else who would provide us a few mics and some electricity to power our gear. In the end, the first run of our initial four song EP was a complete sell-out, and word travels quickly. In March, three of our songs finished in the top 100 in three different categories on MTV’s and AOL’s OurStage.com, as well as our music video for ‘Flight’, garnering thousands of new listeners for Our Velocity.
“We’re masters of internet promotion” says Matt. “We know well that in this age, you can touch a screen and instantly be in contact with thousands, if not millions of potential listeners. The industry has definitely changed, and the internet is the vibrant future of popular music. We’re having YouTube webisodes filmed currently, documenting our band‘s growth and experiences, and it‘s proving to be a huge hit. We also have fan sites on nearly every social networking website, and produce our all our own art, flyers and websites ourselves. I think the ball is rolling in the right direction.”

Our Velocity have set themselves up with some lofty goals as the Earth rolls itself into the North American summer of 2010. The debut album will be released in June and a U.S. Tour has also been scheduled, taking Our Velocity from the safety and comfort of their dedicated Louisville fan base to locales in the Rockies and beyond. Enjoy the 5-song press demo! Keep an eye out for the full length debut album in June 2010!