Ok, time to answer the question that I have mostly been asked ever since I revealed that I was going to release a solo record.
Will you be playing any gigs?!
I’ve got some good news and some bad news for you..
Let’s start with the bad news, shall we?
Right now, I don’t think I will be touring with Villainess. Sorry. I’ve been thinking about this a lot and considering various options and I just don’t feel like I want to take this on as a project at this moment.
Let me elaborate a bit.
Villainess is very much an electronic, studio-made album. I can’t just take what it is and miraculously go on tour with it. It’s not going to sound great, and I don’t really see myself going solo on stage. that would be really lame. I need to put together a band and I need to turn those songs into a live show. I’ve done it before, so I know that it’s not a small feat.
Velcra’s third album Hadal was an electronic studio album first and foremost as well so I know what it means to turn a record like that into a live show that kicks arse. We pretty much re-worked all of the arrangements with the band, and that took us several months.
Right now I’m not absolutely itching to go on tour, instead I really want to finish off another little project I’ve been quietly working on since April, and I’m dying to start writing new songs. If I choose to focus on playing live, these other two things will get delayed probably by a year.
So, no, I won’t be playing Villainess live in the near future. However, I’m not saying never. This may become something I will really want to do later down the road.
But wait, I also had some good news.
I WILL be playing a live gig this October with my former band Velcra. Yes, yes I will!
After an 11-year hiatus, Velcra is getting back together to play one more gig.
We were asked to play a gig a couple of months ago at a legendary venue in Helsinki, Finland, called Nosturi. Nosturi is going to be closed down and demolished by the end of the year. To celebrate they have invited bands that have played there over the years, to come and play final farewell gigs and we were invited.
We never really planned on getting together, and just the job of getting everyone in the same room has been a bit of a task, but we really felt like this would be a great thing to do. Velcra played some of its first gigs at Nosturi, and we also played our very last gig there, pretty much exactly 11 years ago.
So we are doing it!
The gig will be on Friday 11 October. Be there! It will be awesome!
This week we got together to rehearse and it was a lot of fun. I’m really looking forward to getting on stage with this bunch one more time.
If you happen to be in Helsinki and want to come and see us, get your tickets here: https://www.ticketmaster.fi/event/263423?fbclid=IwAR3H_MpyTdmTxdNP5z6ZF8LaslhzPGKczp5WLmkI97OKI0sPO3N8u_i9iBY
See you there!
Jessi.
