Omaha band Velvet Velvet is a project of Roman Constantino, who is best known as the front-person of popular area rock band Garst. With Garst on hiatus, Consantino has evolved this project towards more a band itself bringing on Cannon Dunwoody, also from Garst and Dominic Bazer and Jordan Opere from The Ivory Claws.
Velvet Velvet will release their new album, “All Falls Apart,” on Saturday, May 24, with a show at Slowdown alongside Social Cinema and Cable Network.
In a discussion leading up to the album release, Constantino gave a history of how he got started in music and how this project came along.
“I’ve been playing music since I was 12 and writing songs since then, too,” he said. “That was when I met Casey (Plucinski), the other guitar player in Garst. We were writing since then, going through bands, trying to figure out what we liked to play and how we sounded. We started Garst in the summer of 2017. At one point, we were going to hook up with Jesse (White) from Bad Self Portraits to play drums, but he got too busy. He told us, ‘Hey, there’s this guy, Cannon Dunwoody, that I went to school with—you should hook up with him.’ So, Cannon came over, and we’ve been friends ever since.
“Did Garst for five to seven years—seven years, I guess. We stopped doing stuff in March of last year. By then, I had already been working on Velvet Velvet for about four years. It was a pandemic project—just something I started with myself when Garst wasn’t playing shows. Since then, I’ve gotten a backing band and worked more collaboratively on this last release”
Garst has become one of the more successful rock bands Omaha has seen in some time.
“Consistency was the biggest thing,” Consantino said. “Even if we didn’t have anything to work on, we practiced every Thursday. We’d always find something to work on, and that’s how our records came together—bringing ideas and cobbling them together ourselves. That became our dynamic, especially in the later years when we got more comfortable. It informed how I want to be working with people from now on. I can have my own thing, but there may end up being more Velvet Velvets.
“I wrote all the songs up to a point. On this last record, everyone wrote their own parts. I wrote the songs, but they each wrote their own parts. Initially, Velvet Velvet was just me, but now it’s getting more into band territory—pushing me in the direction of how Garst ended up being. Since we’re all here, we might as well. Especially if I start bringing in more sparse material in the future instead of fully completed songs for people to just learn. I think it’s more fun when we work together.”
“All Falls Apart” was recorded in two days at Archetype Recording. When asked if that was by design, Consantino said the group played live as much as possible.
“If you want to lean into a band dynamic while recording, you have to do as much live as you possibly can,” Consantino said. “That was the rule with Garst too—that’s why we recorded that album in two days. It captures more of the character of the band when you do it live. Unless you have all the time in the world, overdubs are kind of a luxury.”
Constantino’s time with Garst and where it was going, along with his personal observations navigating everyday life, formed the themes for “All Falls Apart.” When asked what perspective he writes from he said one of two places.
“All the songs on this record come from one of two places: the disillusionment of whatever Garst ended up—the breaking of Garst, I guess—or just observations I have seen around while walking around by myself, being more mindful of my daily routine and how people conduct themselves in public and private,” he said. “That’s why I called it “All Falls Apart.” It’s such a rapid change. No one knows what’s going on, but at the same time, everyone knows exactly what’s going on. It’s almost like knowing too much. Nobody is connecting, and that’s what I think is leading to things falling apart—locally, nationally, internationally. Technology is a catalyst for a lot of it, that is why I chose the album cover—the phone print in the pants. Those pants are from an era before phones, so they weren’t really designed to withstand that kind of thing.
“I think the song that best represents the All Falls Apart theme is ‘Head, Heart, and Stomach’ —which is going to be the next single. It features a three-piece string section. It’s more of a power ballad, I guess. That is being mindful of how your brain and intuition are all tied up and how they affect each other and how they can be warped over time, depending on what you expose your brain to and your heart, I guess. Spoon was a huge early influence—whether it was their sarcastic lyricism or weird instrumentation that pulled from different places. The Beatles, of course. I listen to a lot of jazz, and I’ve been wanting to approach songs more like jazz—where you play the melody, do a solo section, then play the melody again. I’ve also been listening to a lot of Minutemen. I think I’m influenced by Minutemen just as much as a band stylistically, they just did it properly.”
Looking to the future, Consantino said he’ll always have a project of his own.
“There will always be a Velvet Velvet—a project that’s just me,” he said. “That’s how it started, as an ambient project—my dad calls it the Bleeps and Bloops era of Velvet. I’ll always get back to something like that just trying on different hats. I’ve been wanting to do the Tim Presley thing—really sparse instrumentation, just some weird shit by myself. It’s going to be an interesting next couple years for Velvet Velvet and we are going to see what works. I always have songs, but this is the first time I don’t have anything set out for the next record. I have songs that may or may not be on the next record or just ideas and stuff. I might open it up to my bandmates more.”