The Velveteers, a Boulder rock trio featuring vocalist/guitarist Demi Demitro and dual drummers Baby Pottersmith and Jonny Fig, spent six years scheduling their own gigs and producing their own music before releasing their first label-backed album, Nightmare Daydream, in 2021. But the following two whirlwind years on the road, opening for big-name acts including Guns N’ Roses, proved that entering the music-industry machine can grind at a band’s soul. “We do this because we love making art,” Demitro says. “And a lot of times, when you’re successful at something, it pulls you away from the reason you started doing it in the first place.”

So for their follow-up, A Million Knives, which debuts on Valentine’s Day, the Velveteers attempted to channel their early, independent streak. “I wanted to get back to the basics of when I first started writing music,” Demitro says. “I tried to zone out any voices in my head, of what certain people wanted from us.” Produced by Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach’s label, Easy Eye Sound, A Million Knives still rocks with powerful guitar riffs and booming drum crashes but is more refined than its predecessor. The band’s goal? “Let’s make something that we love, and let’s not care what anyone else thinks,” Demitro says. “Because at the end of the day, that’s all that really matters.”

5280 February 2025
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