Building Velvet Vandals – Finding the Band

There’s a moment where you stop talking about something… and you either do it, or you don’t.

Steve Vandal for the Velvet Vandals on the shoot for the music video Summer in the City.

Velvet Vandals started as an idea. Not just “let’s make some music”… but something bigger.

A sound. A look. A band that actually meant something again.

But here’s the thing people don't really talk about —you don’t have a band until you have the right people. You can have a bunch of dudes in a band, but they are all painting there own pictures and no one is painting the same picture. It means you end up with a bunch of dudes making music but no real direction. Its not defined, it lacks structure and identity. It just becomes a group of dudes that meet up and jam and that's cool but for Velvet Vandals I wanted a locked in identity, feel, style, music structure, work flow and a professional working band but not in the normal way you think of a band.

I had to have rules, contracts basically created so that we are all on the same page. This is not just a band but its a business and we are our own record label. This project was to prove that you dont need a label in 2026 and we can do it all ourselves.

Starting From Scratch

When I decided to build Velvet Vandals, I wasn’t looking for just musicians.

I was looking for:

• attitude

• presence

• style

• ability

• people who got it

• people who understood what this band was meant to be

• people that looked at what I was offering and realised the benefits

• people that could work with my workflow and keep up with me

Because you can teach parts… You can’t teach energy. Vibe and style.

The Search Begins

Early 2026, I started putting the word out.

No big label. No industry push. Just me, a vision, and a standard.

I spoke to a lot of amazing people from people that appeared on the Voice, session musicians. Real dudes and chicks that understand the business of a professional band and what I wanted to do.

Some were great players…but didn’t fit the vibe.

Some had the look…but not the drive.

Others wanted to make something I did not.

And that’s the thing —Velvet Vandals isn’t just about playing notes.

It’s about:👉 working together but following a plan 👉 bringing something real, style, ability, attitude, image etc, 👉 and most importantly building something together that we all love, painting the same picture and that picture is 80s rock and metal music.

Each one of us are in love with the 80s hair metal, glam metal and rock scene aesthetic and style. We love Leppard print leggings and cowboy boots as much as big hair, bandanas, leather and heavy eyeliner but we also love a bit of a frisk, rocking hard and yeah we are show offs, I mean you can rock a white bandana and big hair in 2026 if you dont want people looking at you. I did not just want some dudes for this band. I wanted rockstars.

Finding the Right People

Then things started to click.

One by one, the right people came in.

The kind of people where you don’t need to explain everything.

They already feel it. Live it and know it. There is a vibe a feeling when your around such people. I call it the rockstar vibe. Its the same vibe you get when your next to royal or actor. They have a presence and energy that you feel when your around them.

Left to right, Daren May on bass, LC on guitars, vocals, Steve Vandal on vocals. Reuban "Roo" Leivers on guitar and vocals and Jake Green on drums.

So the first member was LC Lethanial Collins one of our lead and rhythm guitarists. Dude seen my add on a facebook group, asked me to DM him as my page was lockdown. I seen him before we spoke and I was like "bro, bro your hair" haha. It was huge, like slashes and dudes rocking a bandana, lead in a 80s covers band, loves the music, style and can shred and lives next to me. That's what I call the trifecta. So I told him my plan and he was down, we met up that night for a chat in a pub and he was like "bro I have a bass player Danial May. Dude already sounds like a rockstar with that name and then I seen him play. So that was a no brainer but at the same time I am in talks with Roo, Reuban Leviers our second rhythm and lead guitarist. He lived just around the corner. I had seen Roo loads, as he works close to my home. I once seen him flying by on a 80s BMX. I said to my girl . "You that dude looks like Vince Neil and Bon Jovi had a child" haha, that's dude ended up being part of the band, a driving key member creating sound, and vibe. In about a day of finding each member Jake Green a drummer messaged me. We started chatting. He explained his love for our style of music but he had only played metal etc. So I auditioned the dude and he was fire. Dude loved the drums I created in the demo. How I made them musical, the structures etc. I explained that it was hybrid, plugins, Ai and samples then run back through an AI to get a clean sound before they go into production. I mean I did not access to drummer is this created the foundational sound for the band, the structure. I just needed real musicians to replace demos with real human and instruments. That's where we are at today.

More Than Just a Band

What started as a solo idea turned into something real.

Not just a project but a life changing project.

A band. Identity and actually a rebirth of a fire that had started to fade inside of me.

Steve Vandal getting back into shape for Velvet Vandals

For me, it was a get of your arse, get back in the gym, work hard on the vocal coaching aspects again, pick up the guitars and bass again and get creative. Start writing again and thinking about what I really wanted from my band. I had always wanted a 80s sleaze rock, hair metal glam metal band but never got there. Like I said everyone in a band paints a different picture. Like I went into a hair metal band ended up in a horror punk band. Shit just changed direction and I hated it. So this time it was my turn to create everything, curate everything and Velvet Vandals was born from a dream and passion.

This project probably saved my life. Like I was at 120kg in weight, I accepted my music life was over back in 2013 but here we are in 2026 and I am fighting my way back from the rockstar graveyard.

People blame AI for so much, But for me it was a positive, it brought me back into music, it gave me a springboard and vibe, a sound and a direction that was my own. It never argued, it never ditched me for another band, it never messed up. It was a clean workflow that made magic happen and created this band from my prompts and my style but it was not easy. It led me to solid 24 months of work, researching, watching old interviews with people like Mut Lang on stacking vocals and layering, researching production and style. It would later become the key sound, understanding how to get AI to make a analogue style from the 80s to get that authentic sound without having access to the gear. It created the bands sounds.

And not just any band —a group of people who all bring something different, but push in the same direction.

This Was Just The Beginning of Velvet Vandals

Getting the band together was just step one...

Velvet Vandals are a modern 80s sleaze rock, glam metal band based in the UK. You can stream there music on all platforms and on this website. www.velvetvandals.co.uk