The haze of a dimly lit piano bar. A red curtain draped across a dusty stage. The feeling of satin on skin.
Turn these things into melodies and it would sound like Vika & The Velvets. And that's exactly what frontwoman and lead singer Olivia Vika wants you to feel.
The band's hard-to-pin-down sound is all at once psychedelic, bluesy and jazzy with a dash of classic rock. It's a sound heavily influenced by the music 21-year-old Vika listened to as a child, then refined through years of writing as she found her vocal tone.
The mononymous Vika was adopted by her American parents from Russia as an infant and found an outlet in music early on in life.
"My brother really was the one who influenced me and sparked my interest in music," Vika says. "Caleb is a jazz musician. He was always just playing in my house growing up. He showed me a bunch of music that I had never heard of and showed me what music really could be and should be."
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Shannon and the Clams, The Doors and Amy Winehouse sonically defined Vika's early years, and those artists continue to weave their way into her music as she seeks to define her personal sound.
She found compatriots in the Velvets — Andrew Atkison on bass, Rogan Tinsley on saxophone and Eric Kennedy on guitar. The group's current lineup formed slowly over the years after Vika asked Atkison to play with her after seeing him perform at Neato Burrito. Tinsley was invited to join after seeing the group play early on. Vika ran into Kennedy outside of Zola and invited him to jam. They never got around to jamming together, he simply joined the band on stage for the first time at the Big Dipper for a show last December.
From her strong, passionate vocals to her confident stage presence, Vika is a force to be reckoned with on any stage she takes. Case in point: The band often performs a cover of "It's a Man's World" by James Brown. Taking on a song by a powerhouse like the Godfather of Soul might make lesser singers shake, but Vika channels the auras of strong female vocalists from her favorite groups and invites audiences into a psychedelic, indie-blues rock world of her own creation.
Listening to early Vika songs like "70s Haze" and "Nasty Woman," it's easy to hear an artist finding their footing. Things are significantly more dialed back vocally and instrumentally.
"The sound has changed a lot since my first releases," Vika says. "And so has my style of writing. It's changed drastically in the last year and a half or so. But there are some elements that I just can't seem to get rid of no matter how hard I try."
That growth is evident on newer releases like "Lovers Liquor Store" and "Motel Oasis." The Winehouse influence is apparent as Vika's powerful vocal lines dance over cool jazz melodies.
Bassist Atkison, who splits his time between going to school at Berklee in Boston (and playing in the local band Monkee Business), looks at the band through a musicology lens. He says the defining characteristics of Vika & The Velvets' current sound are descending minor seventh chords and, generally, the key of A minor — Vika's favorite. The group pulls jazz elements into their music with the help of saxophonist Tinsley. Guitar riffs provided by Kennedy fill out the soundscape along with steady rhythms provided by stand-in drummer AJ Ramirez.
Don't be surprised if you see Vika in places other than Spokane soon. The group has spent a significant portion of the past year playing shows outside of the region. Vika is expanding her musical horizons with a California tour in August, but she'll be back in town to perform at Volume Music Festival in September.
Vika has found her voice, her sound, and musicians with the chops to help her showcase all that the band can be. And things are only getting started.
"I think the sound is something that you shouldn't have to try for," she says. "It's something that you should give off naturally, like an energy within your music, your niche, your style. It's taken time to figure out."
