Loki Lockwood has been a constant in the Melbourne music scene since the 80s, involved in both gothic and electronic genres. This has led to his creation of the label Spooky Records, as well as starting the Creepy Hollow studio. On top of all this, his most current project is the goth, electronic Velatine, where Lockwood has guest female vocalists join him on tracks. I can tell you now, Loki is one of the most genuine and unaffected people who loves what he does, so join us as we pick his succulent brains about his career, of course Velatine and why they are saying “FCK YOU ALL.”
Salutations Loki Lockwood and welcome to the hallowed halls of Onyx.
Thanks Adele, I’m honoured to be invited.
Loki, you have been based a long time in the Melbourne gothic/post-punk scene, Can you tell us about your early years and the bands you have been involved in?
I was consistently playing in bands from my late teens to my late 20s. I have nothing really to show from this era, most has been lost in time, very different to now where every event is tracked. One band I had was called Blackburn. Someone sent me a link of us playing on a RMIT-TV show or something like that, I think might be still floating around. I did a stint playing with Ollie Olsen for his Orchestra of Skin and Bone album alongside John Murphy [Drummer, later in Death In June]. Even this is a hard one to find, it was pre CD days so it came out on vinyl, it’s still the only format you can hear it on, fortunately I still have my copy. I was in my mid 20’s and a huge admirer of their music. I know there’s a big part of this music in Velatine, the electronics of Ollie and John’s work, the noise, discordance, percussive elements. When Ollie became the music director for Dogs in Space we all got dragged into that. Quite the experience. You’ll find me in there somewhere. After that I played guitar in another band Practical Folk Music, we played a lot of shows in Melbourne and Sydney with bands like Box The Jesuit and Lubricated Goat, there’s a split single with Hugo Race that came out in Germany and a track on a compilation. But as I said, most of these bands are lost to time which is a bit of a shame, some of it was quite fucking cool. After all that and more I was pretty much over playing in bands by the end of my 20s as they often imploded just as they were starting to get going.
Melbourne has always had a fairly strong alternative scene, so how has this impacted on you socially but more importantly, artistically?
The Melbourne scene, it’s incredibly strong artistically. It always has been. It’s always morphed from place to place to survive. All I ever wanted was to be around music in this life and as I had a fascination with sound I started mixing bands to make money, later this became studio work as well. I worked with a lot of really, really great people for a long time and so that was sort of why I stopped playing as well. I exposed myself to so much different stuff by mixing. I was always attracted to the dark side, and it seemed to be there for the finding. I worked with Rowland S Howard for many years doing his live sound, that angular guitar thing and lyrics is one influence. Ollie, for that electronic / noise stuff and merging genres. Spencer P. Jones for that garage sound and what a songwriter. Well they all wrote great songs. I guess I was also influenced by the ones combining electronic elements with conventional instruments that were on the periphery in Melbourne, I still get called up to do live sound for Snog. Any music I was doing was behind closed doors and I never really got it together to get anything out until recently. Largely because I was doing all this stuff for a lot of other people.
As an audio engineer, you have your own studio called Creepy Hollow, so who have you worked with in this capacity and is it really that creepy?
It was named Creepy Hollow when we moved into this place 10 or so years ago. The studio is in the attic rooms of the house, the walls are painted blood red, there’s paintings and posters and stuff on the wall that are special to me, the rest of the house has taxidermy, antique furniture and cats. When we got the place I was really hoping it was haunted, so the name sprang from that. It was built in 1929 and has a bit of The Amityville about it. We’re the second owners and I so wanted to be entertained by their spirits. No luck there I have to say. The studio was really built to do Velatine so it’s largely a private studio. But I mix records here and do a lot of mastering so it at least pays for itself. There’s a section of it that’s soundproofed so I can do guitars here and yeah it’s an awesome vibe. People really enjoy coming over and working here [if they’re allowed] and singers especially love working in this space.
In that vein, you also run the label Spooky Records. Why did you start up Spooky Records and tell us about the label?
I started the label with my partner Jasmine in 1999. At the time I think it was the impact of the grunge / Nirvana era. A lot of the independent labels got absorbed by the major labels hoping to find the next big grunge hit. There just seems to be a huge lack for much smaller artists who needed help to get their music out. We started putting the feelers out and really it was Spencer P Jones that got it all going. We found out he had a record that was unfinished. Tony Cohen was the engineer so we decided to take it on and this was our first release The Last Gasp. So I guess we were one of the forerunners of the new generation of independent labels. We did albums for Spencer P Jones, Drones, Six Ft Hick, Gentle Ben, Digger and the Pussycats, Link Meanies side project bands Bakelite Age, Sun
God Replica, the list goes on.
How hard is it finding balance and time for all these different roles that includes creating music?
It’s hard to say no to things but I’ve been lucky in that I have a part time job where I mentor students in the studios at RMIT, that helps handle the money side of life and allows more creative time these days, but I love writing so I just lock myself away most weekends and create.
Your most current project is the darkwave Velatine. How did you start up Velatine and who you have been working with?
It was something I always wanted to do, and as I said, I was doing it behind closed doors for so long. I discovered Ableton in 2018 after struggling with various modern programs for ages and I had an instant connection with it. It just opened up everything for me. It was like I could get the creativity out of my brain for the first time in years because of its fluency. When lockdown hit I’d been looking for women to work with, initially wanting them to do lyrics and and write vocal lines. As that became impossible I used the space to just get better at what I did, so I went down the road of making cinematic, gaming music which was the first record. Just hoping to build some sort of profile I guess while I was waiting for a singer to come along. That stretched into a second album and then after working with a few different women I came across Maggie Alley. By now I was writing the lyrics as well so we recorded a song together and it clicked. That expanded out into an album but then she wanted to concentrate on her own music so we played a show last year to celebrate it all and off she went. Late last year I was working on a song and for a second time reached out to Inga Liljeström, the first time I’d asked her, she was interested but not available. It just felt like she was the perfect voice for “Nothing To Do With You” and indeed she was, I’m immensely proud of that collaboration, and she’s so talented, I still feel the stars aligned.
Have to say that the last two singles have been pretty forthright in attitude. Can you talk us through the story behind “Nothing To Do With You?”
With “Nothing To Do With You” It’s about a friend I know, isolated at school by so-
called friends, even put down by her family who told her women were not smart enough to run a business. But she always knew what she wanted to do in life but no one would give her a chance. Over the years I’ve seen her work hard, save her money harder and then become that successful business woman she wanted to be. Years ago I remember her taking classes at Circus Oz, that’s where the imagery came from to create the narrative, there’s so much colour in a circus to draw from. As I write this I think back to all the so called outcasts that were hanging around the Seaview Ballroom. I can think of so many that continue to make their mark on the world in their chosen, mostly creative fields. Maybe that era taught us a lot about self belief, a punk rock attitude. I’m sure there’s a lot of that era in there as well. So I write with the idea that the listener might see
themselves in that story and make the story about them succeeding against all odds.
I had a little giggle at the new single “FCK YOU ALL,” especially with the death nell bells chiming and all this is actually about the mental health of artists such as musicians. What brought you to the point of writing this track?
A lot of my songs are really about optimism I guess. They’re often positioned within a negative context like with “Fck You All”. I thought I should explain it a bit when it was released. It was one song that developed quickly and the lyrics were really abstract. It’s the importance of self belief again, a reminder to myself this time, or maybe more for my friends, like Barb who helped on vocals. For those who go into battle with their own creativity. That whole “why bother” it’s a tough thing we play with.
I know it sounds like I’ve cracked it!! I’ve been looking at a lot of ways of how musicians can break through the noise. There’s just such an immense amount of music getting released and so I’ve focused a lot of energy on finding my audience. You can’t just put it out and expect people to find it, but then of course you release something, then you feel like no one has noticed it after putting in hours of work so you have to be resilient. In a way it’s a mantra to myself to hold fast believing in what I do, because I think if you deviate from being yourself, and copy music that has success you just become like everything else that’s around. Then you’re just some sort of phoney. So I’m creating music that I like, regardless of how much it’s noticed, I have to firmly believe in it and that’s the essence of the song. So yeah I’m telling myself to do this.
How would you describe your style of music and does composing come naturally?
I don’t even know what my style of music is. You said Darkwave, I guess elements from there, it’s a cross genre thing, there’s influences coming in from all directions. Post-Punk, Gothic, especially surrounding the darkness of the lyrics. Industrial Music, Industrial Noise, Orchestral, Electronica. It’s those genres I’m most keen on and so I smash them together and mess with them. Composing is a very natural thing for me, I’ve written hundreds of
pieces of music in the last five years but of course not many will ever see the light of day. I’ve learnt that inspiration is actually hard fucking work. Then you have the lyrics to deal with. Once again, hard work, it’s lots of writing for me to get a song really expressing what it should be and I’m still learning the art. But I love that I’m always learning, always discovering the new.
I am always interested in what bands and acts influenced artists, so who influenced you, Loki?
The big influence is gotta be when I was young seeing a lot of bands at the Seaview Ballroom and other venues around Melbourne. Bands like The Cure, New Order, Gun Club, Birthday Party, The Creatures. All very raw music at its heart. Most weren’t great musicians when they started, but they made great music and became accomplished over time. I think it is probably the biggest influence. I wouldn’t say I’m a great player but I’m a good composer and of course your youth is a huge influence, so it sort of reflects back on the earlier question about what Melbourne is to an artist. These influences really map out the rest of your life in a way.
Who do you find yourself listening to these days?
Right now I’m listening to a lot of music on Spotify, I’m a new convert and that really feeds back to the rising above the noise thing that I’ve been looking at. Many of my peers gave out the message to hate Spotify, how it doesn’t pay artists so it was something I had no idea about. I finally set up my artist profile at the start of the year. They gave me a free trial and I just totally loved it. It’s the new radio, new discoveries, a place where musicians can own their own product and share it with the world and use that power to benefit their art. It’s something we really can’t challenge, you know, how much is paid out, but there’s artists who are totally using it to make an impact and even become self-sufficient. If you look at it in a different light it’s not as bad as people say. Fuck, it’s always been hard to make a living from music but the old school gatekeepers have lost their power because of this, that’s got to be a good thing. So I’m really trying to find a lot of new stuff in the sort of area where Velatine might fit. You find this stuff, you reach out to the artists and make connections and build community. I’ve got a playlist I’ve just started with lots of these finds and hope that I can engage people, to not only listen to what I do, but others making similar music. So it’s mostly electronic stuff, all of the darker genres, and heavy with female artists whose voices and composition blow my mind. Otherwise I’ll smash out an old favourite like some Laibach, Ministry or Siouxsie and the Banshees, that sort of stuff.
If money was no issue, what sort of video would you make for the track “FCK YOU ALL” and is there anyone you would have in it?
Probably some sort of parody of the “I’m Rich” hip hop clip, why is this a thing to aspire to? I just don’t get it? And I’m sure most of these artists are going into debt with their record labels to portray this shit!!! In mine we’d be travelling in beautiful old black Mercedes Limos. My friends and I, dressed to the nines partying by the pool of some amazing manor house, and women treated with respect, not as objects.
What is next for Loki Lockwood and Velatine?
The plan is to release a single every 2 – 3 months for the time being, most likely with a different singer each time. I’ve got 2 tracks done and these also have re-mixes that take the song in a different direction. I’ve also got a lot of material written ready to record so hopefully you’ll start to see more from Velatine.
On that note, spoilers sweetie… the next single is called “Orange To Black,” and you can’t get more Halloween than that!
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