My new favorite band doesn't exist?

"The Velvet Sundown" have been on Spotify two weeks, and already has 450,000 followers

I’m currently traveling around Europe. Escaping the NZ winter seemed like a good idea, and there’s something about the sun going down at 11pm that gives you energy that you can’t muster from sheer willpower alone when it’s dark and gloomy.

Songs and memories get easily linked, so I wanted something new to listen to that might remind me of the old cities I’m exploring in later days. Call it planning for nostalgia. I didn’t want to listen to The live extended version of Sultans of Swing for the millionth time, nor mindless 2025 American chart music. So I turned to the Spotify explore page for suggestions. Top of the list was a band called “The Velvet Sundown”

I started listening. The band was good. Really good. Spotify had delivered, so I’ve had The Velvet Sundown on repeat non stop for the last week or so.

Listening to TVS reminded me of being a teenager and my friend Aaron introducing me to Creedence Clearwater Revival and Led Zeppelin. I was getting the nostalgia I wanted without the memories of other times I’ve heard the same songs before.

The bands Spotify blurb:

“The Velvet Sundown don't just play music they conjure worlds. This four-piece band bends time, fusing 1970s psychedelic textures with cinematic alt-pop and dreamy analog soul. Their sound is velvet reverb, swirling organs. tremolo-soaked guitar lines, and voices that sound like they've been unearthed from forgotten reels of tape. Formed by vocalist and mellotron sorcerer Gabe Farrow, guitarist Lennie West, bassist-synth alchemist Milo Rains, and free-spirited percussionist Orion "Rio" Del Mar, the band feels like a hallucination you want to stay lost in. Their five shows play-like lucid dreams, and their records unfold like lost soundtracks to films that were never made. With lyrics steeped in escape, inner peace, and post-war mysticism, The Velvet Sundown are not chasing nostalgia they're rewriting it”

Perhaps its a good time, if you’re curious, to listen to their most popular song “Dust on the Wind”, I’ve posted the YouTube video, but of course you can also find on Spotify as well.

So who are “The Velvet Sundown”?

There’s only a couple of times in my life when I genuinely feel that I discovered musicians before they went mainstream. The Cranberries when I was 15, and Gesaffelstein before he wowed Coachella in 2015. The feeling of pride of “having better taste than anyone else” and the smug feeling of “See, I told you they were good”, can’t be beat.

This being the case, I wanted to do more research into the band and figure out if they were playing somewhere near me, how long they’ve been together etc.

Looking on Spotify, the band had only been listed two weeks, with what sounded to me like a raft of bangers, one after the other, I was definitely onto them before anyone else.

Googling and trying to bring up tour dates, or band member profiles, I couldn’t find anything. All their promotional pics look AI generated. Was this another virtual band like Gorillaz or a semi-anonymous band like Daft Punk?

*They sound like the memory of something you never lived, and somehow make it feel real" - Billboard

By this stage you may have guessed. The band doesn’t exist.

The words, lyrics, instruments, everything has been produced by A.I. according to an article just published by Mashable a few hours ago. The rumour is that Spotify themselves have built a studio with a raft of AI musicians so that they won’t have to pay royalties in the future.

Betrayal

I’m struggling to figure out how I feel, now knowing that the band I’ve been listening to all week is AI.

• Does this mean that actually I have terrible taste in music, that I like AI songs?

• Do I still like the music at all ?

• Did Spotify know exactly what I liked and then send me this particular AI band, or did I just happen across it

Honestly If Spotify hadn’t essentially pretended that this was a “real band” (including an Artist verified badge), I’m not sure I would have given this a listen.

A.I. could never be as good as a human right ?

I’m trying to figure out whether I keep listening, but now every time I’m trying to find the machine inside every vocal, whereas previously I only heard someone singing their heart out.

Even the band name “The Velvet Sundown” now seems like a quick knock-off of “The Velvet Underground” or the song “the Velvet Sunshine” by the Jonas Brothers.

Can I ever get over this and keep enjoying the music I loved initially?

If machines are now this good, the world is definitely going to get very weird very soon. it already is.