Released by Ōtautahi’s Winegum Records, the compelling debut album from newcomer rock outfit Velveteen blends ‘90s alternative rock with elements of punk, emo and electronica. Velveteen is the musical project of Jai Tudor-Oakley and ‘Heavy Machinery’ sees the 21-year old multi-instrumentalist songwriter leaning into the music he grew up with, as a vehicle to channel experiences of heartbreak and desertion. He talked with Richard Thorne about the album origins and influences.

Channelling the vitality of ‘90s alt-rock, infused with a post-punk edge, ‘Heavy Machinery’ launches with the furious high energy of a closing song from a memorable live indie rock set. ‘So why didn’t you stay, my body aches in a way I can’t convey’, is the repeated refrain.

The song is called Black Hole Above Cincinnati, one of several on the album that reference the US of A in their titles, and Velveteen’s Jai Tudor-Oakley surprises with the admission that the name has no reasoning behind it whatsoever – he just thought it sounded cool. Christchurch born and raised, Jai has no obvious US connections other than music – his fuzzy guitar sound being likened to Billy Corgan’s as one example.

“Honestly, I just, I don’t know why there are so many US-related song titles. It’s all sort of by coincidence. Like Salt Lake City was just a movie I like and was really into at the time, SLC Punk!. And then Saturday Night In Vegas is a chapter from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which I was reading. Yeah, so it was all by coincidence, but I’ve always been really interested in the American alternative band scene, so I tried to just like, pull that sort of stuff into it. Like little Easter eggs, I guess!”

The debut album takes its name from track three, an emo-infused encapsulation of the emotional rollercoaster that ‘Heavy Machinery’ records. Written at the end of his teenage years, amid a variety of heartbreaks and the deterioration of several close relationships, it has a quite different sound to Velveteen’s earlier releases, but Jai’s not attributing that entirely to the venting of breakup anger.

“I’m not sure. The album sort of took about eight months to write, and it was just a very hectic time in my life, like mental health-wise and relationship-wise. A lot friends moved away, and a lot of the songs were written in the middle of winter when it was very cold. It’s like an audible diary of that eight month period of my life, and it’s umm, yeah…

“With a lot of the songs I tried to be as vulnerable as possible, because it’s like, every song that I love and every album that’s really affected me has been very honest and vulnerable. I sort of want people to feel the same way as I feel about big albums like ‘Nevermind’ and ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’ by Bon Iver, and stuff like that. I’d love for people to have that sort of very visceral connection, where they’re like, this is speaking to them on a very emotional level.”

The Bon Iver context may be salient as Justin Vernon’s singer-songwriter identity morphed into a band of the same name, and similarly there’s room for confusion over whether Velveteen is a solo project or band.

“I write and record everything. So I played all the instruments on the album and on the EP and everything, and then I have a band that I play with live and pretty much tell them what to do. So I’d say it’s a solo project.”

His father is a drummer and Jai’s first instrument as a pre-schooler was a set of drums. Guitar followed at 9 or 10, and while he reckons he’s probably a better drummer, he soon found playing guitar was a lot more creative. Jai played jazz drums all through high school, including touring with a jazz band, while also playing guitar in a high school band that competed in Rockquest. Now 21, he also drums for Palo Alto, his cousin’s band. In Velveteen (the band, which includes his brother Niko on drums) he sings and plays rhythm guitar on a much-loved Fender Mustang.

“I was in a band called Senica for a year or two outside of high school, and we released an EP and stuff. I played sort of lead guitar, and did a bit of backing vocals. When that finished I was like, ‘I’m gonna do my own thing, I want control over the sort of creative side of it. And I really enjoy doing all of it. Like, this is how I want the drums to sound, and I get to do all the lead guitar parts, the bass, and all the keyboard parts as well.”

In 2023 Velveteen released a debut EP. Called ‘Streamline’ it reflected a phase of listening to quieter music including the like of Mac DeMarco, Dunedin indies Marlin’s Dreaming, and shoegaze. Following that up just two years later, ‘Heavy Machinery’, as the name strongly suggests, sounds quite different. He still really likes the EP and admits the album was originally planned to be a lot more lo-fi and reserved like ‘Streamline’, citing Alex G and Fiona Apple as a guide to that thinking.

“Then I opened for an Auckland post punk band, Ringlets, and I sort of was like, ‘This is this is awesome!’ I grew up listening to a lot of heavy music, like Queens Of The Stone Age and Tool, and a lot of Nirvana and stuff like that. So I ended up going back to a lot of that sort of music, and it felt a lot more comfortable to me, because it’s stuff that I grew up with. And I’ve sort of put my own spin on it I guess.”

Arguably an understatement, because aside from writing the songs and playing all the instruments included, ‘Heavy Machinery’ was recorded in the family garage.

“My dad sort of has a big studio in our garage, and he pretty much produced the whole album. It was about eight months of sort of just going in and doing lots of recording and stuff and then he’d, master and mix all the songs and all that. So pretty much all at home, which is such an easy way to do it. It’s honestly kind of crazy, like it’s so it’s so sick. Having my dad doing it was pretty cool.”

Jai says his father, Mike Oakley, was in a number of Christchurch bands in the ‘90s, and started playing around with recording just five or six years ago, eventually deciding to build his own studio at home.

“And yes, it’s pretty sick. A lot of a lot of time and work has gone into learning how to record and all that, and it’s definitely paid off!”

Tempering the 10-track album’s alternative rock influence of bands that include The Smashing Pumpkins and Jimmy Eat World, Jai has thrown in emo influences from bands like Chemical Romance and Fallout Boy that he also grew up listening to, and still loves.

“Yeah, emo is big influence, I think. Like, those bands have sort of got really heavy instrumentation, but then the vocal melodies are so strong, and I love that sort of thing. I’m really drawn to melody in music, and then I like heavy music as well. So it’s sort of cool having, like, loud, angry guitars, and then, like, just some really sad dude singing along.”

‘I’ll tell you through a voicemail, there’s nothing out there,’ as he sings with heartfelt rawness in Black Hole Above Cincinnati.