Dan Shears & The Velveteen Orkestra have the ability to make audiences swoon while, at the same time, casting forth an air of unease with their intoxicating hybrid of rich romanticism and brutal intensity. Embodying the essences of European folk and bluegrass as well as echoing the guitar-based indie stylings of The Smiths and Radiohead, DS&VO can gently pluck at your heartstrings while delicately slipping them around your neck.

The band formed in 2009 from the recording project of South London born songwriter Daniel Shears and played their first live show in July of that year. Shears joined up with drummer and producer, Andrea Adriano, and set about assembling an orchestra, essentially from the street, and in May 2010 Dan Shears & The Velveteen Orkestra recorded a six-track debut entitled ‘The Eternal Mystery of the Human Heart’. The EP attracted much industry attention and the band continued to captivate audiences, playing shows at KOKO and The 100 Club in London as well as UK Festivals The Great Escape and The Big Chill.

‘TAKE UP ARMS’, the band’s first full-length album, is well on its way to completion and looks set to enrapture and compel listeners further still. Shears likens the recording process to “Dressing flesh on a hanging skeleton until you’re stood there with a living, breathing person that you’ve created” and describes the new songs as, as the title suggests, “A series of battle cries, dark thoughts, violent ambition and love ballads with sharp objects concealed beneath their coats”

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