Hope Shines Through on Velo’s New Video For “The Grip”

True artists never fail to find mediums for their inspiration. In the case of indie pop quartet, Velo, they have a renaissance man in their lead singer, Ofer Shouval (guitar/vocals). Velo, consisting of Waldo Wittenmeyer (keys/vocals), Marcus Brown (bass/vocals) and, Travis Newman (drums), has been on the Austin periphery since their genesis in late 2014, penning and performing powerful songs across a multitude of local venues, amassing a solid foundation of fans in the process. However the band’s momentum seems to be reaching its zenith as they prepare to release their debut full-length album, At Sea, on January 22nd. Shouval not only penned most of the album’s lyrics, but remarkably found time to animate and direct the music video for their first single, “The Grip”. A slow-building masterpiece, the song’s inspiration drew heavily from the pain of Shouval’s breakup with a previous band which simultaneously coincided with the heartwrenching breakup of a girlfriend. The dark themes of “The Grip” evoke loneliness and impending doom on each frame, which was deftly hand-drawn by Shouval. Using a DIY palette of looped textures, a printing press, and DSLR camera, the video depicts an asteroid decimating a planet, a period of regrowth follows, and then another destructive asteroid striking, all the while the instrumentation builds the song’s chorus to epic levels. Velo is a deep pool of songwriting and musical talent that will undoubtedly blow us all away on January 22nd.