Velvet Code is an artist that fully realizes that the best thing you can ever be in life, is yourself. While putting out records with singles like “Get Outta My House,” which stayed on the Billboard Dance Music Charts for 15 weeks, and peaked at #19, and his legendary hit “Say You Love Me,” which was played on The Hills and Jersey Shore, this Toronto-based Electronic Dance Music DJ/producer and songwriter somehow has the free time to design and manage a clothing line. Emblazoned across all of his merch is the proclamation “You Do You.” It perfectly encapsulates what he’s all about — the passion, the uncompromising individuality, the bravery required to establish the kind of career he has so quickly. He mixed his stage name from a combo of “Velvet” – the fluidity to be whomever he feels like in the moment, and “Code” – the genetic material for electronic sound, synthesizers and controllers. He channels icons like Robyn, the late Avicii, Armin van Buuren, Gaga and Freddie, both their musicality and their take-no-prisoners approach to life itself.
The song’s title may sound like a throwback to the free love psychedelic 60s, but that’s where the similarity ends. That is, unless you count Velvet’s ability to tap into the kind of timeless songwriting and melodies that can bring people from all walks and fans of all genres together, to maybe, I don’t know, change the world? This life-affirming synth pop gem glitters with amazing production courtesy of Velvet Code himself. Velvet’s got an instant classic on his hands, a modern take on 1980’s pop like Depeche Mode and Erasure, updated with the atmospherics of Goldfrapp and Muse, but the clarity and sincerity of his voice carries this, the second single off this summer’s sophomore album Dreamer. The AMG / SONY Music Entertainment release is a collaboration with Wendy Starland, who discovered and developed Lady Gaga.
Velvet Code’s video for “Mary Offered Ladybugs and Love Yous” feels like an interstellar journey and a head trip, all at the same time. He commands a tiny stage, few feet off the ground, transfixed, as if envisioning a future where everyone is offered love, and, sure, ladybugs. He’s already found the enlightenment and contentment that await those with the courage to live their lives according to “You Do You.” On the floor before him, an otherworldly Modern Dance duo dives, spins and careens off of one another, in a complex choreography to match the sonic interplay of the song’s warm layers. Portraits of heroes of equality and bravery, some personal to Velvet Code, some meaningful to us all, flash across the screen as futuristic, geometric CGI flowers float through the frame. He wears a shirt that reads “Revolution,” and if he can reach as many ears and minds as he should, a revolution just might be exactly what we get.
