Velvet Chains: What Happens In Vegas Doesn't Always Stay In Vegas

We’ve all heard that say about “whatever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” Thankfully that’s not always true, at least when it comes to great music it isn’t. The band Velvet Chains began in Vegas and it didn’t take them long before they started getting attention. The band has released several singles with some charting in the Active Rock Top 40. They have played with some mighty impressive acts including Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators, The Winery Dogs, Saint Asonia and more. They turned quite a few heads when they took an Elvis classic “Suspicious Minds,” and spun it in a fresh new rock version. Their latest single “Dead Inside” continues to raise the bar for the band. We sat down with bassist and founder Nils Goldschmidt who gave us a little more info about the band’s past, present and future.

Hey Nils! Glad I was able to catch you on one of those rare days off, or close to off to talk to you. I’m a big music nerd so I love learning about a band’s origin of how they started and the origin of their name. Care to enlighten us about both of those?

Nils Goldschmidt/Velvet Chains: Sure thing man! I started the band in 2018 to be a cover band at bars with an ad on Craigslist. I put together the first version and named it Velvet Chains because we were covering a lot of 90’s and 2000’s. When you heard that name back then you thought of Velvet Revolver, Alice in Chains and stuff like that which is what we were covering. Now, if you ask some of the other guys they say they found a shirt on Ebay of a fetish club in Amsterdam called Velvet Chains. They go around saying that club changed their lives so it depends on what setting we’re in as to what story we go with.

So, we ended up playing every bar in town and then Covid hit and shut us down. I found myself on my sofa doing nothing but drinking whiskey. I could do that and stare at the walls all day or I could write some lyrics. I hooked up with a songwriter in LA through a mutual friend and we started creating demos. I had a few ready and I went to the band. I told them I could do this with or without them. I knew someone here in Vegas with a studio and started recording. We layed down ten tracks and cut an album. We did this without any management, booking agent or pr. We dropped the first single through Mike Squires in Seattle. He’s been in the industry a long time and used to be in the band Loaded with Duff McKagan from Guns N’ Roses. He also tours with Duff, he’s in Ugly Kid Joe and he’s a dear friend. I told him that we’d love a feature and he gave me a few names. One of those names was Richard Fortus who is the rhythm guitarist for Guns N’ Roses. I pitched our song “Tattooed” to him which was going to be the first single. I told him that we’d love it if he was down to record guitars on it. He listened to it and he agreed to it. My mind was blown! Here’s our first single and we have Richard Fortus from Guns N’ Roses on it! I have to tell you that Guns N’ Roses is my favorite band of all time. This gave me so much energy to devote to doing this completely so that’s how the band started.

You had a lineup change after doing that first album?

Of that first album, we only kept “Tattooed” with Richard Fortus, ”Pass The Disease” with Mike Squires and “Wasted” with Jeff Rouse.” The other seven songs we took down when the lineup changed. We went from being a cover band to doing the original thing. I wanted to see where this would go but the rest of the band was more into the cover band thing doing weekends. They all had other jobs but I needed something that was able to travel, do festivals, work with different producers in different cities and so on. So we parted ways and that’s how I ended up with this lineup. I’ve known our singer (Ro Viper) for a couple of years. Our lead guitarist (Lahi Cassiano) used to be our rhythm guitarist. Von Bolt is on rhythm guitar and vocals. I was in a different band with our drummer Jason Hope many, many years ago. Now, we are finally a fully, professional group of musicians moving in the same direction to become a mainstream band. We’ve already done some cool stuff to get us in that direction but we’re still trying.

You guys really seem to be cooking with this lineup and you’re getting noticed. I read that you toured Brazil with Slash in early 2024.

Yeah, that was nuts! Guns N’ Roses is my all-time favorite band and now I can say I’ve worked with Richard Fortus and Slash! I’m friends with all three of the Conspirators and all three live in Vegas. We didn’t get the spot because we knew Todd (Kearns). There was a lot of work involved plus a combination of management, producers and working hard. It was the perfect storm of stuff to get us there. That happening was another nugget that told us to keep moving forward. Those South American crowds were insane! They get into shows so much. At the hotels, they treated us like The Beatles until Myles (Kennedy) or Slash showed up. If it’s my turn to leave here tomorrow I can say I’ve lived a full life because I went on tour with Slash.

I have KISS videos where they played there and those crowds get fully into those shows. They even sing the guitar solos!

We played there the year before with STP and The Winery Dogs and we had some people who remembered us. They were holding up a banner that said ‘Velvet Chains Brazil Brigade.’ It was cool to have this pocket of fans there to see us this time but of course Slash too. There have been fans with tattoos of our song lyrics or logo. It’s wild but weird too yet I have tattoos of lyrics of my heroes. That’s not weird when it’s you but it is when it happens to you.

I bet that blew your mind! So, you guys have released several really cool singles, but are we on path to an EP or full length album release?

Absolutely! It will probably be around the middle of the year.

“Dead Inside” really seems to have been resonating with people for some reason. You guys hit the Top 40 Mainstream airplay with that one. What do you think it is?

We went a little harder with that one. We’re all inspired by bands like Linkin Park and Korn. We hadn’t found the right inspiration to do so until we worked with Mitch Marlow. He’s very much into new metal, so we used his guidance. “Dead Inside” is definitely Sirius XM Octane material. It made it to Test Drive which was cool. We want to stay in this vein for a while but we won’t lose the more balladry, more melodic essence of who we are.

Vegas seems like it could have a very interesting music scene. What’s it like?

Vegas is a suburb of LA. You have legacy acts starting to move here because it’s more affordable than AL but close enough to still have the essense.You find more working musicians who have their own bands but they’re doing scoring and production sessions. You have little less organized professional musicians but you also have the extremely talented professional musicians who are not Top 40 yet. They all want their dollar to go a little further so they live here.

Music scene there in Vegas, everyone trying to get your attention,

Vegas is suburb pf LA, legacy acts starting to move here more affordable than LA but close still have that essence, a lot of musicians, find a lot musicians, las had more working musicians have own bands but they’re doing scoring prod sessions musicians, here u have aspiring but that side industry is missing scoring session, a lot a little less organized less professional but then u have other extreme great talented professional musicians who are not on top 40 yet want dollar to go a little further so they live here.

What’s on your radar that you may want to mention?

We’re finalizing some tours as openers, but we can’t mention anything just yet. We’re hoping to also book South America this year and hopefully Brazil. We’d love to hit Europe; expect big things this year.

Our last part is something called Three for the Road. It’s three, hopefully not so typical questions to hit you with. First off, who was your first celebrity crush?

I had watched that movie called My Girl when I was a kid and I had a massive crush on that lead girl. I was a kid so it was very age appropriate. Her name was Anna Chlumsky.

What’s the best or worst gift you ever got?

There’s a company called Chrome Hearts that makes leather jewelry. My wife got me this Chrome Hearts plunger. It probably cost her a couple grand. I love Chrome Hearts but I may have to exchange this because I don’t want to get crap all over it (laughs).

If music was over with today and you had to go into professional wrestling, what would your name be?

(Laughs) My name is Nils so I’m going with Nine Inch Nils! I’ve always said if I ever have a tribute band that I’m going to call it Nine Inch Nils. Since I never will, I will use it as my wrestling name!

Well Nils, that’s a wrap! I appreciate your time today. Keep that momentum rolling dude because you guys have definitely tapped into something. Best of luck and, fingers crossed, hopefully I’ll see you guys performing live soon.

Thanks for taking an interest Johnny and for the support! Keep watching our socials for our tour dates.

Interview by I’m Music Magazine Owner/Editor Johnny Price