interview and images by Troy Morgan
more Velocity Chyaldd & Vulgaras : Vulgaras.net
Scope the crowd at the Cutting Room on Saturday nights and you will find a montage of young hipsters, older eclectics and tourists all turning their heads curiously towards the entrance into the back room where Le Scandal takes place. This is where you will find Velocity Chyaldd, along with an extraordinary, ever changing group of performers headed by Bonnie Dunn. Le Scandal is the bastard child of the notorious Blue Angel cabaret and Mayor Giuliani's "Quality of Life" crusade, resulting in a traveling cabaret show which was abandoned by its host but refused to end. "The Inmates run the Asylum now." She tells me over the phone earlier that afternoon.
Velocity floats over and is happily basking in a post band rehearsal glow as she introduces me to the new Vulgaras bassist Ameryka, who overflows with the necessary enthusiasm to run with Velocity & Goddess Diana, the core members of the band. "On a metaphysical level Vulgaras is loving dysfunction. Anyone who gravitates towards me can easily relate to that. I have worked with some very over the top & extreme people".
If you have had the pleasure of seeing Vulgaras live, then you have experienced the melodic theater of sex, pain & faith for which they are known. If you dig a little deeper, you will find the pagan messages that are thoughtfully woven into their artistic tapestry as each member's faith is respected and given room to breath. When it comes to such matters Velocity doesn't choose sides. "I like to think of each concept and philosophy as tools that you put in the tool shed to work with. I have a pentagram tattoo on one arm and a pentacle on the other. So for me it is about being both light and dark."
On this night the scales tip into the darkness as Velocity's powerful voice grabs you by the neck and forces you to focus on her image in all black as she sings "LightHeaded" from the Vulgaras independently released debut LP entitled Aphrodite P.O.W.. I won't spoil it for you as to what happens on stage but if you have issues with the idea of sharp instruments and blood then I feel for you, for as I said she has you by the neck so it is in your best interest to be very still and digest it while you have a cocktail afterward.
"Thankfully I can do this weekly and I bring a little piece of the Vulgaras pie over here. I wish I didn't have to sleep." Not that she gets much sleep anyway. "5-7 hours a night if I am lucky. There is a Linda Blair inside my belly and she decides what I am going to do whether I like it or not." She says with a smile.
Velocity comes alive under stage lights both with and without Vulgaras. Performing began for her when she would create performance art to music by preferred artists, doing spoken word/poetry with a dark trip-hop Tricky-esque flavor. One night some A & R people were in the audience watching the show and they told her that it was like watching Godzilla with a violin as accompaniment and when she got a rock band to give them a call. "Shortly after that my DJ had sold all of his equipment and decided to go to Europe and ride a bicycle for a year. So it was like -OK- seems like the perfect time to start a band." And she hasn't looked back since.
After her performance Velocity leads me through the crowd that parts like the red sea when they see her. I don't blame them, once we are downstairs in the dressing room and the harsh florescent light picks up Velocity's blood stained porcelain skin I wish we could pack all the people upstairs down here for an encore. It's almost wrong to put her on a dark stage when she is at her strongest in the real world. Not that the real world has been particularly kind to Vulgaras as a female fronted hard rock band with a few stray male members and a transgendered drummer, suffice it to say that the music industry's labeling committee has a really hard time with this band. "Right now there aren't any prominent female rock musicians out there. There was once Patti Smith, Wendy O Williams, Janis Joplin and Deborah Harry. A band called Otep is my current favorite. I am a big fan. The lead singer deals with similar issues that I do in my songs and its hard rock and she isn't ashamed of it. She's brutal, raw and unapologetic and I would recommend that people who want to listen to a woman with something to say check it out. But when they look at us the word that comes to mind is usually shock rock. The rock scene itself has a hard time with us because we are so theatrical. Right now the New York rock scene is very stoic and bitter and boring. Everyone just wears jeans and t-shirts and screams real loud. I just keep doing what I do. I have all these great muses around me. And all these ideas I need to get out of my head and new band members to situate. So at this moment I have my focus on a birthing process but when we come out of it everyone better get ready."
When asked how she feels about being labeled shock rock she just shrugs. "I guess it is necessary and shock is relative. Ideally if people just said 'Yeah she rocks' and not focus on the shock element separately it would be nice. I call what we do filth core. The ideas that the woman is dirty, that we are suppose to be filthy. That is what I like to throw in peoples faces. I'm dirty and I'm scary. But you like it don't you? Isn't this fun? The dirty Eve eating the apple. The menstrual blood. That's why I like to play with blood a lot. It's a chick thing for me."
Controversial imagery is not a concept that Velocity shys away from with one of her most memorable moments being her performance at Black & Blue Ball 9. "That was one my favorite solo performances actually. It was fun being the Circus theme and I at the time I was doing a Marilyn Monroe influenced piece where my dress would blow up and then I would knife my pussy while wearing this serious kabuki make-up clown face with a blinking nose just made it even more obscene. It was the first time I had the opportunity to hear Aphrodite P.O.W over such an obnoxiously loud sound system such as Limelight's and I was just like Wow! This is Awesome!"
Her tie into the fetish scene spans beyond performing at fetish events. Velocity also goes by the name Goddess Electra and maintains a devoted stable of playthings. "I realized that it really helped me to exorcise my demons and I can help others to do the same." She proudly claims this provenance to influence her seductively violent art as well.
With so many places to call home, Velocity is doing her part to give one back. "The bands' former bass player Ammo (it was a bitter sweet good-bye because Ammo wants to do her own thing and I really wish her all the best) & I are producing this tribute show called Goddess. There are a few shows of this kind where people go and flex their muscles. This will be a gathering of women who just want to get up and rock the house down. Ammo is in Le Scandal as well and we were down here one night talking and she said 'We can do our own show.' and a light bulb came on for us."
Velocity's tone of voice changed to one of utmost seriousness when talking about Goddess. "I can't stand competitive women. And this is not about that as some similar shows have tried to do. We have enough to deal with in being aggressive but two aggressive women being competitive with each other just isn't right and worse then putting together two alpha males. Goddess is necessary. This will be our third one and we are extremely excited about it."
At this point Velocity has changed back to normal. The blood is gone. The makeup and costume is packed away and she finally sits down for the first time all night and sighs softly. I can't help but to shake my head and laugh, fully understanding living with an extremely full plate doing what drives you.
How do you keep yourself grounded I ask her. She joins me in the laugh. "I have had a hard time doing that in the last few years and I have learned that you have to take things in moderation. And while it is so fucking corny to say "I take it one day at a time." Life is not a joke. It in itself is a 12 day program where you take it one day at a time so you don't snap. Yoga & mediation really help as well. But I have to say that the pagan arts have really been the main grounding force above all."
And with that she is off into the night leaving a trail of moments which many can relate to though often can't or won't admit to in her wake.