What's Up! Magazine

DJ Velveteen illustration by Riley Hoonan

Just about all of us have been there: the garden variety house party with a sub par music selection. Confident that alcohol has taken its desired effect on the crowd, we inconspicuously mosey on over to the CD changer and ease our taste into the music styling. For most of us, it makes the evening more enjoyable. For others, it launches a career.

“They never let me stop,” said Richard Hartnell, better known as DJ Velveteen.

After his humble beginnings, his style evolved into goth and industrial for a spell. Somewhere in between there and scratch, the desire to turn pro was ignited. As it turned out, money, (or rather, lack thereof), proved to be an issue. But fate had other plans, as Hartnell received a modest inheritance.

“I went to Sonic Index… and it panned out,” he said, explaining his good fortune of essentially having carte blanche at the right place and the right time. Next up was a gig with the ever-popular Betty Desire Show, along with a gig at Rumors Cabaret.

Since then, his talents have led him all over, with gigs in Vancouver, B.C., Seattle, and the annual Burning Man Festival in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada.

“Have tables, will travel,” he said.

These days, he finds his style virtually impossible to describe. “I haven’t found the answer,” he said.

From pop to lounge to electro dance and everything in between, no stone is left unturned in his expansive repertoire. “It’s all about the cut and artfully mixing,” he said.

Hartnell, a native of Fairhaven, currently resides at the Lookout Arts Center in Alger. Like him, the place emanates refreshing uniqueness. According to its website, it aims to “provide opportunities, resources and facilities to nurture and inspire artistic excellence, community and education in the performing arts field.” He said his goal for the place was to eventually build a warehouse that not only houses an atmosphere that is creatively conducive, but also apartments for artists as well. At the moment, “It’s all tents and busses,” he said with a chuckle.

Hartnell’s take on the current DJ scene in Bellingham could best be described as honest, if not mildly acerbic. “It’s brutal, the last few weeks have been crazy,” he said. “If something is different… and the art is solid, it speaks for itself,” he added.

In almost every way, it is no different than the dilemma that the modern musician faces when deciding on a vehicle to parlay his or her art.

Does one go with the easy money and play the cover tunes? Or is it better to stay true to one’s self and play his or her own music… in front of sparse crowds?

Yet when it comes to that classic conundrum, Hartnell is taking matters into his own hands; delving into the world of streaming podcasts, among other things.

He has also taken to spinning tracks on Tuesday evenings at the Cirque Lab on Cornwall. He said that the basic objective is to provide a creative outlet for fellow DJs and fans alike to be themselves without the pressure of the ubiquitous Top 40 party scene.

“We’re taking it back to the basement,” he explained. “DJs feel confined… there’s nowhere to play what they want.”

The weekly soir e also espouses a “come one, come all” aesthetic, with open turntables welcome to everyone from beginners to experts.

DJ Velveteen’s latest “traditional” gig has him spinning at his lounge show at New York Pizza and Bar on State Street every Thursday from 9 p.m.-1 a.m. Saying that he wanted sophistication and class, Hartnell described the scene as not necessarily one to dance to, but one to “chill out, study or impress a date.”

For one thing, there’s no dance floor, which in turn posed a different challenge. While it does, indeed, allow more freedom, he said that he also has to be more aware of body language; being acutely observant of folks’ interaction and human nature in general. All of it ultimately decides the track selection, which is, as mentioned, vast.

Over the years DJ Velveteen has proven to be an artistic chameleon, deftly shape-shifting his art; all the while maintaining his own distinct voice and identity. And to think what the music community would have lost, years ago, if the music in the CD changer at that ill-fated Bellingham house party was actually decent.