VELA

South London · Croydon & Peckham · Nia Campbell, Edie Lane, Frankie Doyle (early 20s) · FARA Records

VELA are a three-piece South London electro-pop group — Nia Campbell (lead & main vocalist), Edie Lane (electronic and concept lead, whisper vocal) and Frankie Doyle (harmonies and visual). Croydon and Peckham kids in their early twenties, they meet at exactly the point South London's underground electronic scene meets devastating British emotional pop — and the group is that meeting made a band. Two worlds held together at once: on one side the cold electronic underground of Drexciya, Dopplereffekt, Detroit electro, Actress and the afrofuturist submerged tradition; on the other, Adele, Sam Smith, Billie Eilish, FKA twigs, The xx and Sault — emotional pop that lands like heartbreak.

Nia is the eldest and the powerhouse — gospel-trained, Whitney-and-Aretha at her mum's, reggae and lovers rock at her dad's, a Croydon voice that could change the temperature of a room in a church choir. Edie is the cerebral one, a Peckham kid raised on post-punk and DIY warehouse nights who chases a feeling before a chorus and builds the group's electronic architecture on a cracked laptop. Frankie is the youngest and the spark — dance classes and YouTube covers and pop instinct, the one who fights for the enormous hook and then arranges the harmonies that lift it. On stage they perform as one: whisper to belt to shimmer, cold electronics to widescreen catharsis, the three voices trading roles.

The name VELA is a small southern constellation whose stars are the remains of an ancient supernova — light still travelling from a source that's already gone. Which is, more or less, the group's whole subject. Nia — warm, grounded, protective. Edie — cerebral, watchful, intelligent. Frankie — social, funny, restless.