The Velvet Sundown have denied links to Andrew Frelon, who has admitted to faking his role as the AI ‘band’s’ spokesperson.
My god, will it ever end: the bizarre saga of AI project The Velvet Sundown has taken a new turn after Andrew Frelon, who presented himself as the band’s spokesperson, admitted he fabricated his affiliation in an elaborate hoax targeting the media.
The Velvet Sundown, which has more than 800,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, released a statement via their official Spotify bio and X account (which is different to the one that had taken aim at journalists for suggesting they were AI-generated and agreed to interviews in the fallout), clarifying they have no connection to Frelon and disputing his claims about their use of AI.
“Someone is attempting to hijack the identity of The Velvet Sundown by releasing unauthorised interviews, publishing unrelated photos, and creating fake profiles claiming to represent us — none of which are legitimate, accurate, or connected in any way to us,” the band’s bio now reads.
“Some interviews have surfaced featuring someone identified as “Andrew Frelon,” allegedly speaking for The Velvet Sundown. We have no affiliation with this individual, nor any evidence confirming their identity or existence.”
“There is an active attempt to misrepresent our work and take ownership of something they did not create. Do not trust any content about The Velvet Sundown unless it comes from our official channels.”
On Thursday, Rolling Stone reported that a Velvet Sundown X account — the same one linked directly from the band’s Spotify page — requested a correction and reiterated that Frelon was never affiliated with them. “We understand the intrigue our project inspires — and we’re not here to dispel mystery,” the account told Rolling Stone. “But we are here to correct the record….The Velvet Sundown is a multidisciplinary artistic project blending music, analog aesthetics, and speculative storytelling. While we embrace ambiguity as part of our narrative design, we ask that reporting on us be based on verifiable sources – not fabricated accounts or synthetic media.”
In a Medium post, Frelon claimed he seized on The Velvet Sundown’s absence from social media to run his hoax. He explained that he converted an unrelated account he created in March into what appeared to be The Velvet Sundown’s official account, then posed as their spokesperson.
From there, he admitted to employing various “social engineering” strategies, including misleading journalists to believe he was connected to the band. He said his goal was to test the media’s fact-checking process. “Knowing from past projects something about the dynamics of journalistic news coverage,” he wrote, “I thought it would be funny to start calling out journalists in a general way about not having reached out to ‘us’ for commentary.”
Frelon went on to provide ‘receipts’ so to speak of being at the helm of the fake X account, including screenshots of account setting info and DMs in the inbox from journalists who contacted what they thought was the band for comment. He outlined the manner in which interviews with publications were conducted, noting that some journalists pushed back on email interviews or pressed for more proof of affiliation, while others did not.
Frelon previously told Rolling Stone he was fascinated by “art hoaxes,” a claim he repeated in his I post. The phone number he used to contact reporters, registered to a Canadian 514 area code, is now disconnected.
Despite clear signs of AI-generated music and visuals in The Velvet Sundown’s material, the project has been featured on popular Spotify playlists, rapidly amassing significant plays. Glenn McDonald, a former data analyst at Spotify, told Rolling Stone that The Velvet Sundown’s success highlights a shift in recommendation algorithms away from human-centred curation and community-based discovery, and toward AI-driven models that suggest songs based on purely sonic characteristics.
As of now, The Velvet Sundown has not issued further comment beyond their denial of Frelon’s involvement.
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