Welcome To Velvet Umbrella
A Home for the Underdogs, the Overcomers, and the Sound of Becoming
Velvet Umbrella began with a simple belief: creativity deserves a safe place to grow.
What started as an independent record label has become something much larger. It’s a home for original music, independent radio, storytelling, art, and the wonderfully unexpected ideas that don’t always fit inside traditional boxes.
Founded by Celeste Violet (Studio TeaZilla) and Mickey Fingers of Gala Violet, Velvet Umbrella exists to encourage artists, creators, dreamers, and beautifully unconventional people to make the things only they can make.
We believe artists should own their work, trust their instincts, and build sustainable creative lives on their own terms. Whether we’re developing an album, designing artwork, planning a release, building websites, creating radio shows, or simply helping someone reconnect with their creative voice, we’re here to walk beside the process.
We don’t offer recording, mixing, or mastering services. What we offer is something different: encouragement, creative direction, project development, and a place where ideas are welcomed long before they’re polished.
Many of the people who find their way here are rebuilding after burnout, creative setbacks, difficult life chapters, or simply years of believing their work wasn’t “enough.” Others arrive because they’re curious, wonderfully weird, or ready to create something the world hasn’t quite seen before.
Under the Velvet Umbrella, every project begins with a question: What do you want to make?
From there, we help build worlds. We write songs. We tell stories. We create radio. We open strange little doors.
And together…
We reclaim the mic.
We remix the myth.
We make room for wonder.
About the Founders
Mickey Fingers (producer, engineer, writer, performer, remixer, and occasional firestarter) and Celeste Violet (writer, artist, vocalist, and spoonie visionary) met through a shared love of music, storytelling, and creating worlds that didn’t exist until someone imagined them.
Together, they’ve released original music, built radio shows, designed websites, created artwork, written stories, produced videos, and slowly assembled the ever-expanding universe that lives beneath the Velvet Umbrella.
More than a record label, they’ve built a place where creativity is encouraged, curiosity is celebrated, and independent artists are reminded that their voice matters.
At Velvet Umbrella, they don’t simply release projects. They help people believe they can make them.
our story.
A Soft Place to Land. A Fierce Place to Create.
Some stories begin with a business plan. Ours began with conversations.
Mixtapes.
Late-night ideas.
Half-finished songs.
Sketchbooks.
Coffee.
The occasional existential crisis.
And an almost endless stream of…
“What if…?”
We met years ago through music, drifted through life in different directions, and eventually found one another again during a season when the world had grown unexpectedly quiet.
One invitation to join an Artist’s Way group became another conversation.
Then another.
Soon we weren’t just writing songs.
We were building worlds.
What began as Velvet Umbrella Records slowly grew into something neither of us expected.
Today, Velvet Umbrella is home to original music, independent radio, storytelling, artwork, websites, videos, curious kitchens, imaginary places, strange little doors, and whatever wonderfully impossible idea shows up next.
We’re not very good at staying in one lane.
Honestly…
we’ve stopped trying.
We’re both Spoonies.
We’ve both lived through burnout, loss, uncertainty, and enough plot twists to appreciate that creativity isn’t a luxury. Sometimes it’s survival. Sometimes it’s healing.
Sometimes it’s simply remembering who you were before the world convinced you to become someone else.That understanding shapes everything we create.
We don’t believe creativity belongs only to people with expensive studios, perfect health, unlimited time, or industry connections. We believe it belongs to anyone willing to begin. Sometimes all a project needs is someone to say, “That’s a beautiful idea. Let’s see where it goes.”
What We Build
Original Music
Independent Radio
Stories & Fiction
Artwork & Design
Websites & Creative Worlds
Videos & Visual Projects
Recipes, Curiosity & Community
And occasionally…
things that refuse to fit inside any category at all.
Under the Velvet Umbrella you’ll find dreamers, musicians, writers, artists, Spoonies, curious people, recovering perfectionists, wonderfully weird humans, and anyone looking for a place where creativity is still allowed to be playful. Because around here…
we’re less interested in fitting into an industry…
than building a world we’d actually want to live in.
Velvet Umbrella was never part of a five-year plan.
It grew one conversation…one song…one radio show…one strange little idea at a time.
Somewhere along the way, we stopped waiting for permission to make the things we wanted to see in the world. We simply asked…
What if…?
Turns out…
“What if?”
…is a pretty wonderful place to begin.
Our Mascot: The Opossum
People ask us…
“Why an opossum?”
Because opossums survive.
They’re underestimated.
Adaptable.
Gentle.
Resourceful.
And somehow they keep finding a way forward.
We like that.
Besides…
every creative person has had moments where they wanted to disappear for a while.
The trick isn’t pretending nothing happened.
It’s eventually coming back out into the light.
The opossum reminds us that survival isn’t the end of the story.
It’s the beginning of the next chapter.
The Velvet Umbrella Philosophy
We believe creativity isn’t something you earn.
It isn’t reserved for the lucky, the wealthy, the healthy, or the already successful.
Creativity belongs to anyone brave enough to ask…
What if…?
Some people make songs.
Some write stories.
Some build imaginary radio stations.
Some paint.
Some bake.
Some quietly begin again after years away.
Under the Velvet Umbrella…
all of those things belong.
🎵 Original Music
📻 Independent Radio
🎨 Artwork & Design
📖 Stories & Imaginary Worlds
🍄 Curious Kitchens
☂️ Creative Collaboration
💜 A Community That Believes Your Voice Matters
What You’ll Find Here
our artists.
Each Voice a Universe.
Every artist carries a different constellation. Some tell stories through songs.
Some through soundscapes. Some are just beginning to discover what they want to say. Under the Velvet Umbrella, every voice matters. Every project begins with a question. Every artist deserves room to grow. The empty circles aren’t empty.
They’re invitations. The next story hasn’t been written yet.
Velvet Umbrella Radio
Independent Radio. Wonderfully Unpredictable
The radio station started as a way to share music.
It became a world of its own.
Eclectic Wonderland.
After Hours.
Petals & Hooks.
Purple Tiki Lounge.
Playlists.
Videos.
Stories Between the Tracks.
Somewhere between college radio, late-night conversations, and beautifully strange adventures…
…we found our frequency.
Welcome
Our Shows & Times
The Vault
Velvet Umbrella Blog
Mickey's Corner
Backstage Banter, Sonic Secrets & Creative Chaos
Pull up a chair.
The coffee's probably still warm.
Somewhere there's a half-finished lyric, three ridiculous ideas scribbled on a napkin, and at least one project that started with the words...
"What if...?"
Welcome to Mickey's Corner.
Our behind-the-scenes journal from life beneath the Velvet Umbrella.
This is where Mickey Fingers and Celeste Violet share the stories behind the songs, the radio shows, the artwork, the happy accidents, and the wonderfully strange ideas that somehow become real.
Around here you'll find things like...
• Writer's block... and how we usually ignore it.
• Studio experiments involving yoga balls, kitchen utensils, and whatever happened to be within arm's reach.
• Vocal layering, production notes, and little tricks we've learned along the way.
• Lyrics, stories, sketches, demos, and the occasional glorious train
wreck that somehow turned into something beautiful.
Some entries are thoughtful.
Some are hilarious.
Some simply document the strange little adventures that happen when two curious people refuse to stop creating.
Come wander through the notebooks, playlists, coffee stains, and beautiful chaos.
Who knows...
You might leave with an idea of your own.
Keep Wandering...
There isn't just one way into Velvet Umbrella.
Follow the music.
Wander through the stories.
Open a strange little door.
Stay for a recipe.
Come back for the radio.
You never know where curiosity will lead next.
More Beneath the Umbrella
One idea always seems to lead to another.
Sometimes it’s a story.
Sometimes it’s a recipe.
Sometimes it’s an imaginary building that somehow becomes real enough to visit.
Follow whatever catches your curiosity.
☂️ Velvet Umbrella Records
📻 Velvet Umbrella Radio
🍄 Dimension 5 Snacks | A Grateful Life
📖 Eclectic Wonderland
🌙 After Hours
🎵 Gala Violet
📝 Blog & Stories
🚪 Strange Little Doors