Oklahoma City-based duo doubleVee is comprised of former Starlight Mints frontman Allan Vest and his wife Barbara Vest who have been releasing some of the most imaginative pop songs going since starting to work on and release music in 2012. The Vest’s have a deep background in music and music culture with Allan writing scores for film and television and Barbara working in radio and producing the nationally syndicated film music program Filmscapes. Starlight Mints were one of the last, great indiepop bands out of that great 90s tradition that included artists out of and connected to the Elephant6 Collective. You can hear that level of compositional and aesthetic sophistication in the music of doubleVee. All of the project’s songs involve a fusion of imaginative storytelling and emotive melodies and an emotional immediacy and intimacy that truly sets the music apart from a lot of modern music. Their music videos reveal an eye for making something that feels like someone dispensed with the usual methods of production and made something accessible like a video a good friend with creativity and cinematic talent would make to share with an immediate social circle. The music of doubleVee invites you to step out of mundane normalcy into something more vital and fun.
The new doubleVee EP Periscope at Midnight, with eye-catching art by Grant Fuhst, is being released on July 25, 2025 digitally and on CD. It’s a kaleidoscopic journey to fantastical places through the lens of everyday curiosity pursued to stimulate the mind and the senses. For the EP the Vests wrote four new tracks and re-imagined a couple of older Starlight Mints songs “Submarine Number Three Vee” and “Maybe Tonight [What’s Inside of Me?]” and brought to all the songs an orchestral power pop sensibility lends each a cinematic aspect that give a dramatic dimension to the songwriting. Fans of XTC and The Apples in Stereo will find much to like about doubleVee’s creative pop songcraft.
Listen to our interview with doubleVee on Bandcamp and follow the band at the links below.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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