3 minute read
INTERVIEW: THE VEILS
THE VEILS
Back from the brink after a life-changing wrist injury, we catch up with The Veils’ frontman Finn Andrews on the eve of the release of the band’s new double-LP, And Out Of The Void Came Love…
It takes a lot to slow a talent as prodigious as The Veils’ captivating frontman and principal songwriter Finn Andrews. Since the band’s 2004 debut, The Veils’ boiling hot energy, rapturous live performances and passionate fanbase have grown far beyond Andrews’ expectations. But, on the heels of the band’s fifth album Total Depravity, a high-profile appearance on David Lynch’s jaw-dropping third season of Twin Peaks, and a well-received solo album, something happened that put The Veils’ future in doubt.
After a particularly intense performance, Andrews broke his wrist on stage. Recovering at home, Finn found that the act of songwriting had suddenly become much harder. Undeterred, Andrews persisted, eventually amassing enough material to fill a double-album. Produced by Tom Healy in a converted ballroom under Crystal Palace New Zealand, the new record is a testament to Finn, and the band’s creative endurance. We caught up with Finn to find out more…
AMI: Let’s talk about And Out of the Void Came Love, can you take us back to the start of the writing process for this record – how did the wrist injury affect your approach?
Breaking my wrist basically just meant I had an extra six months holed up at home watching boxsets before the pandemic kicked in. It also meant even more time isolated and writing. Honestly, it was a real little pressure cooker in there.
AMI: The song Undertow feels like a kind of hymn to songwriting and creativity, was this an important song and did it come early?
Yeah I think that is the oldest song on the record by some margin. I really felt like I was about to quit writing songs for good, and then I wrote this and that line saying “all it takes is all my love” made me think about the whole thing differently. Songwriting is a loving process, or at least at it’s best it is. You just have to keep all the other bullshit out of your head and get on with the beautiful thing.
AMI: We’re assuming that when you were writing the album’s songs, you worked in a home studio?
For the first stage I keep it all very simple, just pianos and guitars and hundreds of notebooks. I enjoy making demos during the second stage as a way to explore really, especially as most of these songs were written during lockdowns and playing with other people wasn’t possible.
My friend taught me how to use Logic and I just noodle around in there really. I used quite a few Spitfire Audio instruments which I found really inspiring to use, as well as lots of other Kontakt instruments.
AMI: So you recorded with Tom Healy in a small studio under an old cinema in Mount Eden, it looks like a really cool environment to record in. How was the experience of working with Tom there?
Tom was the reason this album got made, there’s no doubt about that. We spent years on this thing, and he never worried about it. It would just take as long as it took and that was tremendously freeing. I’m not really married to anything other than the instruments themselves - we tracked everything onto tape so most of the tech we were using was from the 1960s anyway.
AMI: At what point was it decided that the record should be a double album?
It was in my head for the last few years that this would be a nice opportunity to make something of that scale, but it was really only decided at the last minute by virtue of there being so many songs. I think it was also a reaction to the lockdowns - I didn’t want to be precious about it. Songs felt like life, and I wanted all these songs to live. No Limit of Stars we recorded 3 or 4 different times with different bands in different places before we got the right take. I’m really happy with how that turned out.