Dead Flowers: Anglophiles Anonymous

I became a fan of The Veils after hearing an early version of first album The Runaway Found some years back. Finn Andrews' compelling voice and strong melodic sense instantly got my attention, even if that record proved to be a bit uneven. Apparently aware of the limitations of that first incarnation of the band, Finn promptly revamped the line-up. The results of this overhaul would be revealed on second album Nux Vomica, an intoxicating brew of catchy melodies, sinister lyrical themes, and elegant arrangements. The band's third record has reportedly been finished and should be released in the near future.

Dead Flowers: Can you talk a little bit about the early days of The Veils? How did you come to work with the Runaway Found lineup? What was going through your head when relations with your original label broke down?

Finn: That was a long time ago now, i don't really remember it all too well. I hated being on a major label and it was a huge relief to be rid of the whole thing.

DF: Do you think you have a closer personal/musical bond with the new members than with the old?

F: The band now is the closest I can imagine a group of people ever being without, you know, having sex with each other. They're a waking dream and we love each other to bits.DF: It seems like you were being sort-of shoehorned into a post-Buckley/Coldplay mode on Runaway, which didn't always work. However, Nux Vomica seems very unique, from the music and lyrics to the imagery...was there a conscious decision to assert your own identity?

F: I'm never very conscious of sounding like anything when i'm writing, i just write what i need to and some days it sounds like The Jackson 5, some days The Bad Seeds. I guess the hope is that eventually people stop trying to listen for your influences and just take you on for what you are, though that just comes with time i'm told.

"The Leavers Dance" (From The Runaway Found)

DF: I heard a version of "More Heat than Light" from the Black Sessions and it's amazing how much the song has opened up. Would you say that's typical of the band these days?

F: We're always trying new things with the live show, I didn't become a musician to just repeat the same thing over and over again every night - it should always be spontaneous and run the risk of collapse i think.

DF: Nux Vomica had some of the poppiest music you've ever produced ("Advice"), while at the same time containing some of the darkest ("Jesus for the Jugular"). How do you reconcile those two moods?

F: We put them on the same album, that's about as much reconciling as was necessary. Too many records just sounds like 10 slightly different versions of the same song to me, I'm a strong believer in The Album. You have such opportunity to bring together all the greatest elements of film and art and literature and it seems a shame to waste that - a great album can be Kubrick, Hemingway, Carravagio, The Wire and The Stones all at once and that is such an extraordinary thing.

"Advice for Young Mothers to Be" (From Nux Vomica)

DF: Even though your vocals are quite adventurous, they never cross the line into indulgence. Where/how did you learn to control your voice?

F: It took me a good 5 years of singing before I could even hold a tune - I don't have what you would traditionally call a very nice voice, but it was singers like van morrison and tom waits that made me feel like it didn't matter and that it's the gut that's important and nothing else.

"Clap Hands" (Tom Waits Cover, Live Acoustic at KEXP)

DF: Will the third record build on Nux Vomica or go in a completely different direction?

F: It's a million miles from Nux and quite a risky record to make in a lot of ways. I hope people will take to it the way we all have. It's a real album and i figure the world needs as many of them as it can get.

Thanks to Finn for talking with Dead Flowers. The Veils are currently touring the US. I'll be at the Chicago show; do try and see them if they make it out to your neck of the woods.