Brit-Kiwi outfit The Veils return to the stage next month to support the release of new album Fragile World, touring music the band regards as a striking shift in tone and energy.
Frontman Finn Andrews fielded some questions about the process that led to the new album.
Q Fragile World (out on June 19) follows quickly on the heels of Asphodels (2025), and indeed completes a productive 2020s already with And Out Of The Void Came Love (2023), what explains all the creativity?
A I write all the time which is both a blessing and a curse. I’ve always thrown away far more songs than I’ve released, but I’ve started to feel that more of these songs deserved a life. Brian Eno once said “you don’t learn anything from an unreleased song”, and I think there’s some real truth in that. It’s all about learning.
Q Fragile World is described as a striking shift in tone and energy for the band, what inspired the new direction?
A With our last record Asphodels I prevented myself from having any time in the studio to experiment. It worked for that record to have this strict “three days in the studio, all live to tape” policy, but I missed being in the studio and I wanted to give myself a bit more time.
The songs on Asphodels were meticulously arranged over years and played live night after night on numerous solo tours and so by the time I recorded them I knew exactly who they were and how they should sound.
This record was the opposite and I went into the studio with no idea where we were heading and allowed the recording process to kind of dictate the direction they were heading. It was instinctual, stressful, and a lot of fun all at once.
A In terms of the process, the album was recorded live to tape in New Zealand, what was behind those decisions and what has it meant for the album?
Q I just wanted to try something new, a new way of making things. I think it’s made this a very unique record for us that I hope works just as well played from start to finish as song by song.
A The album addresses a time when ‘‘institutions appear to be crumbling before our eyes’’, what did you feel needed to be said about this moment?
Q It’s a record made purely for the sake of making something in the face of an increasingly hostile world. It’s complicated, because on one hand music is useless and utterly futile in the face of war and the numerous displays of human cruelty we see all around; but on the other I think when human beings are acting at their most venal and unempathetic, art and music become even more crucial.
I might be fooling myself but art is really humanity at its best, and that act of innocent creation somehow feels worthwhile at the moment.
Q On the album you and producer Tom Healy play nearly everything, how did that shape the work?
A Yeah, it was mostly Tom and I, with our amazing drummer Joe MacCallum coming in to play drums from time to time. It helped create a very intense environment, there were so few people in the room and almost no distractions.
When you’re in the studio with eight people there’s always someone not quite on the same page as everyone else, but we were all very much pulling in the same direction and it made everything happen very quickly and with a great deal of focus.
Q You talk about dusting off your ‘‘moth-bitten black suit and hat’’ for the New Zealand shows. How many outings has the hat had now?
A I mean, I have to replace her every year or so, she gets so hammered on stage night after night. It’s silly really, I don’t know how it became such a thing. I wish I’d just worn silly glasses like Elton John.
The gigs
• Dunedin, Errick's, Thursday, June 25
•Wānaka, Lake Wānaka Centre, Friday, June 26
