ALBUM FEATURE: THE VEILS - …AND OUT OF THE VOID CAME LOVE

It’s been seven strange years since The Veils’ last studio album Total Depravity, and Finn Andrews has a new double LP to show for it. …And Out Of The Void Came Love is the result of this tumultuous period of injury, isolation and new life. Released worldwide on March 3, 2023 and celebrated on tour in New Zealand soon after.

Holiday Records had the absolute pleasure of working closely with Finn and his team to press this double LP in two colour variants (black and clear) right here in New Zealand. 

Pre-order your own copies HERE.

Undertow is the ethereal first single released from the new album. A beautiful and unmistakably Veils track, but showing the chasm of space and time that has passed, and the changes the band, Andrews and the world have undergone since The Veils last release.

“In the year before I started writing this album, I really didn't think I'd ever write another album again. I was done. I'd irreparably broken my wrist on stage, we didn't have a label anymore - it all added up to a pretty overwhelming sense that the time had come to hang up my big stupid hat. Then this song came shimmying down the drainpipe, and it really seemed to be willing me to carry on. It is, embarrassingly enough, a song about writing songs, written at what I admit was a pretty low ebb for me emotionally. Both my parents are writers, and though I am grateful to it for the life it continues to afford me, it is a complex genetic inheritance. So yeah, it's kinda a song about that. "All it takes is all my love" - that sums the whole strange enterprise up for me nicely.”

Released worldwide on NYC based label Ba Da Bing Records, and in Aotearoa by Banished From The Universe … And Out Of The Void Came Love is an album intended to be listened to in two sittings with a short break in the middle. Or as Andrews instructs: “Make a coffee or smoke a cigarette – but don’t mow the lawn or go to the movies or something, that takes too long.”

Composer Victoria Kelly’s soaring string arrangements play an integral role in bringing the songs to life, as do musicians Cass Basil (bass), Dan Raishbrook (lap steel, guitar), Liam Gerrard (piano), Joseph McCallum (drums) the NZTrio, and special guests the Smoke Fairies on backing vocals.
The album artwork centres around a 17th century etching of the annunciation by Francesco Mazzola, corrupted by artist and keyboardist Liam Gerrard to show the figure transmogrifying into a blackhole with the force of divine love.

Holiday Records was fortunate enough to steal a little bit of time of Finn's time to answer a few questions about his upcoming new album and his complicated relationship with vinyl. Read below.

Tell us a bit about yourself - Where are you from? How did you get into music? Who are your favourite artists?

I was born in London, England in 1983, the same week that David Bowie's Let's Dance was number one in the charts, which I have to say I'm rather pleased about - one week later and it would have been UB40's Red Red Wine which would obviously have been disastrous.

I got into music when I moved to New Zealand at age 12, when I left my dad basically, who is a musician. The first music I remember hearing was Nina Simone, who my mother listened to almost religiously. 

Tell us a bit about the album - What were some of the inspirations behind its creation/of the album itself?

 

It was largely inspired by being at home for two years, watching the world appear to be disintegrating before our very eyes. Then my partner and I had a baby which kinda took the songs on a whole other path.

Tell us about the album artwork - What was the inspiration? Who is the artist/photographer?

 

Our keyboard player Liam Gerrard drew it, based on an old etching by Francesco Mazzola. The original etching depicts the annunciation, so I asked Liam to kind of embellish it more, like the visitation of God makes the woman collapse into a black hole of infinite love. Something like that anyway. He did a great job.

Tell us why you chose to press it to vinyl - What do vinyl records mean to you? Why did you choose Holiday Records?

Honestly, I have a complicated relationship with vinyl. On the one hand, I love the ritual, the way the artwork looks, and the romance of the format I suppose. On the other, I hate touring with these heavy, fragile, little fucking diva objects which warp on airplanes and crack under guitar cases. They really are hugely inconvenient, aren't they? The romance wins out overall though, and I love arranging the tracklisting in such a way as to favour those listening on vinyl: each side begins and then resolves, with the major shift happening when the disc is changed. It adds another layer to the experience which I personally really enjoy. It's amazing to have a pressing plant here in NZ now too and you guys do a really great job - you can feel the love going into it which we certainly appreciate. 

Any upcoming gigs we can plug?

My god yes. Tickets HERE.

Thurs. March 16th - Loons, Lyttelton
Fri. March 17th - Dive, Dunedin
Sat March 18 - Sherwood, Queenstown
Thurs. March 23 - Totara St. Mount Maunganui
Fri. March 24 - The Cabana, Napier
Sat. March 25 - The Raglan Club, Raglan
Thurs. March 30 - Theatre Royal, Nelson
Fri. March 31 - Opera House, Wellington
Sat. April 1 - Powerstation, Auckland