Veronica Falls… In a glass of their own

Interview: Veronica Falls

Published on March 4th, 2013 | Jonny Abrams

London quartet Veronica Falls were recently the recipient of a rare-as-rocking-horse-puke five-quail review for their second album Waiting for Something to Happen, so naturally we sought to ask them about it. Further to our 2011 interview with him, the band’s drummer Patrick Doyle kindly stepped up to the plate and sent us back the following set of answers…

Congratulations on an excellent new album. I’ve read that you prefer to record all at the same time, and that you discarded tracks recorded separately as you weren’t happy with how they sounded. What was it about this approach that you don’t/didn’t like?

Yeah that was the first album, we tracked everything separately and ended up scrapping most of it as it didn’t sound the way we’d intended it to. The new album was all recorded live, aside from vocals and a couple of extra guitar overdubs.

Were all the songs written in the time since your first album, or have some of them been knocking about for longer?

It’s hard to remember exactly when all the songs were written, but there definitely wasn’t much of a gap between writing the first and second records. The only difference being that we wrote some songs for the second record while we were already in the studio – so it was a bit of a different experience.

Did your proclivity for “horror-rock” infuse itself into this album at all? If so, where and how? “Buried Alive”, presumably?

I think the ‘horror-rock’ thing was only ever our sense of humour coming out in our songwriting – we’re pretty sarcastic and can all be a bit dramatic at times and I think this was maybe mistaken for being gothy.

How did the first part of your tour go? Did any shows in particular stand out, and if so, why?

We played recently in Shoreditch Church in London, which was a really fun show to start of our touring for this album. The acoustics were insane and it felt really atmospheric – one of my all-time favourite shows.

Do you know yet which festivals you might be playing this summer?

Not sure yet! Stay tuned!

Ridiculously early to be asking this, I appreciate, but have you given any thought yet to your next album? Or do any of you have any other projects of any kind on the horizon?

I think we’re always writing so it’s not so much whether we’ll make a record, more a case of when will we have enough songs to put another record together. I’m sure when we do, we’ll bring out another one.

What made you decide to cover Ween‘s “What Deaner Was Talking About” given that Ash have already covered it? Are you big fans of Ween?

That song was chosen by James so you’d have to ask him. It’s a great song though and I like how it sounds kind of timeless, like anyone could perform it.

What songs would you like to cover that you haven’t already?

Maybe “You’re So Good To Me” by The Beach Boys.

Which were your favourite albums of 2012, and/or which are you most looking forward to in 2013?

I like Bloom by Beach House – looking forward to hearing new stuff by Twerps and already enjoying the Parquet Courts album.

Finally, if you had to spend the rest of your life with the entire works of just five different artists, musical or otherwise, whose would you choose?

Off the top of my head, though I’m probably missing some:

The Smiths

The Beach Boys

Belle and Sebastian

The Ramones

The Magnetic Fields

Patrick Doyle, thank you.

Veronica Falls - Waiting for Something to Happen

Waiting for Something to Happen is out now on Bella Union. For more information, please visit veronicafalls.com

Artists: veronica falls

About the Author

Jonny Abrams Editor of Rocksucker and the website's founder, Jonny is passionate about the music he listens to, both good and bad, as well as interviewing his favourite musicians.