Heading down to the Garage on a chilly Saturday afternoon I held a whiff of excitement as I kicked the autumn leaves along the way. It may have been the idea of drinking ridiculously early that day which got the butterflies in my stomach going but more likely it was pure excitement and anticipation of watching new electro noise band Severin followed by Veronica Falls; after which we’d be chatting about ‘Surf Doom Pop’, bleeding faces and mice infested houses – you can understand my eagerness.
Severin (pictured right) are a London based band consisting of Dan on guitars/noise, Beth on bass, synth and vocals and Viv on synth. They are loud and infectious with huge beats, insane distorted guitar and killer hooks in their songs. This was their first gig and it was a beaut. Dan swayed back and forth guitar swaying, dressed with hood up adding an eerie and mysterious feel to the electro outfit. Beth’s vocal bellowed over the hip-hop style beats that are reminisant of the Knife and M.I.A. I will not give too much away as you need to catch this band live to experience the show. We will be bringing you more on Severin in the coming weeks.
Veronica Falls took to the stage a little earlier than I would have guessed considering the line up. They rattled through a set playing singles ‘Beachy Head’, ‘Found Love in a Graveyard’ and current single ‘Rigthside of my Brain’. The dark lyrics and pop sensibilities really add to the dynamic of the songs making them easily accessible. A band I caught here for the first time and one I would love to see again and again. After the set, a quick trick on the bouncer I was through the backstage area and out of the fire door with Roxanne and Patrick for our little chat, which went something like this:
US: You have just been on tour with Cloud Nothings, how has it been and has anything eventful happened along the way?
Roxanne: Yeah we spent one night in Edinburgh and it was really wired. Marion walked into, you know those metal shutters, she almost broke her nose her face started bleeding, five seconds later Patrick walks into a lamppost nearly knocked himself out then and drove past on his bike and fell off into the road.
US: So you planning on playing Edinburgh again soon?
Patrick: Maybe not if that’s the kind of stuff that happens, I don’t think it liked me very much.
US:You have released ‘Right Side of My Brain’ as a free download; tell us about the song and how it came about?
Roxanne: It’s a Lydia Lunch film and I quite liked the title of it and how the right side is your creative side and about using your imagination.
US: What would you say is the signature sound for Veronica Falls, how do you retain the dark and gloomy persona and turn it into pop music?
Patrick: someone said this once didn’t they and it was nice, the radio guy;
Roxanne & Patrick: Surf Doom Pop!
US: Haha
Roxanne: It’s a bit of a contradiction really as some of it is really bright and happy and some of it has a darker edge.
US: Yeah, sort of depressing songs sang happily.
Roxanne: Yes, I like that.
US: Do you watch the first bands on at your shows, if so has anyone caught your attention recently?
Roxanne: We played with a really good band in Glasgow called Golden Girls, they’re friends of ours and have really good songs.
Patrick: it is always good to watch the support bands coz you get free entertainment everyday when your watching a new band.
Roxanne: Former Bullies from Manchester, they were good.
US: What does 2011 look like for Veronica Falls?
Patrick: We are just about to record our album next week so I guess it kind of depends on if we do it well or not, if we do it well then I guess hopefully someone will release it and that would be nice
US: A busy year I would hope.
Patrick: We just hope that we can get a record out next year which would be nice…a full length record, besides from that…
Roxanne: play some good gigs hopefully
Patrick: We’re hoping to get rid of some mice that have moved into mine and Roxanne’s house, that would be a good start to 2011.
Roxanne: That would be a positive move.
US: What has been your favourite album of the year so far and what are you currently listening to?
Patrick: It sounds really obvious but I’ve just been listening to The Cloud Nothings album and I really like that.
Roxanne: I really like The Verlaines, I’ve been listening to them a lot – an Australian band…..sorry New Zealand band…that’s a big no no getting Australia and New Zealand mixed up. We really like Vivian Girls and Crystal Stilts.
Patrick: We wanna see what they (Vivian Girls) do next as we went on tour with them and they were playing some groovy songs that were really amazing …long kind of really driving, involved music that was amazing and not self indulgent as it often can be but they did it really classy, they have a really interesting direction.
Roxanne: Katie from Vivian Girls has a new project which I really like called Le Sera, I think she just has one song out on the internet but its really good, It has a really good video….of her murdering some men.
US: Oh Really!
Patrick: I really like the Best Coast album actually, more than I thought I was going to, I liked the single better than the album I thought though that was a good record with really good pop songs.
US: Where do you like to hang out in London, do you know any cool places for music and fashion?
Roxanne: Our social life is playing gigs or practicing as we don’t have any time to do anything else. Just our own gigs really. We used to go to Bardons quite a lot.
Patrick: Yeah Bardons Boudoir.
Roxanne: Yeah but that’s shut now.
Patrick: We haven’t been since it reopened but that’s a really good venue. I like that bar Palm Tree near Mile End, that is nice.
Roxanne: We usually go to pubs…we don’t really party that much, we’re quite a boring band. We feel like we are socializing a lot cos we are doing things like band practices but really we’re not. We got an see bands I guess.
Lovely people and a cracking day.
Ben
