The Veils: “Through The Deep, Dark Wood”

It’s natural for any parent to impart their own music on their children, but for Finn Andrews, it was a little bit different. He’s the son of Barry Andrews, a founding member of British pop giants XTC, whose music filled the house when Finn was growing up. Yet he didn’t truly fall in love until he got his hands on a guitar. Finn’s mother taught him how to play Van Morrison’s “Gloria,” and from then on, he was hooked.

Andrews signed his first record deal straight out of high school and quickly formed the Veils, but everything seemed to be coming too soon and too fast. “I felt kind of strangled by it for a while,” he told NPR, “and I didn’t really know if I deserved where I was.” The group released their debut in 2004, and his situation still didn’t feel right. So Andrews wiped the slate clean. He disbanded the Veils and embarked on an international solo tour, and after returning home to his native New Zealand, he recruited his childhood friends to reform the band. The back-to-basics approach seemed to work–the new iteration found their sound, and Andrews soon made a name for himself outside his father’s musical shadow.

Fast-forward a half-decade: all eyes are trained on the Veils as they release their fourth album. Times Stays, We Go has already shot to the top of the charts in New Zealand and it’s making a push in the UK as well. The band coaxed producer Bill Price–whose credits include the Clash and the Jesus & Mary Chain–out of retirement to helm the record, and the pairing couldn’t have gone any better. The Veils have a knack for propulsive, dynamic rock-and-roll, and this time around they even incorporate some desert-tinged country into the record. “Through The Deep, Dark Wood” seems to borrow something from every facet of Andrews’ shifting life: the soulfulness of mom, the pop sense of dad, and the youthful fervor of a band ready for the spotlight.

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