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The Veils’ recently released third album Sun Gangs displayed astounding depth, warmth and honesty across its ten tracks. Ranging from emotive ballads (“It Hits Deep”, “Sit Down By the Fire”) to epic Velvet Underground/Nick Cave art-rock (“Three Sisters”) and something in-between (“The Letter”) it provides further proof of the compelling voice of main man Finn Andrews. Chris Berkley from Static talks to the rather talented Veiled one about the new album, the band’s love for The Wire and possible antipodean tours.

It must be a great relief to have Sun Gangs out and about?

Yes indeed. It’s very strange. It happened a lot quicker this time. It’s very exciting.

It has felt like a few years in the making though. I remember the last time you were in here at the station you mentioned you’d been demoing in Oklahoma. So you have actually been working on these songs for a while right?

Yes it’s been long process really. The album before (2006′s Nux Vomica) took about eight months to a year to come out from the time we finished it. We finished this one in September so it’s been a little faster. It feels quick to me.

So the turnaround is better but the songs have gestated just as long?

Yeah it takes a while to get things together, to get things right.

This is the first time you’ve kept the same line up in The Veils from one album to the next. Did that help you formulate how the songs for Sun Gangs were going to go?

Definitely. It was the first time an album was written with a band in mind. I had ideas on how the band would treat the songs but when they were actually brought in they ended up in pretty different places. It saves a lot of time having to trawl through people, by sticking to the same ones.

You don’t want to have to a new band every album around otherwise it would take you years to get things done.

It slows things down really and gets you a band rep.

Had you been playing some of the songs from Sun Gangs out as well to get them into shape?

Yeah we did about five months in America. We did about a year of touring, in Europe as well. As I was writing them we would constantly play them in encores and sessions and things to see what people thought and get some kind of bearing on what we up to. Hundreds of songs were thrown away. We spend most of the times chucking things in the bin. That seems to be the way it goes with us.

Is that because songs have to work live for you, they can’t be just a studio creation? 

Yeah, it keeps it more about now if you’re playing them live. If you’re just recording you could spend thirty years very comfortably just making one record. I think you’d just keep going and going if you didn’t have to prove it to anyone instantly. It helps the songs stand up a little more if they’ve got something to stand up for, other than just for yourself.     

For Sun Gangs you’ve worked with a producer named Graham Sutton who has done stuff with likes of Jarvis Cocker and British Sea Power but also himself is Bark Psychosis. What drew you guys to him? How did you find Graham Sutton?

I don’t know we kind of just fall into every decision; we don’t spend an awful lot of time mulling things over. We were touring and Graham was doing a few shows in London at the same time.  We just got talking to him, we really just needed someone to come in and help finish it, it had been around for a while, and needed someone to put the end on things. He was just perfect for the moment really. You meet people and they seem right and say the things you feel like you’re lacking at that time. I think it changes, and I think it would be hard to work with the same producer all the time. Some records need something different to the one before. He just seemed to fit.

Are these producers one’s who would pat you on the back or do you need to be challenged in the studio to make a record?

We recorded it in about three weeks and we’ve never had as many fights in such a short time. It wasn’t an easy ride and I think that’s good. If someone isn’t challenging you there’s no point in having them in.

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