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Is sounds like Graham has got the most extremes on a Veils record, “Three Sisters” is a howling rush but that is immediately followed by a song like “The House She Lived In” which is a sweeping do-wop thing. Did you feel like you were covering a lot more bases on this record?

I just really wanted to fully exploit what you can do with an album really. I’ve never been very interested in maintaining a constant length for songs. A lot of records sound like a repetition of the same songs, in ten different ways.

Some bands make a career out of that, not just one album!

 It works for some people but there really is so much scope on a record to take people through something. How I write… everyday you go through a whole range of feelings and it feels right to have an album follow that. Have ups and downs and curves and make it an unexpected journey rather than have ten repetitions of the same song.

One of the first things you’ve done on an album is “Larkspur” where you crack the eight and a half minute mark. Well done. Was it always on your mind to have an epic on a Veils album at some point?

I’m not sure how often we’re congratulated on breaking eight minutes. (laughs)

Well it doesn’t seem like an eight minute song, it goes by in a flash.

That was really just a special thing. It just happened in the studio. We hadn’t played that song to anyone before, when we went in there. It was just one take and no overdubs. It wasn’t until we were mastering that we noticed it was as long as it was. It felt justified that length. Again that song was real little voyage in itself.

Well that’s what can happen at a Veils live shows as well after seeing you here a couple of times songs can sort of sprawl out of control in your live sets can’t they?

Yeah I think that’s going to be a real treat to be playing live.

That might be the one you’re playing in your forty-five minute encores?

Forty-five minutes? Yeah that’d be interesting. I don’t think I could withstand that. I think eight minutes is the longest I could take. It takes a lot out of you.

Out of all the stories and tones that always come lyrically with a Veils album I’m intrigued by “Killed By the Boom” which I’ve read is about the character Omar Little from the TV show The Wire. Is that right or is this a lie that’s been permeated already?

It was written before I decided who it was about. I think the point of it is that it kind of be anybody. Someone came up to me after a show and said it was awesome I’d written a song about Omar and I though “oh yeah” there’s an aspect of him in that. It was written for an unnamed figure though.

I was curious because I know a lot of bands who watch The Wire on their tour buses. Has it been on the DVD player on The Veils’ tour bus?

Yeah we has. We were all fiending for our next fix of The Wire when it came out so it was quite a big thing in Veils land.

I’m hoping you’ve got the DVD player stocked with other things to watch throughout the year. If you’re touring around Europe for the foreseeable future do you know when you’re going to get back to this part of the world?

I’m plan to come over and play some acoustic shows, just real stripped back, solo kind of thing, in June is the idea. Two or three shows in Australia and a couple in New Zealand. Just real spur of the moment and we’ll back again towards the end of the year for The Big Day Out and all that.

So is the solo stuff a bit of a The Veils credit crunch tour?

(laughs). Yes it does seem a little like that. I used to do it a lot in the early days of the band, stripping the songs back to how they were written. So it’ll be interesting to do that again. And it might be a healthy change from the rest of the touring, to do something special.

Well we might be seeing you sooner rather than later. Take care Finn.

Cheers man, bye.

First broadcast on Static on 16/04/09. Static can be heard on Sydney’s 2SER (107.3 FM) and via the internet (www.2ser.com) every Thursday evening (AEST).

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