Veronica Falls'Found Love In A Graveyard was one of the best conceived songs of last year. A sinister story told with the sweetest harmonies, and nothing to do with necrophilia or cruising for trade. It's out to buy now and is backed by "Stephen," which somehow manages to makes adulterous lust sound absolutely adorable. I caught up with the London quartet for a quick chat about this and that.
Download: Veronica Falls, "Stephen"
Your MySpace was only up for an hour before Mike Sniper (aka Blank Dogs, founder of Captured Tracks) contacted you. He works fast.
James: Mike Sniper actually contacted us after only having the MySpace page up for ten minutes. Patrick knows him from NYC so he (Sniper) was aware Patrick was starting a new band and a friend tipped him off. Captured Tracks seems to put out a lot of stuff. We're glad to be on the same label as Brilliant Colors and Grass Widow. They're great bands.
Is it true you guys met at a Comet Gain concert?
Patrick: The band started when Roxanne and I moved to London and were introduced to James. Yes, it was at a Comet Gain show. We tried out a few bass players but nothing really worked so we persuaded our old friend Marion to learn to play the bass and join the band.
You all are/were in lots of different bands—Your Twenties, Royal We, Sexy Kids—Do you all play the same roles/instruments in this band?
Roxanne: We have similar roles, except Patrick has moved on to the drums. Marion has never been in a band before and Patrick has never played drums before this band, so this means we keep things simple and don't needlessly over-complicate our songs, which is a positive thing in our book.
Like just about every great band in London at the moment, you guys have recorded with Rory Brattwell.
Patrick: Rory's great to work with, he's really good fun and isn't scared to try anything out. The fact that he plays in a band is definitely an asset as he listens to what we want from the point of view of a musician too and seems to get it pretty instantly.
James, you contributed to the recent Wallfly exhibition.
James: I have a silk screen studio in north London and regularly print record sleeves, shirts etc. I've produced work for No Age, Let's Wrestle, Comet Gain, Finally Punk, Metronomy and printed the posters for the recent Wallfly exhibition. I'm printing the new Veronica Falls sleeves tomorrow morning (last minute).
Who is Stephen?
Roxanne: Not necessarily a real person, more like an idealistic boyfriend that you haven't met yet, or a preconceived (and possibly inaccurate) image of someone else's.
"Found Love In A Graveyard: / "Stephen" is available on 7-inch vinyl on Trouble Records in the UK. "Found Love In A Graveyard" is available in the US on Captured Tracks.