Music, Style & Culture

Best Of 2011: Veronica Falls: ‘We Walk The Line Between Happy And Sad’

We catch up with lead woman Roxanne to find out a bit more about their debut album, and some of their plans for 2012.

2011 has certainly been a busy year for London based indie-pop four piece Veronica Falls. During a year in which they seem to have been incessantly touring, recording and writing the band, comprised of singer and guitarist Roxanne Clifford, drummer Patrick Doyle. Bassist Marion Herbain and guitarist James Hoare, have also found the time to release one of the indie-pop albums of the year with their self-titled debut.

After a long delay the much anticipated ‘Veronica Falls’ was finally released in October on Bella Union. It is a wonderful collection of deeply melodic indie pop with a subtly dark undertone, which does that great thing of featuring countless possible singles while retaining a little bit of mystery.

DIY recently caught up with lead woman Roxanne to find out a bit more about their debut album, and some of their plans for 2012.

Firstly, thank you for producing such a brilliant debut. What are your feelings looking back on the album now after it has been out for a couple of months?
More and more people are discovering it the longer it’s out there and we’re still getting lots of nice feedback, so that’s good.

It has been reported that you recorded the album twice and scrapped the first version as you were not happy with it, can you tell us more about the recording process what are the differences between the final version and the scrapped earlier version?
The first version was slower and less energetic; we recorded it ‘properly’ and played some of the songs to a click which really didn’t work for us. It ended up sounding quite sterile.
The second time we recorded the music live in one room with lots of bleed and it came out sounding more like our live sound, which is what we wanted.

You have been active as a band for a couple of years before releasing the album and, of course, some of the members had been involved in various bands before, how was that experience beneficial when it came to making the album?
It just helps you have a clearer idea of the music that you want to be making, the positive experiences you’ll carry with you and learn from and discard the negatives.

What made you decide to include the earlier singles ‘Right Side Of My Brain’ and ‘Found Love In A Graveyard’ on the album?
The album is a document of where we were up to that point, so it was really important for us to include our early songs. And as well as this, we think they’re some of our best.

Some of the lyrics on the album seem quite dark and morbid, yet most of the time they are contrasted with upbeat melodies, how did these songs come about?
We like to walk the line between happy and sad, if it was all gloomy it would feel too one-dimensional. It’s interesting for us to try and evoke different emotions at once.

Can you tell us about the closing track on the album ‘Come On Over’? It seems a real step forward and a perfect note to end the record on.
It was one of the first songs we worked on together actually, but it took us a while to get a structure we were happy with. It’s really fun to play live and loud.

How important was signing to Bella Union to release the album?
If nobody had wanted to release our record we would have done it ourselves, but luckily for us we did it with Bella Union and they did a great job. They’re very personable, genuine people and that’s really important to us.

Finally, What are your plans for 2012? Is there an imminent possible album number two?
We’re recording a new single this week actually! We have songs we can’t wait to demo and then lots and lots of touring ahead… so watch this space!

Veronica Falls' self-titled debut album came 44th in our Top 50 Albums Of 2011. Read numbers 50 - 41 here.