Since first being introduced to Veridian in early 2016, the Reading sextet have continued to thrive with their impassioned brand of alt rock-pop. Besides releasing their debut EP, ‘40826D’ in May 2017, they’ve played alongside a host of bands including Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, The Ataris, Mallory Knox, Arcane Roots, Dream State and more. In short, Veridian have kept themselves busy for the best part of 18 months, writing and touring whenever possible.
As we learn, they do have some new material tucked up their sleeves but not they’re not quite finished with ‘40826D’ era. ‘Follow’ is the final single to be lifted from the EP and to mark its release tomorrow (Friday, October 26th), we’re premiering the music video.
Where Veridian‘s other material confidently embraces a melodic alt-rock approach, ‘Follow’ has hints of experimentation with James Marshall Stack’s synth keys running through the track. When combined with Simon Jackman’s soaring vocals and the band’s direct and bold instrumentation, it’s clear why the song is a favourite amongst the band and their fans.
On top of premiering the psychedelic visual for ‘Follow’, we had a catch up with James and guitarist Robbie Everett to find out about the video, their touring highlights and future plans.
AH: So let’s start with the new video for ‘Follow’. How did it come together and is there a meaning behind the kaleidoscopic effect?
James: ‘Follow’ was always a firm favourite on the ‘40826D’ EP. We wanted to release it as a final single to close the release. We originally started the video idea for ‘Follow’ with a whole load of tour footage from our tour with Anavae and a bunch of other shows. We weren’t keen on just sticking it out as a collection of footage and, taking inspiration from a couple of other videos we’d seen, decided on the kaleidoscopic effect.
This sort of reflected the vibe of the song with the different synths and organ sounds. We tend to use a whole variety of synths and different instruments in our tracks and ‘Follow’ was never going to be exempt from this, we felt that this was well represented by using a variety of colours and patterns that create the kaleidoscopic effect.
AH: The track comes off as uplifting and cathartic, especially lyrically. How would you sum up what ‘Follow’ is about?
Robbie: ‘Follow’ is a song about finding purpose. It’s about how people find explanation and justification for their existence through any cause, and how closely we hold ourselves to these ideals. It’s a song about the thing that get you out of bed every morning, how we seek fulfilment through being part of a bigger movement or community, but also how this desperation can consume peoples entire lives and bring negativity into the world.
AH: It’s been 18 months since the release of the ‘40826D’ EP. Between then and now you’ve toured and played with several bands. What have been your highlights?
Robbie: Our highlights have probably been touring with The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. They’re a sort of nostalgia band from the emo era; the shows were huge, we kicked off at The Garage to nearly 600 people which was a huge start to the tour. Working on videos for the singles of the ‘40826D’ EP, like the video we shot for our single ‘Ink’ have also been big highlights for us. Collectively, we enjoy creating interesting visuals to go with each of our tracks which help reflect some of the feeling of the song.
AH: Having played alongside various bands, what have you learned, as a band, from those experiences?
Robbie: I think we’ve learnt that particularly the “rock scene” is a very small scene. Everyone knows everyone. Playing with a variety of bands at different shows, you get to meet loads of different people. Bands travel all over the country to play shows, but we also see fans doing the same. We’ve seen fans travel from as far as Southampton to Glasgow just to watch two bands on the same show. All the bands we play with are very interactive with the audiences and enjoy spending time chatting to them after the shows. It’s good to see.
AH: Besides the upcoming shows with Normandie and Better Than Never, what else can we expect from Veridian for the rest of 2018 and into 2019? Perhaps some new material?
James: We’re definitely working on some new material. We’ve got several songs in the pipeline and we’re working on the first video which we should be shooting next month. We want the next release to be even bigger than ‘40826D’, so we’re spending a lot of time fine tuning the tracks. We tend to spend a lot of time chopping and changing our songs so the original demo may sound completely different to the finished track. It’s not often that our track is written very quickly and stays the same. We’re hoping to have some new material out early 2019, but that’s all we can say for now.
‘40826D’ EP by Veridian is out now on Primordial Records.
Veridian links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
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