An Interview With The Portland Based Rockers VEIO!

The Portland-based band, Veio, recently released their new album, Inifinite Light/Desperate Shadows and new video, “Structures.” Infinite Light / Desperate Shadows is the first studio release from the band’s newly formed lineup.

Lead single, “Structures,” unfolds the inner workings of a journey through life, with the end goal of finding a permanent home and coming to terms with a spiritual end.  “Structures” was recorded, mixed and produced by Stephan Hawkes at Interlace Audio in Portland, OR; the video was produced by Totally Serious Productions.”

Learn more about Veio in the following All Access interview:

What are some words you would use to describe 2016 for you and your music? What were some of the highlights? What are you most excited about for this year?

Long, tiring, frustrating, but also exciting would be a description of 2016 for us, haha.  Writing this new record really took some time and at times it was like pulling teeth.  But being in the studio and making this fresh creation was also a lot of fun and very rewarding.  Finally having it done and out there is probably the biggest highlight of the past year.  This coming year should have several highlights for us as well.  Touring and just seeing how this record is received are going to be some of the top things for us to look forward to in the coming year.

Growing up, did you all always want to be musicians? Can you recall the moment you realized that you could really make music together and be a band? How did you all first meet each other?

Well, Brett and Cam have known each other since day one because they’re brothers.  They started playing together at a young age and continued that group through high school.  Kris and Trae have also played different instruments throughout their lives and have been in bands from a young age as well.  The matchmaker for the group was a thing called Craigslist if you can believe that.

Was it hard to narrow down a band name? How did you finally decide? What other names were you considering?

The name Veio wasn’t necessarily hard to narrow down.  It was definitely unique and had a distinctive spelling and pronunciation.  Looking back on it, should we have gone with an easier name?  Yes (people never know how to pronounce it).  But we don’t mind informing people we have no connection with Sony computers.  All of the other considered names are lost to history at this point.

I’m such a big fan of Portland so I’m curious to know how you all think that city has influenced this band and ultimately your sound? What is the music scene like there today?

Portland is a really cool city and we love it here.  Three of us are natives and have been around the music scene for a long time now.  Its hard to say how the city has influenced our sound because we feel we are unique in the Portland music realm.  The hip nature of the city has lead to a surge in indie, folk, and Americana style acts so we often have trouble pairing up with similar style bands.  There’s a lot of doom metal in the subculture for some reason as well.  But when our main rock station was closed down around 10 years ago, the rock scene here really took a blow.  We’re trying to do our part to revive it though!

Your newest album, “Infinite Light/Desperate Shadows” is your first studio release with your newly formed line-up. Can you talk about what it was like putting this collection together with new members in the band? What exactly has changed about the way you create music and really the whole process?

At times, this record involved a lot of painstaking hours sitting in a basement with no windows and grinding out ideas.  As stated, this is our first time around as this group so melding everyone’s style, playing and writing, was a math problem that had to be figured out.  Certain songs were easier than others though.  Cam is into coming up with riffs and melodies outside of the practice space, for example, while Kris prefers to write in real time during rehearsal.  So getting these songs to fit together was sometimes just a what-sounds-best-at-this-moment scenario.  The process got easier as it went along though and we feel like we have a better grasp as a whole now.  Cam is definitely the power chord beef of the band.  Trae does well with soaring and epic leads.  Kris makes all sorts of crazy, funky sounds on his six string basses.  And Brett…well he just bangs on skins.

What was the inspiration for your lead single, “Structures”? How did it go from being an idea to a full-fledged song?  

Structures is a song that has many different ups and downs to it.  We had these riffs and we knew we wanted it to be on the proggier side of things but also have some radio playability as well.  This track was probably one of the easier ones to write and it really just fell into place well.  It starts with a soaring vibe, goes into some screams, has a short break, goes back into screams, then hits you with an anthemic chorus.  Then we completely change the vibe and drop out into a soft, melodic, and somewhat soothing bridge.  Then back to soaring guitars and vocals and then end on a heavy note.  We like it.

Do you have plans to tour much with this newest album? Can you think of a favorite or a few favorite shows that you have had in the past? What do you think makes a perfect show for you two?  

So we’ve already toured on the album once.  Upon its release we made a huge loop of the upper West playing and promoting it.  We are definitely going to be getting out on the road again this year and have some inquiries out to get on with more notable bands.  Some of our favorite shows have been our own when we get to call up some really cool bands and have a rad bill for the night.  A recent show with Red was cool too because the crowd showed up early and showed us some love.  Our perfect show would probably be opening for someone who has twenty-thousand people showing up already, but we’ll stay grateful for our awesome fan base around the Northwest.

Who are some of your favorite artists? Who would you all to work with in the future? What would be a dream collaboration for Veio?  

Some of our favorite artists happen to be bands we’d fit a bill well with.  Aussie bands like Karnivool and Caligula’s Horse are spins on the regular.  Obviously a band that has influenced EVERYONE is on our list, Tool.  Thrice, Underoath, Deftones, Mastodon are all up there.  But also a lot of lesser-known bands like Tesseract, Thank You Scientist, Fair to Midland, and a plethora of others get a good listen as well.  We’d probably say we’d rather tour with some of these guys rather than collab with them, but having some guest vocals could be out there in the future too.  Cam is also a big hip-hop head as well.  Trae doesn’t like to admit it, but we’ve caught him jamming some Taylor Swift in his car before…non-country Taylor Swift.

At the end of the day, what do you hope is the message of your music? What do you hope people take away from your songs?

We hope to just give people a unique look at rock music while keeping a widely-received aspect to it.  We like to do the prog thing but also give listeners a chorus they can sing along with.  Obviously we want the radio plays but we also want people to think “hey, that was really cool what they did there.”  Hopefully we achieved all of the above with this new record.  The choruses are definitely there alongside odd time signatures, weird effects, unique drum fills, and even some bass tapping.

Is there anything else that you would like to share with our readers about this band or your music?  

We just hope that we’re creating a product that people will dig.  We’ve already had a lot of great feedback for this new record and hope to continue on with that momentum.  We just ask people who have never heard us before to take a listen and if you like what you hear, shoot us a “like” on social media, spread our name to friends, come see us at a show near you, and hopefully support our efforts by picking up an album.  We have a lot of fun playing shows and love meeting new fans and friends afterwards.  Check out Infinite Light//Desperate Shadows and let us know what you think!