Interview Veto

Danish band Veto have been kicking around their native Scandinavia for a few years now, winning all sorts of awards for their two albums ‘There’s A Beat In All Machines’ and ‘Crushing Digits’. Well, now they’re heading over our way with the latter of the two albums and a fair few tour dates. We have a chat with frontman Troels Abrahamsen (vocals / synth).

Hi Troels. For those unfamiliar with your work, describe the band in three words or less.
Energetic, Loud.

Is it common in Scandinavia to write songs in English rather than your native languages? Do you think it broadens your audience?
Well, I don’t know if it’s common, but it’s certainly usual. Danish is not a very poetic language - a lot of throat noises and nasal sounds - so English is preferable. Besides that, I think that most younger artists in Denmark are influenced by English languaged music rather than Danish languaged. For me it’s easier to write in english.

What’s the music scene like over there at the moment? What’s currently popular? Who else should we be checking out?
We like a band called Spleen United. Also there’s a lot going on on the club scene. Great stuff from the danish house / techno label Tartelet Records. I think the Danish scene is very vibrant right now. Everybody’s experimenting and finally working together across genres.

You seem to have won an awful lot of awards in Denmark (4 x Gaffa Awards, 1 x P3 Guld Award, 1 x Danish Music Award (Band Of The Year), 1 x Soundvenue (Readers Choice Album of the Year)) - have you been met with similar enthusiasm outside of your home country?
The enthusiasm differs between countries. Fins for example are really into us, but Swedes can be hard to convince.

Which award do you prefer winning - best band or best album?
Best album, definitely.

Your album ‘Crushing Digits’ will be out in April, but it’s been released elsewhere in Europe for a while now - is spending so much time on this album hindering getting started on your next?
Tough question. I certainly don’t hope that touring prevents us from writing new material, and if it ever should I’d suppose we’d give up touring for a while. We value the recording and writing process very much, so if anything should hinder us from getting started, it would probably break up the band too. We’re planning on recording new material during the fall. We are very productive, when we’re writing and recording, so we’re optimistic about getting everything done.

And finally, what are you going to be up to this year? Will we be seeing much more of you over here in the UK?
We hope to come to the UK again soon, and we are definitely working on it.

‘Crushing Digits’ is out in the UK on 20th April. You can download their new single ‘Built To Fail’ here.