Spotlight - Veln
Where are you located?
Galway, Ireland. The same place I worked from with Neamh-mharbh, my friend and I's other band, without which there would be no Veln for a multitude of reasons! With each release we did, I have a memory of this place, so it's quite personal to me. Everything was more or less written and recorded in this place, since we are capable of production ourselves.
What is your artist's name?
Veln! With no exclamation mark.
How long have you been writing music?
About 10 years! I started with a project called Cyheuraeth, which you can find out there somewhere. It has a lot of jagged writing and production, but I think some ideas are still decent. Naturally, my writing became more fluid and culminated in the songs I wrote for Veln self-titled. This seems to be a fairly common phenomenon with 'artists', where you can hear their style develop over each release. It's no different when you listen from Cyheuraeth to Neamh-mharbh to Veln. There is inevitable change!
What inspired you to start playing and making music?
Music was always in my family, so that, and just being exposed to a lot of music as a child. I started guitar at around age 11 and kept at it, which I'm kind of surprised at in ways. The initial stages are when you're most likely to quit since it's just a constant uphill struggle and you can't play a thing! But you get over that hill, start finding cool stuff you want to play and it just perpetuates.
What were the driving forces or pivotal moments that inspired you to pursue music?
With Neamh-mharbh we just wanted to do something as friends and have fun honestly. There isn't much more to it or anything 'deep'. We found it really enjoyable to come up with ideas and self-produce them. With Veln it's no different, I was already on this path for 10 years and wanted to continue creating because simply, it's fun and I felt like I had more ideas that were worth sharing (once they were put to tape!). It's also a kind of escape from daily life for me, same as just playing the guitar.
How would you describe your style of music?
Veln undoubtedly has flavors of black and death metal, in terms of guitar and vocal style. It can be aggressive, melancholic and reflective all in one track. Our songs have peaks and valleys and thus dynamics are quite important to me in songwriting. The tension and release that is a part of so many great tracks. I try not to over-categorize the music though, because that can be an eternal task.
How is your personality reflected in your work?
Well, I don't know if Veln reflects who I am any more than it reflects the music influences I've gathered over the years. If any part of me is reflected in Veln or any of the other projects it's probably just conscientiousness. It's hard to put music out! Especially more technical and demanding forms. Most times after work you just want to sit and zone out, but fortunately the enthusiasm music gives me makes me want to try and create it too.
Describe your creative process when you write new music.
There's no order to it, truly. The closest thing to order is making a deliberate effort to sit down and write! But even still, I trash most of the riffs because they're not good enough or don't serve the song. The best explanation of writing is that you're trying to write up to the standards of your musical taste. It's a struggle sometimes, and other times there's a great state of flow. You also have to admit defeat some days, but that's okay. So long as you get up and try again tomorrow.
What is the name of your latest release?
Veln, it's self-titled.
What was the inspiration for that release?
Ashen, the first track was actually written for Neamh-mharbh, but I repurposed it for this release. I thought it was too good not to use and it was close to slipping out of existence entirely. Godskin Mask and Remnant were a natural consequence of having an opener like Ashen. I had to live up to that standard for myself and I'm really happy with what I came out with. The whole thing kind of perpetuated and gave itself a life of its own. Traces of Autumn and Returnal are pieces of music I really enjoyed writing and worked in my head as an interesting direction to take the conclusion of the album.
What challenges or unexpected moments did you encounter during the writing/recording process?
Some of the riffs are probably, understandably, difficult enough to play, especially some in Godskin Mask, so that was one hurdle. In terms of writing, yes they are long songs so it was a challenge to chain together riffs that work and feed off one another. Since this was self-mixed, one of the largest, and this is common, issues was mixing the drums in with everything else. Nicole Trinchero did a great job playing the drums for this album and I really wanted to have the sound do her performances justice so I spent a lot of time on that.
What strategies do you find most effective for promoting your music?
I'm not good at it (like most musicians), but I think primarily, make good music first and then send it to a PR company BEFORE you release it. That seems to be the bare minimum.
How do you engage with your fans online and offline?
We're small so I don't have much contact but I read every email, whether it's people wanting more information or promotional requests. I try to respond to everything even though I'm a quiet kind of person myself. I think it's nice to be responsive. I'm really active in the Black Metal Promotion discord too, not to promote myself though, it's a great & helpful community for people who love that music and sometimes we share between ourselves what we make.
What upcoming promotional activities or releases are you most excited about?
I'm busy catching up on releases but Ahklys just released a searing album House of the Black Geminus. If you're into black metal check it out.
How can folks contact you (socials/email/websites etc.)?
Veln's email is velnband0@gmail.com. This is the email our Bandcamp contact form sends to also. We also have a Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61560850842484.
