Following a summer gig at Dour Festival 2016 and a series of concerts this fall, three piece-garage-psych band Double Veterans are releasing a video for “I Was Gone”, the newest single taken from their debut LP: “Space Age Voyeurism”.
As the We took psychedelic garage rock trio released this debut LP via Noisesome Recordings earlier this year. We took the opportunity to ask them a few questions.
HighClouds: What’s the story of Double Veterans?
Double Veterans: We’re 3 nomads from the depths of the rural Flemish parts of Belgium. All 3 of us were part of different projects before we decided to join forces. I played in a psychedelic noise-rock outfit called Tubelight and Niels and Thomas were involved in the old school punk band The Crackups. I suppose there was a mutual respect and interest in one another. I was looking for a more punk-minded project and Niels and Thomas were looking to do something more melodic/experimental. Double Veterans is the outcome. We met at PXL (music school in Hasselt) and became close friends ever since. The name is a reference to war crimes during the Vietnam War, we’re trying to change the definition into something more positive and hopeful.
Could you describe your music and influences?
Most people would describe our music as psychedelic garage rock. And even though many of our favorite bands derive from that scene (13 Floor Elevators, The Seeds, The Music Machine, The Zipps,…) we listen to all kinds of music as long as it’s genuine and heartfelt. Scott Walker, Butthole Surfers, NAS, Desert Blues,… you name it. Our music has a fuzzed out punk aesthetic with a hint of early R&B melodies.
“Music is a like a puzzle everyone has to solve for him/herself, think about it, talk about it, experience it” Double Veterans
What is your track “I was Gone” about?
I don’t like to delve into extensive meanings of a song. Even I don’t know what most of the songs are about, and when I do know it usually changes depending on my mood or environment. Music is a like a puzzle everyone has to solve for him/herself, think about it, talk about it, experience it,… I enjoy the unknown that comes along with music, if everything’s already played out for you why bother listening to it in the first place?
Who had the idea for the video?
The idea arose during a brainstorming session. Seeing as we don’t have a lot of cash to spend on big productions we had to come up with a cheap yet visually pleasing solution. With little more than just a throne, a projector, 2 models and an extremely motivated crew we filmed the whole thing in about a day in a local youth hostel. We came up with the concept together, but Vroni [Bollen – the director] really executed the entire process with flying colors.
“I Was Gone” is taken from your debut album “Space Age Voyeurism”. Is the title a statement? What was the creative process for this LP?
The title just had a nice ring to it at first. I guess you could view it as some sort of comment on of the current digitalization of society, but it certainly wasn’t intentional. The creative process differed a lot from the first album. We recorded the first one in 5-7 days, while the recording process of SAV was spread across an entire year. We just recorded each track right after we finished writing it until we had a full album. It was creatively challenging to try this approach, and pretty exhausting to tell you the truth, but in the end it was all worth it. We are very pleased with the results.
What were your favorite Belgian acts of 2016?
Same as every year: The Glücks (Youth On Stuff 2016), Mind Rays (Nerve Endings coming out in 2017), The Tubs (new album coming out 2017(?)), MOAR, Equal Idiots, Cocaine Piss, It It Anita, Alpha Whale, Mostly Whites, Moaning Cities, Mountain Bike,… I probably forgot a whole bunch, I suggest you dive in head first and see for yourself.
What can we expect from you in a near future?
that’s a secreeeeet
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/155107392″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]Connect with Double Veterans on Facebook, Instagram, Soundcloud, and YouTube
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