With more than two decades of evolution behind them, and just a year on from the last album, ‘Asphodels’, The Veils return in June 2026 with their eighth long player, ‘Fragile World’. Dasha Koryagina spoke with Finn Andrews, the creative force behind the band, about the album and how it was pieced together.

‘Fragile World’ is a piano-centric record, with Finn Andrews’ clean vocals and bright keys at its core, supported by measured drumming and softly distorted strings that lend a sometimes dreamlike quality. 

Built on live-to-tape recordings it’s instinctive and alive, moving between quiet reflection and swelling intensity. In many ways it feels closely connected to its predecessor, ‘Asphodels’, perhaps a colourful, louder sister to that more introspective release. 

Such album connection is in line with the wider pattern of The Veils’ catalogue, where groups of records form distinct creative periods before giving way to something new.

“There’s certainly been no plan whatsoever,” Andrews says of The Veils’ ever-shifting sound. “I think every record’s been its own little miracle – they’ve all felt like the one before would be the last, and each one has felt like a kind of atonement for the one before.”

He traces that pattern back to the band’s beginning.

“It started with ‘The Runaway Found’ [2004]. They were songs I had written so young that by the time it came out I was sick of all of them, so I made ‘Nux Vomica’ [2006] as a sort of rebellion against that first record. And then I think I’ve done that with every record!”

While the early years of The Veils were defined by youthful intensity and Andrews’ time living in London, the middle period moved into experimental territory, before giving way to a more mature era that coalesced after he returned to live in Auckland in 2018, and became a father. 

“There was definitely a profound change in the last few records, because up until I moved back here and had my daughter, I really didn’t have anything else in my life. 

“I would just be at home writing all the time, or I’d be touring, and I’d gotten pretty miserable by the end of that 20-year period in London. 

“I don’t think it was good for my writing or for the band,” he reflects. “When I was younger we’d tour for eight or nine months of the year – that was my life. Whereas now it’s the other thing I go and do, which is a lot healthier. So the last few records feel like they’re made by quite a different person to the first four.”

With a slowly revolving roster of musicians having formed the lineup through the years, The Veils has mostly centred around him as the solo visionary. Despite the optics he resists the idea of it being his individual entity.

“I’ve always refused to have it be a solo project. Right from the beginning, everyone wanted me to make it a solo project when we first got signed. It’s come up over and over again, and it’s never felt right,” he says firmly. 

“It’s based on collaboration. And, I think I wanted to have a sort of family – certainly in the beginning when I left home, the band was everything for so long. In every stage of this the people are the best part, so I think of it as a band, even if the people change a lot.”

And who’s in the band currently?

“I don’t know!” he laughs. “It’s changing all the time. There’s a few different people for Europe and NZ, and it’s generally the same people now, coming and going.”

That fluidity extends to collaborators behind the desk. Across the band’s discography, a rotating cast of producers have helped shape the sound, each subtly shifting its direction. Andrews describes the collaborations as generally “off the cuff”, often arising through chance encounters rather than deliberate planning. 

A notable example is American rapper and producer El-P (Jaime Meline) naming ‘Nux Vomica’ as his favourite non-rap album on Twitter, before bumping into The Veils at a bar in Los Angeles, and ultimately coming to produce their 2016 ‘Total Depravity’ record. 

From Andrews’ artist viewpoint, the best producers are ones that come inside the world you’ve made, and delicately enhance your vision.

“There’s been a few occasions we’ve worked with people where I felt very bullied to realise what they think we should be like, and it felt very unnatural and very unfair. That was mostly when I was younger – I didn’t know how to defend myself with it,” he reflects. “The first really great experience we had was with Nick Launay, who produced ‘Nux’. He’s a brilliant producer in the way that he just brings the best out of you, rather than superimposing himself and his sound and taste over you. And El-P was brilliant as well, ‘Total Depravity’ sort of doesn’t sound like us, but in a way really makes sense. He gave us a different character for an album, which I liked.”

His band’s 2025 release, ‘Asphodels’, marked a turning point, with Andrews producing it himself.

“It felt like I knew how it should sound, and I didn’t want too many people in there. I came in with all the songs fully formed, because I’d been touring them. They were very honed, so there weren’t many questions.”

For ‘Fragile World’, the producer’s chair was filled again, Andrews recruiting Auckland musician/ producer Tom Healy, who had also helmed The Veils’ 2023 album ‘…And Out of the Void Came Love’. With the aid of Lyttelton drummer Joe McCallum, Healy and Andrews between them provided almost all the album’s instrumentation.

“He’s amazing,” Andrews exclaims. “He’s great at really improving the songs whilst staying true to the heart of them. He has great ideas, and he’s a great musician.”

Unlike ‘Asphodels’, which was fully mapped out prior to recording, ‘Fragile World’ was built in real time, Andrews arriving at the studio equipped with songs, but little sense of arrangement. 

“The whole thing is a happy accident really,” he smiles. “With ‘Asphodels’ everything was set in stone before I went into the studio – there was no playing around, I’d done all the work beforehand. Whereas this was the opposite. Sort of like, ‘These are all half-finished ideas, so let’s try and take them somewhere interesting.’ Operating in that instinctual mode was fun – genuinely exciting to be a part of not knowing where you’re going!”

The album was recorded at Roundhead Studios, where it was tracked live to tape, a method Andrews says works best him. 

“I sing best live, when I’m not thinking about it. I’m prone to overthinking things, and it just takes all of that out. You get two or three takes, and that’s it. Move on. I just do everything better in that way, and it definitely sounds better with our kind of music. The sound of the low end is just richer.”

Recording this way also allows for spontaneous accidents to become part of the final product, capturing moments that would otherwise be lost. ‘Fragile World’ was recorded over the same tapes as ‘Asphodels’ and ‘…And Out of the Void Came Love’, resulting in an unintended Easter egg on one of the tracks.

“There’s some moments at the beginning of My Foolish Heart you can hear the intro of No Limit of Stars from ‘…And Out of the Void Came Love’ in the background. There’s this stuff bleeding through the strata – strange accidents you just wouldn’t hear otherwise.”

Those kinds of moments are caught rather than created, with engineer Paddy Hill at the desk. 

“Paddy’s just great. He sort of runs Roundhead these days, and he just knows the room so well. He’s so quick, and a lovely bloke,” praises Andrews. “It’s a really great side of NZ – it’s densely populated with incredibly talented, hardworking people. London is as well, but it’s more transitory – there’s a lot of talented people there, but also a lot of complete chances. Whereas here I feel like you just have to be great if you’re working in these things, or you don’t have a job.”

Recording is his favourite part of being an artist – largely, he says, because of the shared experience. 

“I really do love recording. I just love all the people and like…all going out for lunch. Choosing where you’re gonna go for lunch is, like, my favourite part of the day,” he laughs. “And dinner, of course. And just the sense of endless possibility is so brilliant. Especially in those first few days in the studio, it’s a real sense of freedom that I don’t feel anywhere else. You feel like you could make anything.”

Though the meaning is layered, the act of artistic creation is what gives ‘Fragile World’ its name.

“I’ve thought about the process of writing as I’ve gotten older, and what a strange thing it is. I left my phone on voice recording for nine hours while I was writing a while ago. I listened back to it, and it just sounded like the ravings of a loon – screaming and banging things around and talking to myself. 

“So it sort of came from that idea of the fragile world you’re inhabiting while you’re making these things, and all of these thousands of little decisions that make up the whole. And, doing all of this in a world that feels so on the brink of collapse – how futile it feels. A lot of the time you’re just in there, writing your little jingles while the world around you burns.”

For Andrews, music is a way to deal with that fragility. 

“Everything filters through into the songs. It definitely is where I go to make sense of the big, scary world. What else are you meant to do?”

The album’s lead single, Lungs, was released in February. Drawing on his final years in London it centres on ideas of freedom and escape. The recording pairs a rich, atmospheric texture with a strong forward drive, signalling a return to The Veils’ more expansive sound. 

“Freedom feels like a dirty word these days, but this band was always about freedom for me – getting away from the world, and having my own thing. It’s a song about that. And I just wanted to make something that was fun to listen to at night in a car.” 

As the album moves into the world, its creator is curious to see how it’s received. 

“It’s nice when you get to hear what people make of it. As the industry’s mutated over the years it’s become progressively less impactful when you put something out, because of the streaming model – you just see a little Spotify thing come out. It’s quite depressing really – and it only feels good when you’re touring it, and you realise that all of these people have connected with it.”

The Veils set out on a 10-date nationwide tour across NZ in June and July, a mix of full band and stripped-back solo shows, with a European tour following later in the year. Andrews notes that Auckland and London are particularly meaningful stops on the route, describing both as homecoming shows.

And where will The Veils’ sound go next? While Finn Andrews says he misses the band energy and would like it back for the next record. He’s not entirely sure where it will land.

“I can see three roads up ahead,” he says. “I’m not sure which we’ll take. That’s usually figured out more through luck than judgement…”