Biography
Finn Andrews has guided the U.K.-based indie rock outfit the Veils through five charting albums and a 2017 appearance on the television series Twin Peaks, all prior to issuing his debut solo effort. One Piece at a Time (2018) spotlighted an even closer examination of his expressive vocal approach and narrative-driven songcraft.
Born in London, England, Andrews spent portions of his upbringing there as well as in suburban Auckland, New Zealand, within a household that prized both visual art and music; he first picked up the guitar at age ten. As the offspring of keyboardist Barry Andrews (XTC, Shriekback), he later incorporated piano into his instrumental skills. While enrolled at Takapuna Grammar School near Auckland, he immersed himself in the surrounding folk community and absorbed the catalog of songwriters including Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, and Tom Waits. At sixteen he relocated to London intent on building a music career. Two years afterward, in 2001, he assembled the Veils alongside guitarist Oliver Drake, bassist Adam Kinsella, and drummer Ben Woollacott. Following an initial but ultimately unsuccessful association with the Blanco y Negro label, Rough Trade issued the resulting folk-tinged debut The Runaway Found in 2004, which reached number 65 on the Dutch charts.
Andrews subsequently returned to New Zealand to rehearse with former classmates Sophia Burn on bass and Liam Gerard on keyboards, then transported them to London to complete a reconstituted Veils lineup that also featured guitarist Dan Raishbrook and drummer Henning Dietz. The broader-sounding follow-up Nux Vomica appeared on Rough Trade in 2006 and again charted in the Netherlands while attaining a peak of number 26 in New Zealand. The band repeated its chart presence in those same territories with 2009’s Sun Gangs, recorded in Gerard’s absence.
After departing Rough Trade, the Veils launched the EP Troubles of the Brain on Andrews’ own Pitch Beast Records in 2011. Their fourth studio album, Time Stays, We Go, was tracked in Laurel Canyon and surfaced in 2013 alongside a worldwide tour. Andrews enlisted El-P and Nick Cave associate Adam Greenspan to helm the Nettwerk release Total Depravity, which became the group’s strongest commercial showing to date by entering New Zealand’s Top 20 and the Dutch Top 40 in 2016. That year the Belgian government also commissioned Andrews to write an orchestral work honoring Australians and New Zealanders who perished in World War I. Around the same period he began gathering material he had set aside because it diverged from the Veils’ recorded output.
Following the Veils’ performance of “Axolotl” on an August 2017 installment of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, the band paused activities to allow Andrews to concentrate on his first solo album. Piano-and-strings arrangements framed the ballad “Love, What Can I Do?,” which previewed One Piece at a Time that August; Tom Healy (the Verlaines, She’s So Rad) served as co-producer.
Born in London, England, Andrews spent portions of his upbringing there as well as in suburban Auckland, New Zealand, within a household that prized both visual art and music; he first picked up the guitar at age ten. As the offspring of keyboardist Barry Andrews (XTC, Shriekback), he later incorporated piano into his instrumental skills. While enrolled at Takapuna Grammar School near Auckland, he immersed himself in the surrounding folk community and absorbed the catalog of songwriters including Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, and Tom Waits. At sixteen he relocated to London intent on building a music career. Two years afterward, in 2001, he assembled the Veils alongside guitarist Oliver Drake, bassist Adam Kinsella, and drummer Ben Woollacott. Following an initial but ultimately unsuccessful association with the Blanco y Negro label, Rough Trade issued the resulting folk-tinged debut The Runaway Found in 2004, which reached number 65 on the Dutch charts.
Andrews subsequently returned to New Zealand to rehearse with former classmates Sophia Burn on bass and Liam Gerard on keyboards, then transported them to London to complete a reconstituted Veils lineup that also featured guitarist Dan Raishbrook and drummer Henning Dietz. The broader-sounding follow-up Nux Vomica appeared on Rough Trade in 2006 and again charted in the Netherlands while attaining a peak of number 26 in New Zealand. The band repeated its chart presence in those same territories with 2009’s Sun Gangs, recorded in Gerard’s absence.
After departing Rough Trade, the Veils launched the EP Troubles of the Brain on Andrews’ own Pitch Beast Records in 2011. Their fourth studio album, Time Stays, We Go, was tracked in Laurel Canyon and surfaced in 2013 alongside a worldwide tour. Andrews enlisted El-P and Nick Cave associate Adam Greenspan to helm the Nettwerk release Total Depravity, which became the group’s strongest commercial showing to date by entering New Zealand’s Top 20 and the Dutch Top 40 in 2016. That year the Belgian government also commissioned Andrews to write an orchestral work honoring Australians and New Zealanders who perished in World War I. Around the same period he began gathering material he had set aside because it diverged from the Veils’ recorded output.
Following the Veils’ performance of “Axolotl” on an August 2017 installment of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, the band paused activities to allow Andrews to concentrate on his first solo album. Piano-and-strings arrangements framed the ballad “Love, What Can I Do?,” which previewed One Piece at a Time that August; Tom Healy (the Verlaines, She’s So Rad) served as co-producer.
Albums
Singles
