The Veer Nation is an up and coming act from that has garnered much attention for touring the country on High School tours. We caught up with them for a few words.
MAGX: Who is the Veer Union?
TVU: To sum us up quickly we are a REAL band that has struggled through many hardships and that reflects in the music that we write. We go out there and work our asses off. For us it’s never about fame and fortune but always about the passion.
MAGX:Whats the story behind the name of the band?
TVU: We were all in separate bands that and each of us was unhappy with the direction and politics involved in those bands so we decided that maybe it would be best to do our own thing.
MAGX: What was it like collaborating with Tommy Lee?
TVU: It was a cool experience man, I was very blessed. I’m good friends with Chad Kroeger and he called me one day and said “Hey man, I’m here with Tommy Lee and I just showed him some of your songs and he’s interested in using them on his solo record, how do you feel about that? I said “I can’t wait to hear it!”
MAGX: What made you want to cover “Rhianna’s Umbrella”?
TVU: I was listening to it on the radio and I thought to myself wow, this is a great song. So I reach for the phone to call Eric (guitars) and he says “Hey man I was just listening to Rhianna I think it would be a great cover song.” That’s how like-minded we are as a band the minute I was about to call him he was literally about to call me.
MAGX:What has been the best part of touring?
TVU: I would say the best part is watching the crowd’s energy and hearing them singing the lyrics. I really love that on our MySpace people leave comments like, “I totally identify with what you were saying in that song.” I think people are getting our music and recognizing the work we put into it. Many people think about rock music and automatically think about the glamour but fail to look at all the work that goes on behind the scenes.
MAGX: Which show has stood out and why?
TVU: One that comes to mind. The first I think means the most to the band, we had been doing many high school tours and at the end of the 2 weeks we did a headlining show at the Marquee (Denver, CO). All we could think was “man, we just booked a headlining show. How are we going do this? We’re a band with no radio play. Are people even going to show up?” Next thing we know is “The show is sold out!” To this day it is the most insane show we have played to date. The crowd’s energy was just off the charts! (check it out on YouTube.com) It was honestly the most satisfying show simply because of the huge risk involved.
MAGX: What are some the bands influences?
TVU: Honestly it completely varies all of really like Thrice and A Perfect Circle, but what it really comes down to is that good music is good music. One minute we can be blasting Pantera and the next put on a Justin Timberlake jam. If it’s good its good that’s our motto as far as music goes. If it’s emotional, us as humans can identify in some way and that’s what makes it good. Oh! And Radiohead of course. (laughs)
MAGX: What can you tell us about the upcoming record?
TVU: Seasons our very first single is being added to radio around February 24th, and the actual record is going to be released around April 22nd of this year. In reality it took 15 years to make, we had to sift through all the songs that I had written throughout my life as well as everything Eric (guitars) wrote and then many of the new songs were just collaborations. What we wanted to be was a band that couldn’t be pigeon holed. We are a very diverse band; we can really go from playing a very heavy song to doing something more poppy and mainstream. At the end the common ground is always the emotion of the song. We are always trying to evolve and grow and because of that you can hear a band evolving into something else even though this is our debut record.
