EXCLUSIVE
THE VEER UNION CELEBRATE
10 succesful years with
“DECADE 2 and 3”, TOUR!
With many bands having to reinvent themselves for an ever changing market, Vancouver’s The Veer Union
proves that staying true to their own voice makes them rise above clutter. After two amazing releases,
celebrating the bands decade of existence and several tours in 2018, I sit down with Crispin Earl to discuss some
of the struggles it took to get to this point and thoughts on the industry and the band going forward.
The Veer Union is:
Crispin Earl
Ryan Ramsdell
Dan Sittler
Lets go back to The Res-
urrection Tour, what’s your
immediate take away? Do you think that the classic
build up for announcements are
gone in an on-demand world?
CRISPIN: It’s was Epic. All of the bands were
really great to work with as well. Pulling up
to a Festival with bands like Lamb of God
was amazing. There is a big announcement
coming about another tour we are to be doing. CRISPIN: I could not agree with you more.
In fact I have had this conversation several
times with my band and with other people in
the industry and it’s crazy now that we are
in this time. Mystery used to be the biggest
thing that pushed bands, and now mystery is
missing. Now people need to connect with
you right away away. When you do a post,
people send you messages and they want
those messages answered right now, but it
might take a us a few days. Sometimes it
might take us a week or two. Everything is
just all instant gratification. I wish we could
find a happy medium between the way it
used to be and now.
Is it because the music
industry in too oversaturated?
CRISPIN: There is absolutely no question
that it’s oversaturated. If you’re not in the
front lines, there’s somebody else that’s lin-
ing up, so its like,“get out of my way if you’re
not going to deliver” It’s just like that, and
I don’t think that’s going away any time
soon. Now it’s almost like whoever can get
there first with the best product. There’s so
many other factors too such as money and
marketing budgets… I don’t even want to
get into that stuff because that’s when you
start feeling like your losing yourself as
an artist. It’s interesting because now you
have to be able to split yourself to be able
to be an artist and a business entrepre-
neur. If your not able to split yourself to do
both worlds, you’re not really in the game.
That’s the honest truth.
How does an artist
separate themselves from
bieng so entrenched in the
business side of music?
CRISPIN: There’s only one way that you
can separate yourself, and it’s the most
unfortunate reality and it’s the truth. If
you have the money to pay somebody else
to do it, then you can somehow split that
work up. The truth is most bands, espe-
cially starting out, don’t have those kind
of budgets. Especially for a new band,
but even for a band like us that’s been
around for a while it’s tough.
What is the first thing that
comes to your mind when
you look back and say
I’ve been doing this for 10
years and sustaining?
CRISPIN: Wow! Even though I’ve gone
through so many struggles and the band
has gone through so many struggles to
try to stay in this industry as it’s evolving,
I feel so lucky to be able to do this. I’ve
seen so many bands that we’ve played
with along the way that were really great
bands and they disappeared. I think it’s
a very great achievement for us to even
be in the music place and still creating
music that is relevant to our fans and relevant to the marketplace.
I just feel blessed, and really lucky to be able to do both of those things and that’s
the honest truth.
What to you think the key to sustainability
has been?
CRISPIN: That’s pretty simple. It’s a sickness. You wake every morning and
when your having a tough day, say I’m going to do something else because this
is too hard and then you realize this is the only thing that gives you purpose.
This is the reason I wake up in the morning, so it’s a double edge sword. It’s this
continuous cycle that never ends until one day we all disappear. For me, I just
want to be able to do this as long as I can.
Continued on next page.....
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Inset Photos :
(Bottom left) Crispin Earl
Photo by Chuck Williams
(top right) Official Photo
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