Finnish band Verandan is a project by Ville Hopponen (of Cats on Fire and latterly The New Tigers – very feline). Verandan was formed in late 2015 around songs written by Hopponen.
This seven inch single, ‘Hideaway’, comes jointly via the American indie-pop label Cloudberry (physical) and Finnish label Soliti (digital) and features last year’s track ‘Pink Clouds’ on the flip side. It was released on January 29th 2021 (digital) while the vinyl follows on 20th February.
Ville Hopponen says, “One of the themes of the song is the ambivalence of relating to the uncertain future of the planet, when making plans and “playing it safe” sometimes can feel pointless. As the old ways of doing things don’t really work anymore it could even feel like an opportunity to do things in a completely new way, though I wouldn’t count on that happening anytime soon. The song could also be about doubt on a personal level.“
Once again that’s pretty deep stuff; there seems to be a lot of it around at the moment. What happened to songs that went, “I used to love you but you ran off with my dog and now I’m inconsolable but at least I got another dog.”
They’ll make a comeback I suppose. For now I’m not quite sure how to place Verandan based on this one song. They seem to fall halfway between a really good 1960’s guitar band, let me offer, say Herman’s Hermits or The Hollies as an example, and 1980’s synth-pop but that’s mainly because the vocal has shades of Marc Almond.
All in all a nice easy listening track, and not as deep as Ville’s philosophical ramblings suggest.
This past year has seen Verandan write many new songs but for obvious reasons not playing concerts. This is the first single release in 2021 and will be joined by more singles during the year. It will also be the first time Verandan is released on vinyl.
Verandan comprises:
Ville Hopponen: Vocals, lyrics electric guitar, synths, percussion
Kaarlo Stauffer: Electric guitar (other band Black Twig)
Aki Pohjankyrö: Bass (other bands Black Twig, LOVE SPORT)
Aleksi Peltonen: Drums, backing vocals (other band Puunhalaaja)
Sampo Seppänen: Synths (other band Kynnet).
Saxophone by Jussi Hurskainen
Find them on Facebook.
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