Hometown: Liverpool.
The lineup: Chris Beesley (vocals, guitar), Adam Bresnen (vocals, guitar), James Tidd (bass), Tom McCabe (drums), Donovan Collins (synth, keyboards).
The background: Veyu are a Liverpool band, but they are less La's than Lotus Eaters or China Crisis – they're not laddish Scouse rockers with a bolshy sense of entitlement, they're sensitive boys with wan voices and liquid guitars shimmering away as they sing their sad songs amid an atmosphere of poetic desolation. Sometimes they sound like a less oppressively heavy Echo and the Bunnymen; other times they could even be Mancunian – like New Order circa 1983, as they made their break into the pop light, or one of the many bands who formed in the latter's wake and signed to Factory, such as the Wake.
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Veyu have their own Factory, actually – an arts space called the Fallout Factory that they managed to secure from the city council. There they rehearse, play gigs and host art events/installations. But this is art with a heart, they insist. Their intention is "to connect with people on an emotional level. Veyu strive to make music that people want to absorb, not just hear, that they can lose themselves in. We hope that the ideas behind our music strike a chord, evoke certain moods and feelings." They have made a good start with their debut double A-side single Running/The Everlasting. Strike a chord? Check. Evoke certain moods and feelings? Check. Well, they struck a chord with us, but then, we like Liverpudlian music that appears to have been genetically spliced from the DNA of the Bunnymen's Rescue and the Lotus Eaters' First Picture of You. That's what Running sounds like to us, but if those early 80s Mersey-indiepop co-ordinates don't ring any bells then let's just say that it sounds like the work of young men in thrall to the atmospheric properties of synths, the dramatic charge of drums, the linear propulsion that can be achieved by a neat guitar line and the way a certain vocal frequency can connote hurt and hope. The Everlasting is like a précis of 1983 developments: first, the looped found sounds, followed by the sadboy indie melody and then the shift towards disco dynamics and concomitant optimism telegraphed by the rhythm – and Wild Beasts and their proponents think they've cottoned onto something new! Veyu are like Wild Beasts if they were more obsessed with love and death than sex. Shadows is slow, mournful – for a few dolours more, or something. For some, this will be their idea of heaven up here; others can hear the Smiths in its sombre acoustica, but it's way less arch than that. As for the guitar, can we describe it as "shimmervescent"? We can? Thank you.
The truth: Liverpudlian combo, fey and sensitive variety.
Most likely to: Go up to Villiers Terrace.
Least likely to: Go to Toxteth.
What to buy: Debut single The Everlasting/Running is released on 24 March.
File next to: Wild Beasts, Icicle Works, Lotus Eaters, Outfit.
Links: facebook.com/weareveyu.
Friday's new band: The Trouble With Templeton.
