Dr. Veers are a Scottish alt-rock band with a fierce and unbecoming nature. Their new single 'Pedalo' is a rapture of channeled indie-rock with a serendipitous undertone which sits very nicely in between the alternative sphere. We sat down with the Northern rockers to find out more about them, their debut album (!!) which has also just dropped, and more, exclusively for FLEX.
Hey Dr. Veers, welcome to FLEX! How are you all doing?
Doing great thanks! Really happy to be given the chance to chat about our music!
Tell us your main influences as a band, each member please!
Dylan (lead vocals and rhythm guitar): Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Jack White
Omar (lead guitar): Smashing Pumpkins, System of a Down, Weezer
Angus (bass guitar): Beatles, ABBA
Mark (drums): Electric Light Orchestra, Muse
Your new single 'Pedalo' is out now, what's it about?
Originally, we wrote Pedalo as an ode to a friend who did the ‘walk of shame’ back down the highest waterslide in Europe after he saw the drop and thought “Noooooope”. However, we tweaked the lyrics a bit in order to make it less specific and to prevent our friend’s embarrassing secret from coming to light.
We’ve had a few people try to guess what it’s about, with suggestions such as ‘the struggle to make it in the music industry’, or ‘the difficulties you face when your friends move away, and you’re separated by water’. However, we think leaving our lyrics open to interpretation is part of the fun, so we’ll let you decide!
How was the writing and recording process for this song?
The basis of the song came about during one of the million jam sessions Omar and Angus did during lockdown.
We wrote a cool chord progression, and at the time believed it was a guaranteed hit. However, we soon realised we had just ripped off that ‘Just What I Needed’ song by The Cars. So, we changed the chord progression, added a cool riff and then, with the rest of the band’s input, Pedalo came into existence. Hopefully it now sounds different enough to avoid a court case with the Cars.
We recorded it at 45 A-Side studio with Paul McInally. He really enhanced the overall sound of the song – we couldn’t believe how good he had made it sound when we heard it back for the first time, and knew it had to be a single.
Stream 'Pedalo' in full here:
Your debut album is just about to be released too!! How are you all feeling about that?
We are absolutely buzzing about the album. It was the result of a lot of hard work, and we can all safely say that recording it was the most stressful period of our lives thanks to severe time constraints as a result of limited time in the recording studio.
We were forced to record the 12-song album in about 10 days, because we didn’t have enough money for much studio time. Despite all this, we are all really happy with the way the album turned out and are hoping it will help us gain traction and expand our fan base.
What are the live plans for 2023 looking like for you?
We are looking forward to headlining at The Flying Duck in Glasgow on March 11th and an announcement for that will be made very soon. We also have a date in April lined up at 13th Note, also in Glasgow. The main reason we play in a band is to gig, so if anyone likes what they hear please get in touch, especially if they have any paid gigs on offer as recording the album has financially ruined us!
And lastly, where can we all follow Dr. Veers? Thank you all for your time!
You can see what we’re up to on more or less every social media platform, particularly Instagram and TikTok. We are the only band called Dr. Veers so we’re very easy to find! Our music is available to stream on all platforms. Thanks so much for having us!
https://soundcloud.com/drveers