Interview by Kris Peters
Just like Santa Claus, Gold Coast rock outfit Veal only come once a year.
But it's highly unlikely they would fit down your chimney…
After debuting at Wallapalooza in 2014 and making such a huge impact they have been invited back every year since, Veal have shunned the conventional path of music and stuck to their guns in staying faithful to their pledge to play only sporadically - partly for effect and partly because they simply could not be fucked.
You might think that a band that dusts the cobwebs off only once every twelve months could be a little shaky when it comes to taking the stage, and usually you would be right, but for these four prime-cut-eating musicians that one night of live release is the culmination of the entire 364 days that preceded it.
While the majority of Veal play in other local, well-known bands, when the annual meat-digesting call to arms beckons then it is all systems go. Veal matures from a young, tender cut of beef to a battle-hardened, seasoned side of goodness who take no prisoners and give no quarter.
Their EP titles are, as expected, strongly based in the fine art of butchery with The Meating coming out in 2019 and Pleased To Meat You being unleashed in 2021. Veal's lyrics and song titles are planted tongue firmly in cheek, with tracks like Peach, I Could Eat A Peach For Hours and One Of Britney's Mums Pubic Hairs as funny as they are entertaining, accentuating the feel good vibe each tasty morsel of Veal comes served with.
This Saturday, October 14, Veal are hosting Vealstock: Veal's 10 Year Anniversary at Vinnies Dive Bar in Southport with special guests including Gutterfire!, Dad Fight, The Green Whistle, Dogshot, Beefed Up and more. It is an eclectic line-up of bands in keeping with the eclectic nature of Veal's music and personality and promises to once again be one of the (literal) gigs of the year.
Vocalist/guitarist Dan joined HEAVY to tell us more.
"It kind of hit me this morning that it's sneaking up," he said sheepishly. "Vealstock in general has been an idea we've had for about three years, and it only hit me this morning that it's only a few days out. I'm not nervous to do it, it's more the nerves of 'fuck, the shows coming'."
A tenth-anniversary show - even though it also signifies only the tenth actual gig for Veal - is still a big deal, so we press Dan on what sorts of things we can expect to get us into party mode.
"The plan is we plan to play every song that we've got, every song we have written," he measured. "We wanted to make the most of it. For those who don't know Veal is a once a year band. We only play one show a year. Long story short, we played the first year and with me and Chris being busy by the time we played another show it was a year later and that kept happening so after three years we made it a one-year thing. To put it in context, our first show was 2014, so this might not be our tenth year, but it's our tenth show. Does that make sense? It's hard to say what we're gonna bring, because we have always - without sounding cliché - we always try and bring our most to it because we only play the once each year. For me, I'm not in any other band, so I only play one show a year, so this really is my one chance to get on stage and just let loose and be as much of a 'rock star' as I can. (We will bring) as much energy as we can, and every song we've ever written we are gonna play, so it's a long set."
In the full interview, Dan talks more about the other bands playing and why they were hand-chosen, The Green Whistle coming out of hiding to play, Veal's EP releases, putting in the hard yards for this show, what to expect, the infamous rehearsal room lolly jar and a possible surprise appearance on Saturday night, the importance of Vinnies Dive Bar to the Gold Coast music scene, why Veal play only once a year, the possibility of new material this weekend, what the band plans to do after Vealstock and more.