How often do you hear of a band on a major label, doing a tour not to pay themselves, but to raise money for others?  Well, that's exactly what the Vancouver, Canada-based The Veer Union recently did.  They toured through schools across the United States raising money for musical awareness for a non-profit organization.

 

After talking the the band's guitarist / vocalist Eric Schraeder, it becomes increasingly evident that The Veer Union is one of the few bands out there that are really more concerned with the music and not the limelight.

 

The band's debut CD entitled Against the Grain is a powerful rock record filled with hope and optimism drawn from each member's own life experiences.  Crispin Earl, the band's lead vocalist began gaining some attention for his work with Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee, on Lee's solo project Tommyland: The Ride.

 

While Earl and Schraeder had a musical history with each other, it wasn't until the two had began working on their demo that they were introduced to Marc Roots and James Fiddler on bass and guitar.  As the four grew close, they finalized the band's puzzle by adding drummer Neil Beaton.

 

We had a chance to chat with Schraeder about what makes The Veer Union tick.   

 

Popular Underground Magazine (PUM): One of the first questions I needed to get out of the way is how old are you guys?  I mean from some of the pictures I’ve seen of the band, you all look really young.

 

Eric Schraeder (ES): I’m actually 25, Crispin is 25 as well, our drummer I believe is 21, our bass player is 22 and our other guitar player is 23.

 

PUM: Alright cool, then all of you look a lot younger than you are.  Tell me a little bit about this current tour; you’re playing at high schools to raise musical awareness?

 

ES: Yeah man, we work with a non-profit organization and basically a lot of schools in the states are losing their music programs so we just go to high schools and at the end of the day, that’s where we all started playing.  We think it’s really important that kids get a shot at doing music in school.  We donate the money [and] we raise money to help out the schools that are lacking music programs.  And it helps us get out to a different demographic as well.  We donate all of our time to a non-profit.  We don’t get paid for any of the shows, but we get to reach fans so it’s really cool.

 

PUM: Where does the money come from for this?  How does it get raised?

 

ES: We have a CD through the non-profit that raises the money for that.

 

PUM: Oh, so when you buy a CD, the money goes there?

 

ES: Yeah, exactly.  It gets pretty hectic with our schedule.  We just did a run with Hinder, we also did a few high schools while we were doing [the Hinder tour].  We’d wake up at like seven in the morning, go play an all ages show at a high school and then go to a radio interview, play an acoustic performance and then we would roll straight to sound check for the big night show with Hinder.  We’ve been crazy, crazy busy man!

 

PUM: What’s it like being on the road with Hinder?  That’s pretty huge!

 

ES: Oh, it’s wicked dude.  We go back with those guys.  They are good friends of ours.  We actually recorded our record at the same time they recorded theirs.  We were side by side, so we partied it up pretty good.  Those guys definitely know how to party so it’s definitely a fun time to be on tour with those guys.

 

PUM: Growing up, what was your first inspiration to get into music?

 

ES:  I think I was 12 when I picked up a guitar and you know my parents put me in a handful of guitar lessons and I kind of didn’t pick it up right away.  I kind of got out of it for a year or two and then when I started hitting 15, I couldn’t play anything I really liked and I just started picking up guitar.  It wasn’t so much learning scales, I really loved writing music and writing lyrics.  Singing was such a release for me.  It’s like a psychiatrist or your girlfriend.  It’s everything.  It’s a big release that I can get away from everything.  It makes me feel really blessed and privileged to be able to do this for a living.  It’s a very hard career to pursue because it takes a lot of years of literally starving to even get a shot.

 

PUM: That said, with the music business being so saturated, especially now a days, with rock bands, how do you guys plan rising above the competition?

 

ES:  I think we have a unique sound to begin with.  I don’t feel like we really sound like any other band.  Me and Crispin, we really dive into harmonies and we both sing a lot.  He is the lead singer, but I do sing a lot on the record and a lot live.  I feel like the blend of our vocals together really makes us stand out.  We work our asses off.  We feel like that will give us the extra push to really get out there and rise above.

 

PUM: I have the album preview sampler and that song “Over Me” is probably my favorite.

 

ES: No shit, eh?

 

PUM: Yeah, I thought it was really good.

 

ES: Awesome, I’ll tell the other boys that.

 

PUM: Now with the process of getting signed to Universal; you guys had been doing a lot of touring for a couple years and doing some other things, but how did that all come about?

 

ES: When me and Crispin started the band, we had recorded demos, just me and him.  He would even try and do the drumming on the record because when we first started it was pretty much just me and him.  We shopped and we were getting interest.  People were always interested, but they just wanted to hear more.  We came to a point where we said, “Screw it man, we’re doing this ourselves.  Screw signing to a deal, let’s just go on tour!”  We hit the stage for two years independently, we lived in our jam space [and] we were so broke, but we love playing the music.  Wildly enough, Greg Archilla, he was the producer of the record and he was also the guy who brought us to Motown.  We met up, not even at a show we played, we actually just walked into a bar after a show we played and he approached Crispin and said, “Dude, looks like you play in a rock band.”  And Crispin was like, “Yeah we do, here’s our Myspace card.” And he called us the next day.  It’s really weird scenario because he didn’t actually even see us play, he just saw Crispin in a band and approached him because he looked like he played in a band.  Really weird how it ended up that way because we had shopped for so many years and we ended up getting a deal by coincidence. 

 

PUM: That’s an awesome story.  Like being in the right place at the right time.

 

ES: Yeah, exactly.  It’s just another angle on how you can get a record deal.

 

PUM: You worked with Greg Archilla and Brian Howes, both of which have done some work with some big named bands.  What was that like for you guys?

 

ES: Brian Howes man; once again, we go back, we’ve worked on various projects with him and it was really good.  The guy’s an amazing producer and an amazing song writer.  Greg Archilla, when he approached us, he had worked with Matchbox 20 and some of the stuff was a little lighter and he was super pumped about doing a heavy record and we believed in it 100 percent and now we’ve got a fucking full rock record that we’re super stoked about.  They’re both really wicked guys.  We’re privileged and honored to have worked with them.

 

PUM:  Was there anything specifically that you learned from working with them?

 

ES: I’ve always been a fan of Brian’s songwriting.  His melodies sense just blows my mind so yeah, I learned a lot.  I think both Crispin and I have.  Not to say that really at the end of the day, he helped us tweak our ideas that definitely bettered our songs. 

 

PUM:  I’ve read that your songs tend to have a lot of optimism and hope, is that kind of the theme of Against the Grain?

 

ES:  What it was for us is me and Crispin, for a good year lived in the poorest area of Canada, like east-side Vancouver where there’s like shootings, there was the highest concentration for getting mugged and we lived in our rehearsal space in that area and everything around us was so negative.  All we really had at the end of the day was our light at the end of the tunnel, which was our little bit of hope that everything was going to be okay.  That’s what we were going through at the time so we just wrote songs kind of like, “Everything is going to be okay.”  Don’t get me wrong, there are different avenues that we do cross on the record, but “Seasons” for example is about going out and seizing the moment.  A lot of musicians complain that they don’t have record deal and then you find out they only practice four hours a week or something.  If you want something you’ve got to go out and get it!

 

PUM: What’s the Canadian music scene like?  Did it present any challenges or benefits for you guys?

 

ES: The one thing about Canada for starters is the touring is pretty brutal.  Just long drives in between cities, but we have a lot of friends in Vancouver in the music scene, so it’s good, I love Canada.  It’s got lots of perks and positives.

 

PUM: The song “Over Me,” which we were talking about earlier, what exactly is that song all about?

 

ES: That was one of the second or third songs that me and Crispin co-wrote together.  Me and Crispin both at one point were living with our girlfriends and we had to decide, it was either music or the relationship and it’s hard to let something go that you love.  Especially watching them move on; it’s so brutal seeing them being happy with their lives with you not in it.  Now that you’re over me, you won’t feel the same.  It’s hard.

 

PUM: What are some of your goals for Against the Grain when it comes out?

 

ES: We hope it hits the light of day at the end of the day.  It’s a record that we put a lot of blood, sweat, tears and passion into and as long as people hear it, that’s our biggest goal.  And then hope that people like it!  If people love it, then we’re going to be really happy. 

 

PUM: Are there any big radio pushes or videos planned?

 

ES: We’ve gotten a really good response as far as ads are concerned so we’re really excited.  Everyone is really optimistic and looking toward the future.  The record label is really excited, everyone in this inner circle is really happy with the response we’ve seen.  We’re out on the road, hitting the streets, meeting the fans; that’s what we like to do.  Meeting the fans and partying it up!

 

By: Adam Zak III - Senior Editor / Founder