The past couple years have seen the steady emergence of Italian producer Maenad Veyl. From his early output on Death & Leisure to last years Body County LP on his namesake label, he has maintained a quiet yet powerful presence which is not confined to any genre or sound. The artist now returns to Veyl with an all new album, Reassessment. Building off his previous work, Reassessment is a monumental work of 13 tracks that traverses everything from wave, body, noise, techno and more and further sharpens the producer’s output. This a deeply personal work that is loaded with meaning and reframes how we perceive our surroundings. Today we are proud to present the track “Hardened Arteries” (one of our favorites from the album) and we also bring you a great interview with the artist talking about the album, quarantine and more. (see below)

The Brvtalist: You've been on a tear the last couple years. With a lot of great releases in 2018 and then 2019, which saw the release of your first LP, Body Count. What does Reassessment represent at this stage of your production career?

Maenad Veyl: Thank you Jeremy, for both the kind words and having me on here again.
It’s hard for me to zoom out and take a proper look, but the way I see it everything from ‘The Acceptance ov Not Knowing’ to ‘Body Count’ felt like part of one chapter that is now coming to an end with this record. In many ways ‘Reassessment’ is about an ending It’s hard for me to judge exactly what this means but I guess time will tell.

TB: How would you say your productions or approach is evolving?

MV: I’m not sure if this is a reflection of my productions in general but with Maenad Veyl I always wanted to keep things raw and honest. I think i’ve sharpened that blade a bit more on here... This record wasn’t even mastered, we just put it out as soon as it was ready.

TB: The record traverses a whole host of genres, tempos, arrangements and more. Talk about the importance of diversity in your work.

MV: Releasing ‘Body Count’ was quite a liberating experience as I didn’t expect it to be so well-received: it was the most unplanned music I’ve ever worked on. I wanted this record to expand on that feeling by digging into other important inspirations of mine, but it wasn’t done too purposefully. All the music that made the cut was very spontaneous, I’ve never really liked repeating myself.

TB: The title certainly could imply a lot. Are you referring to anything specific with "Reassessment"?

MV: I was inspired by some major shifts in my personal life after a minor health scare. It sounds cheesy but it made me re-evaluate a lot of people and things around me, hence the name. Post-COVID-19/economic collapse my problems now feel smaller, but the idea still stands.

TB: How has quarantine been for you? Has it inspired you in any way?

MV: Not musically. The uncertainty of these times plus seeing Milan so closely affected wasn’t particularly inspiring for writing. More than 100 people died in a nursing home across the street from my place, the whole situation made me feel numb for a while. During the first few days I tried to write down the backbone of an album/EP but I found it hard to focus on music, I wasn’t liking anything. In fact to be honest and I haven’t been listening to much either, and I’ve yet to a watch a single quarantine livestream. I’m lucky enough to have a lot of work right now and I’m spending most of my downtime with my girlfriend, infinitely re-organizing my studio or playing Final Fantasy VII.

TB: I think the whole world is reassessing a lot right now which makes the record even more timely. What are one or two changes would you like to see following the current global crisis?

MV: There’s a million bigger, more essential things that need to be reconsidered but for the scope of this interview I’ll hope this global fuck-up finally helps create a newer, better ecosystem for independent artists. There’s a lot of archaic systems still in place and they should have been eradicated a long time ago.

TB: What's coming up next/anything else you want to mention?

MV: I’m really excited about Veyl’s future as we’ve got a lot of amazing music from some of my favorite artists coming up. December, Jensen Interceptor, VTSS and Blind Delon are amongst some names we’re working on for 2020.

Reassessment is out May 11, 2020 as 2 x LP with poster. Get yours at: https://veyl.bandcamp.com/

-JRS