Some bands keep a character in their back pocket for years. Sleeps Under Beams brought theirs back this autumn. First, the band. Sleeps Under Beams is a trio with roots in two places, San Jose in California and Hilversum in the Netherlands. Drew Campbell composes, arranges and produces. Lisa A. Swain writes the lyrics. Anna Rea sings. Campbell also runs the Subscotia label and studio out of Hilversum, so the whole operation lives under one roof.

Early on, the project described its own sound as gothic rock-pop from a different place. Their debut album, Chasing Beauty, carried that flag. Veronika first showed up in February 2021, when “Like Veronika” arrived as the second single from that debut. Swain’s words follow a woman who once thought about dying, changed her mind, and found her reason in love. The narrator circles the same longing: waiting for someone to belong to, feeling the wait press down like a hand over the mouth.

Veronika lingers in the narrator’s head the whole way through. Now she is back with a sign-off. Love Always, Veronika is the new single, out on Subscotia Records and tagged indie rock. The title reads like the last line of a letter. After five years, the character who inspired the first song has written back, and that alone makes this one worth a spin. A sequel in spirit, if you like, and a rare thing in a scene where most singles arrive as one-offs. The timing adds another layer.

The band has been working on its second album, Glossed Souls, as the follow-up to Chasing Beauty. Anyone tracking where Campbell, Swain and Rea go next has a fresh clue here. The lyrics have always been the sharpest tool in this band’s kit, and the pairing of Swain’s pen with Rea’s voice is the place to start listening. If you caught “Like Veronika” back in 2021, press play on both in one sitting. They work as a pair, a question and a reply, and the gap between them says plenty about how far the project has travelled.