We have all heard stories of musicians who strive to maintain their individuality and ownership of their creativity. In the industry today, that is no easy feat, but yet, Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Vérité has managed to do just that.
The songstress has consistently put out intoxicating tracks that push boundaries and speak from her soul while also avoiding the corruption and dictation of a major label. In addition to independence, the “Phase Me Out” singer has also managed to pen her sophomore album “New Skin” (out Oct. 25) and land a gig opening for the X Ambassadors North American tour in the same year. Vérité sat down with Metro to discuss her inspirations and her dedication to individuality.
Vérité on her new album and being creatively independent
What does your writing process look like?
A general theme of what I write about is really blowing up these small moments that I experience and maybe other people experience and over-analyzing them to the point where they are a little unrecognizable. But I think definitely what always captures my interest is just the subtleties of existing. My process really depends on the situation or who I’m writing with. If I’m writing alone, I just kind of sit with me and the piano, if I’m writing in a session I normally go in with a little less expectations and a little more levity — I’m willing to experiment and throw things out there. If I’m writing with collaborators that I know really well it’s also much different. I think writing with other people is just motivating in general.
You have said before that we’re a culture addicted to the excitement of beginnings and the tragedy of endings and your album “New Skin” is somewhere in the middle. What did you mean by that?
I wrote the album while I was in a really strange place in my life. I think it was the first time in my life that things had become stable. My career had hit a point where it was sustainable and I had been in the same relationship for four and a half years. Not that things aren’t exciting, it’s just that things are so much different in the beginning when you’re on a pink cloud and everything is new and shiny — that kind of experience of elation does fade. Then I feel like a lot of times you don’t hear stories about people until they’ve broken and their career is massive or they get married or break up. This middle place is just somewhere I feel like I’ve existed my whole life. I wanted to kind of delve into the cycle of that and the beauty of it. Just being committed to something fully despite the ups and downs. Running my career the way I have has really forced me to redefine what I think of being successful and redefine [the] meaning in what I’m doing.
Are there any tracks from your new album that you’re most excited to perform?
I think “Think of Me” is going to be a moment live, and I’m really excited to perform that for people. Also the title track “New Skin” and the opening of the set I also think is going to be a really great moment — I start it a cappella and it’s very quiet, almost slightly uncomfortable. I think it will be fun to do.
You’re a thriving independent artist — can you tell me a little more about Kobalt’s AWAL program since you were the first signee?
It’s been a really crazy experience kind of growing with AWAL as a company. [I’m] somebody who has always been on the fringe in the way that a major label deal didn’t make sense to me. I wasn’t really feeling excited to play the games that all that entails. But early in my career, I was having a lot of success and traction with streaming and was kind of building really steadily on my own. I think taking a partnership as I have with AWAL enables me to grow and have a stronger core team while maintaining my independence with my projects — which I think was the selling point. That has always been what is most important to me. I always need to know that I have the option to move forward when things don’t work. I think that’s such a pitfall of the traditional music industry — the idea that these companies have ownership of you and your music and can dictate whether or not you get to release music and move forward. Maintaining my independence is not only good for my sanity, but also for proving that it is a successful model.
What do you like the most about taking your music on the road and perform love for audiences?
I love it because I have the opportunity to re-interpret the record. As an artist and somebody who is so involved with the writing and the production, I’m a little bit of a perfectionist. But eventually, you have to finish the record. You never get to submit it and then change things, I think even with “New Skin” I listened back and said “F*ck why did I do that?” or “Why didn’t I do this?” So now I get to do all of those things live. All of these new ideas I have for the songs I get to put in.
Overall what do you hope fans do take away from your music or from attending one of your concerts?
I think the best shows that I go to are the ones that hit hard and are a little challenging and unexpected. I feel like our live set is a fast-moving train and we keep things interesting, so I hope people kind of get excited by that and will then go and listen to the record and drown themselves in the emotion of that. Because they are definitely two different experiences.
For Vérité tour dates and tickets visit veriteofficial.com
