Interview: Vera Blue

After a huge year of touring, writing and more recently, releasing her single All The Pretty Girls, we had a chat with Vera Blue at Festival of the Sun about writing trips overseas, stepping out of your comfort zone and what we can expect from the songstress in 2019.

How was your 2018?

It’s was really good. I’ve been super busy but it’s been really fun as well; it’s a good one to look back on. I’ve done a bunch of touring, I did the Australian Lady Powers tour, I got to play Lollapalooza which was so much fun and is something I’ll remember forever. And to end the year I released a new song.

I love this song so much!

Thank you! It’s a fun one, I think it’s got a good summer feel to it.

Did you write that over in LA?

Vera Blue: Yeah I did. I wrote it a couple months ago over there, and as soon as it was written I didn’t want to wait to release it, I was ready to get it out. It felt too summery to hold onto.

Yeah for sure. How long did you spend over there?

Whenever I do writing trips I normally spend around two weeks there. I’m heading back over to do another two weeks in January. It’s always fun over there. I’ve got a lot of Aussie mates over there that I’m looking forward to seeing and there’s always so many people to collaborate with over there. In LA you can just go into a bar or anywhere really and you’ll meet someone else that writes or makes music.

Did you just write All The Pretty Girls when you were there last time or did you get some other songs done?

I wrote a bunch of songs actually. Sometimes I’ll do writing trips where you’ll get songs out but they just don’t do it for you yet, but you can always use that later on as a base for another song. So I do have a few other songs from last time but All The Pretty Girls was the one that really stood out for me. So when I go over next time I might get a couple more that I like; or I might get none, you never know. It’s always a bit hit and miss but it’s so much fun going over there either way.

When you write do you prefer to do it alone or do you prefer collaborating?

I like a bit of both. I really like collaborating because I’m at a place where I just like to have someone else’s brain and thoughts to bounce off. But I also love working on my own so it really depends on my mood. I like starting ideas off on my own then taking them into the studio and working through them with a team; that’s what happened with All The Pretty Girls. I had a bunch of lyrics that I’d written in my phone, so I went into the session and said that I wanted to turn them into a song, so a couple of us worked through it and brought the lyrics to life.

And you’ve just released the video for All The Pretty Girls too!

It’s a bit of a different one, it’s the first video where I’ve played a cameo. It was so cool to have the other couples in it; they were so beautiful! I wanted the clip to have a playful vibe, but also a sadness to it as well. At the end of the day, the song is about trying to protect yourself from getting your heart broken and trying to pick a player when you see one; essentially judging a book by its cover. It’s a little bit cheeky but I think we all do it at some stage of our lives. But it was so nice to have other people in the clip with me and to have some other elements going on. Obviously the high fashion, dancey stuff is something I like doing, but making this was so fun and I was so excited to get it out!

Who did you work with on it?

I worked with Jared Daperis; he has done a lot of stuff with RUFUS DU SOL and Gang of Youths, so it was really nice to see his previous work and think that he could do a beautiful job with making this video quite cinematic and incorporate the fashion elements that I love.

Have you always been into fashion? Your outfits in videos and live shows are always so stunning!

Yeah I have! I have a stylist who is also one of my best friends, and she always helps me figure out outfits. She has been styling me since the project started, so she has been helping me what to wear for quite a while. She knows what kind of stuff I like but she also pushes me a little bit to wear outfits I wouldn’t normally wear. And I always end up feeling really comfortable in those things. But I do really love fashion. I think it is one of my favourite parts about touring and doing shows. 

And apart from the writing trip you already have planned, do you have anything else planned for 2019?

So we’ll definitely do some more touring, I’ve got a couple of shows at Sydney and Melbourne zoos which should be really fun. Then I think I’ll have a couple festivals and then things should start to pick up as the year goes on; fingers crossed I’ll have some more new music too!