INTERVIEW: VÉRITÉ on her new album 'love you forever': "It’s non-linear, it’s dramatic, inconsistent, bombastic, stripped. The world was created to hold all the feelings."

Brooklyn-based independent singer, songwriter and producer VÉRITÉ creates the kind of music that destroys the structure and expectation of what a pop song should be, gifting you songs that mix electronica, pop, country and soul and are thrilling, diverse and something you will happily drown in.

First releasing music in 2014, at the end of last month she released her third studio album love you forever. It is an album that dissects the emotion of love, but from a startlingly fresh viewpoint. “The record is about loving someone so much you murder them and drag their body into a lake,” she says. “That’s the most literal interpretation of the concept and world that I’ve built around the album to pad the sharp corners of what it really means to crack yourself open and allow yourself to be fully present and open with another human being.”

Each song represents a chapter in the journey of love, examining different emotions from longing to anger. The album opens with ‘are we done yet?’ which starts off with a sedate piano before transforming into swirling electronica with a heavy beat as VÉRITÉ voices frustration about a relationship she wants to leave ‘Can we stop this now? / 'Cause I'm not having fun yet / Can we let this burn itself out?’. It leads into title track ‘love you forever’ which mixes gentle country guitar vibes with electronica that follows a similar theme but with more anger shown towards her ex. ‘I should've known by now / You're so weak you'd kick me in the teeth / Before you leave to make yourself feel better off.’

‘a lucid dream’ is a album highlight that moves between lush, gorgeous melodies paired with a lazy electronic beat and bursts of dramatic noise. It looks back with yearning at the rush of love in the earlier days of a relationship before everything turns sour. ‘You look prettier in this light / I prefer you in the background of an empty sky / A body in the basement of a former life / An anecdote I share to give some insight.’

‘i would leave you’ is the most emotional song on the album, a traditional ballad with angelic vocals, while ‘by now’ retains a more traditional song structure and is full of mesmerising synths and electropop beats. The album ends with a revisit of an earlier track and a sonic outlier, ‘a lucid dream (epilogue)’. A raw, purely acoustic track with little more than VÉRITÉ’s vocals and a piano, it is a compelling way to end the album.

VÉRITÉ is quite simply one of the most captivating artists in music today. love you forever is a spectacular album which sees her experiment even further with her sound resulting in some of her best songs to date. This is an album to immerse yourself in and is quite possibly one of the best releases of 2023. We recently caught up with VÉRITÉ to chat more about its creation.

Hi VÉRITÉ! It’s such a pleasure to chat with you today. Congratulations on the release of your new album love you forever, what an incredible collection of music it is! You have said the album’s concept is based around “loving someone so much you murder them and drag their body into a lake.” Can you tell me a little bit more about the message and sound you were aiming to project with the album?
Thank you! This is a record created and presented in scenes. It’s a record about learning how to let go, learning how to process your grief and learning to create a space for all the mess that comes with it. It’s non-linear, it’s dramatic, inconsistent, bombastic, stripped. The world was created to hold all the feelings.

Can you tell me about the creative process behind the album - who did you work with, how long did the whole process take, where did you record?
The majority of this album was written by myself, in my head. I spent a lot of time the past few years learning how to produce, so a lot of the early versions of these songs were me coming into my own as a producer in my own right. I was lucky enough to work with my cousin, Matthew Politoski, who I’ve been working with since we were kids. The music feels like us levelling up and pushing each other, but also referencing our younger selves in a lot of ways.

One of my favourite tracks on the album is ‘none of you’, which has this really discordant, almost off kilter feel to it in the best possible way when you first listen to it. Can you tell me the story behind this song?
’none of you’ was the song that informed the visual world of this record. It was written and produced by Matt and I when we were trying to finish a different song, but got distracted. When I wrote this song, I saw the figure in the hood (fondly known as baghead). I saw a kitchen table and a knife and felt the desperation of this song. Wanting so desperately to be loved, knowing it won’t be reciprocated.

The album finishes with a reprise of ‘a lucid dream’, ‘a lucid dream (epilogue)’, which is beautiful and also a bit of an outlier in terms of its very stripped back sound and its under two minutes running time. How did this track come about, did you always know you were going to close the album with this reimagining, or did it come about more organically?
’a lucid dream (epilogue)’ came from a ‘failed’ day at the studio trying to work on ‘a lucid dream’ (proper). I was so exhausted, so depressed and disconnected. I couldn’t muster the energy to do anything. I sat at the piano and played this version in one take and we added some very subtle accompaniment to elevate the production. But it’s pretty untouched. “A lucid dream” (proper) was the final song to be produced for the record and was really informed by my time touring and getting to play ‘are we done yet?’ live and feeling the record take shape in real life.

Who were the artists that kickstarted your love of music when you were growing up?
The Cranberries, The Breeders, Nirvana, Green Day, The Indigo Girls to name a few.

You are currently on tour across North America, how is it going?
It is the highest of highs and exhaustion. I love all the great and terrible things about touring equally. It is where I’m my best self.

love you forever is your third album and you have been releasing music since 2014. How do you feel you have developed as an artist and a creative over those years, and what do you see as the biggest change in yourself?
I am confident now. I’m confident in myself, my abilities and perspective. My mind is sharp. I am comfortable in my own skin. The biggest challenge is my own brain constantly fucking me and keeping me disconnected from myself and the rest of the world. I know what I am and how I want to present myself and my art in the world.

love you forever is out now, what else do you have planned for 2023?
More music. More niche performance experiences. More disruption. And a two week nap!

love you forever is out now. You can buy and stream here.
To keep up with all things VÉRITÉ you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok.