The electronic powerhouse has also just announced a national tour…

Sydney singer/producer Vera Blue (real name Celia Pavey) has amassed a large and dedicated following over the years, her emotively-charged tracks and vivid productions helping to establish her as one of the unique artists in the local dance/pop scenes. It’s led to her making laps up and down the nation as both a solo artist and touring vocalist. But most importantly, its led to the creation of her sophomore album, Mercurial (out now).

Consisting of ten expertly tracks bursting with intricate sonics, confessional songwriting and top notch vocals, the album is another stellar chapter in the Vera Blue project, and similarly to her her 2017 debut, Perennial, its a total home run. From the soaring highs of opening track ‘Alright Now’ to the tender ‘Everything Is Wonderful’ and the easy-going ‘Trust Fall’, it’s an album that acts as a good embodiment of Vera’s journey so far, as well as a teaser of where it’s going.

In celebration of Mercurial, we caught up with Vera to get the drop on the influences behind it. Check it below.

Lana del Rey – ‘hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have – but i have it’

When I was on my own writing on piano or guitar I always found myself listening to and drawing from Lana del Rey records. During lockdown I would endlessly play her records on vinyl. I love the way she tells stories & her voice and melodies. Lana’s writing is reminiscent of my favourite artist, Joni Mitchell.

I will forever be influenced and inspired by Joni and melodic similarities will always appear in my music. We kept a lot of the demo piano parts in this album, for songs like ‘The Curse’ and ‘Red Rose’, they were just too good to replace and kept the true base of the songs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY2LUmLw_DQ

a-ha – ‘Take On Me’ & The Weeknd – ‘Blinding Lights’

These two songs influenced the more upbeat, explosive energetic tracks on the album with the vintage hybrid modern 80’s sampled beats and synth moments. At the time of making this album I was listening to a bunch of 80’s style music like The War On Drugs, Madonna and even ABBA. ‘Mercurial’ really showcases the use of the Juno synth. Whether it’s an obvious part like in ‘Lethal’ where we use repetitive scale-like lines or modular synth lines like in ‘Everything Is Wonderful’. Even just chords that sustain and uplift a final chorus like ‘Alright Now’.

I loved singing in a different way on this album too, even if I wanted to sing “oooooh” or say “HEY”! where felt necessary. It was cathartic and liberating to not have to do everything perfectly and to really think about how I’d be performing it live on stage with the band. The way songs translate live is super important to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djV11Xbc914

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NRXx6U8ABQ

Noah Cyrus – ‘Ghost’

We experimented a lot with the ballads and pushing them into new territories with the juxtaposition of heavy trap like beats to give the song more grit and darkness. I loved the way it somehow made the songs hit harder and have bigger impact, examples of this are songs like ‘The Curse’ and ‘Mermaid Avenue’.

We did battle with the fact that we didn’t want to take away from the true story or theme of the ballad so we found a sweet spot where the songs had slamming beats and the essence of the ballad existed together magically. We experimented with vocal samples to fill the spaces in the songs that needed something to add to the rhythm or the ethereal sound we were going for and always like to touch on from songs from my first EP like ‘Fingertips’.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHy1-MRca-Y

Post Malone – ‘Circles’

We incorporated a whole lotta bass guitar in this album. Andy Mak played bass on almost every song and it was the best thing ever, having bass lines that ran with the Melodies like in ‘Feel Better’, or a groovy, Post Malone inspired bass line like in ‘Wherever We Go’.

A few moments in the album we heard glimpses of the theme song from Peaky Blinders which the boys were watching at the time. ‘Wherever We Go’ for instance has a groovy subtle upbeat feel. We incorporated lo-fi sounding organ synth sounds plucking strings on an acoustic guitar or even the raw strings on the back of the grand piano to create cool sounding stabby jabs.

The more quirky moments on the album were definitely inspired by bass guitar feels. It allowed me to sing more playfully and in a carefree way which is what some of the songs were all about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXhTHyIgQ_U

Vera Blue – ‘Hold’

Big euphoric moments on the album are songs like, ‘Heart Still Works’, ‘Red Rose’ and ‘Trust Fall’, singing at the top of my lungs in a high register and then stacking the vocal multiple times like a I had a whole choir. Whenever we were worked on a song that needed a euphoric moment or a certain feel we couldn’t help but reference music we’d previously recorded. Particular songs or moments on Perennial that were fan favourites, we would revisit but from a different perspective.

When the moment called for it, we would all stand around a mic and belt out gang vocals either in unison or harmony or even just yelling the words a few steps back from the mic! We do this in ‘Red Rose’, “ooooohhhh, hopefully every single day after that” which was inspired by the moment in ‘Hold’ at the end “all those times I tried to make you forget me, you stayed you stayed”.