Vera Blue, the Australian powerhouse vocalist and APRA Award-winning songwriter, returns with her third studio album, Modern Rituals. The record is an introspective exploration of anxiety, self-sabotage and the process of returning to oneself, unfolding across eight electronic-pop tracks. Just 48 hours before the album’s release, we spoke to the artist about writing the record across Australia and Los Angeles, and the realisation that her stage persona, Vera Blue, and her personal identity, Celia Pavey, are one and the same.

It's so interesting that you reached this point where you realised that Celia and Vera are one. What were the moments or the realisations that you had that helped you to figure that out?

I think initially when I started the project, it was really just the shift in the music. I was doing lots of folk music under Celia Pavey, and then I started experimenting with electronic music and working with lots of different producers. I thought the music needed its own persona and character. When I look back at it now, when I am in Vera Blue mode, I really am just myself. All the songs that I write about, they're just personal stories from my life and everything that I've been through. So I think working on this album made me realise that as an artist, I live and breathe music. I'm just the same person when I am Vera Blue on stage. I wondered if I had created this thing that I'm hiding behind, this thing that makes me feel like I'm braver, this thing that makes me feel like I'm more vulnerable, that I can open up? But it is really just me, which I think is a really beautiful thing to have realised.

You wrote the album in both LA and Australia. Do you think that you can hear the influences of those environments in the songs?

I think it's definitely in the environment, the energy. I find whenever I'm working in LA, it's high energy. There's lots of fast-paced vibes. It can also depend on who you're working with as well. I worked with lots of people on this album, and I think I found an incredible bunch of people that I just connected with straight away, and they understood the sonics, the visuals, the sounds. Then also working in Australia, I did some sessions in the Byron Hinterland, and those areas are really calming and relaxing, but it was also interesting because I made some of the most aggressive songs in those relaxing environments. So I think it just created an environment where I could feel safe to create and be able to articulate what I wanted for these songs. I was also listening to a lot of late ’90s, early 2000s dance music. I was watching a lot of cinematic films and listening to scores and things like that, and I was just very inspired by things that I was seeing visually as well.

You also worked with so many cool, talented people on production. Are there any anecdotes, or anything you learnt from anyone in particular, that you will take with you from these sessions?

There's a few. I started working on a song called "Maze" with Flume. That was the very early stages of that song. The song eventually evolved and I worked with lots of different people on it.

But working with Harley (Flume), it was the exact same way we started "Rushing Back." He shows me some beats, some tracks, and I resonate with one of them. We start creating the melodies and start figuring out what the sound is. So definitely working with Flume is always one of those things where I'm like, such an interesting way of collaborating.

I also loved working with Chris Collins and Jono Ma. I don't know if they had worked together before either, so they had such different ways of creating. Jono working with lots of industrial synthesisers from the '90s and then Chris with his kind of folky influence. They can both do everything, but it was really cool having those worlds meet and creating songs like "Go Lucky" with that euphoric kind of ’90s dance style, early 2000s. Then also "In The Corner," where it's this grungy industrial vibe.

So I think I was especially inspired by Jono. He’d bring in these kind of, like, synth boxes where he would create things manually and be looping live, creating all these new sounds. So a lot of that stuff is embedded in the songs and it's very unchanged, which is really cool. There's so many talented people, and I worked with some incredible writers as well, like Nat Dunn. I worked with a lot of women on this record, a lot of female producers and writers as well, which was really beautiful to have that kind of feminine energy.

Working with Lachie Bostock was really cool as well. He produced "Rituals" and also collaborated on "Brittle Wings," and he added such a cinematic flavour to the songs. When we were in the sessions, there was one session -I don't know if that song made the cut -but we were working on a song and I was really obsessed with this TV show called Dark, this German sci-fi horror-type TV show. We had it on the screen while we were building the track for one of the songs. It just created such a cool cinematic edge. When we were making something, we were like, let's imagine this is like the trailer or something. Like a theme song. It’s so fun to write like that.

Is there a track that you are particularly proud of writing, finishing, and now releasing?

I think "Rituals" is definitely one of those. It was the last song written for the album, and it was when I'd realised what the concept of the album was, talking about how each song is like an emotional ritual. Each song has its own kind of identity. I feel like there's so many versions of myself that I express on this album. I wanted that one song where I could just sum up the whole album, sum up the concept, and it was really one of those songs that just flowed. I started writing it by myself on the piano in my spare room, and it was very much that first verse, "If I could feel safe in sorrow, would I run or would I fall?” And then I remember getting to the chorus and being like, "All I want it to say is my rituals." It was all of these things that make me who I am, so I took it straight to Lachie. This song is one where it doesn't have that pop-style structure. It just evolves into this beautiful, cinematic, emotional piece.

I really love "Brittle Wings," too.

I’m really proud of that one, too. It's the second song on the album. It just slaps you in the face. A lot of people have been really liking that one, and that one started in LA with Tim Nelson. That one started with a grungy, deep, dark energy, and that song is very much about self-sabotage and that concept that there are two versions of yourself. One of them is, "I give up," and the other one's like, "No, you don't. Get the fuck back up. You can do this.” But when you listen to it, it does kinda sound like a conversation you're having with a friend, which is also what it could be about. You have that person in your life who is really struggling and you just wanna do everything you can to fix everything and lift them back up. But I love that song so much. The beats are really cool, really industrial. It’s the opening track to my live show. As soon as we wrote it, I knew this was the intro track.

Perfect, because my next question is, how is your live show going to evolve to reflect this album?

I'm so excited about this live show. I've been working on so many different angles. I love fashion so much. I've loved collaborating with designers. I've loved the concept of having a costume change, which I don't think I've ever done before. The concept of this show is very much about the identities of Vera Blue and me, and I've created three acts for the show. The first act is the kind of theatrical, darker, gothic world, the version of myself that just wants to unleash. And then the middle act is the core Vera Blue - "Rituals," "Settle," "Hold," "Mended" - where it's very vulnerable, raw, and honest. And then the third act is quirky, colourful dance party. I've worked with a designer called Paris Jade Burrows, and she has designed three looks for the show.

How did you discover her work?

So every year, I love going to Fashion Week. This year I went to The Frontier show that Paris was a part of.

Oh, our Editor-in-Chief worked on the creative direction for that show!

It was my favourite show. I absolutely adored it. I've been following a lot of those designers for a long time. I’ve worked with Suzaan Stander on a lot of the artwork for the album campaign. She has this incredible dark blue jacket that kind of became such a strong visual for the album, this kind of armour and strength. So at that show, seeing Suzaan, seeing Haluminous, seeing Paris Jade Burrows, I thought, this world is so visually representative of Modern Rituals.

Working with Paris has been absolutely incredible, and visually I think that's the most exciting thing for me. I love performing in incredible outfits. My really good friend Jana Bartolo has been my stylist for years and we've had so much fun for shows because I think my music and fashion just go so hand-in-hand. It’s a powerful way to describe and visually represent songs and their emotions.

It must be so fun building this new chapter and world.

It's been really cool, and I've had moments where I've thought, "Do I have a visual language for this album yet?" Like, I second-guess everything that I do all the time and I'm like, "Is it strong enough? Does it make sense?” It's definitely just been something that's evolved. I have had such a strong vision, but it's been the people who I've collaborated with along the way for music videos and shoots and designers and stylists that have just really helped me bring that vision to life.

Yes, and it’s an album that is so deeply rooted in your identity and exploring yourself, so that visual language really is led by you.

Yeah. It's been really cool. I don't like using the word control... Not that I haven’t been in the past, but this time I’ve made sure of every single detail. I've really thought about everything and made sure that it all makes sense. There's such a strong visual and strong storyline. When I first started making this album I thought there might not be a concept. But then eventually I can't help myself. There's a concept in everything.

Listen to Modern Rituals HERE.

@verabluemusic