It’s been a little over a year since the songstress’s memorable debut, “Strange Enough,” and Brooklyn-native VÉRITÉ has held no prisoners since. Born Kelsey Byrne, VÉRITÉ’s musical journey began when she was about eight or nine years old. She explains, “I’ve been playing shows since then, I think it’s been a gradual pursuit. It was definitely something I was always hyper focused on, and wasn’t sure which way to pursue it.”
“I’ve been in a lot of bands,” Byrne continues, “When I was younger, I was in an all-girl punk cover band. We weren’t particularly good, we definitely weren’t cool. I would point to a random girl in class, and say ‘you’re going to be my drummer,’ then fire them when they couldn’t play drums and pick someone else. It was kind of a train wreck.”
Since “Strange Enough,” the singer has stunned fans and critics alike with her powerful, yet delicate vocals. Paired with her flawless vocals, was excellent production by Elliot Jacobson, who had previously worked with the likes of A Great Big World, Samantha Ronson and The Vamps. The dynamic duo quickly gained popularity with heavy industry hitters like Billboard, Nylon and Interview Magazine, catapulting them to indie stardom. October 2014 saw the release of Byrne’s debut Echo EP, only proving VÉRITÉ was here to stay.
June 2015 brought the release of the singer’s sophomore EP, Sentiment. The singer says the EP “came about really naturally.” She explained that the first release, “Wasteland” was one of the earliest tracks written off her sophomore EP. “I wrote that around the same time as ‘Strange Enough’ and ‘Weekend,’ so we all knew it would be on the next release.” Sentiment brought on a new partnership for VÉRITÉ: MS MR’s Zach Nicita. “‘Colors’ came about when Zach sent me the track, and it was more of a fully developed track, so I just wrote over that– which was a totally new process for me.” After recording “Rearrange” and “Sentiment,” she explained “it was just obvious that there was a body of work that was cohesive and made sense” to release.
VÉRITÉ told us about why she’s still an independent artist, even though there have been rumors of labels pursuing her. “It’s important to me to grow the project organically. After the reception of ‘Strange Enough’ and the first EP, I wound up kinda being able to hustle it independently.”
“There’s less people involved in making decisions and at some point, I’ll go on a label if the situation feels right, but for right now, I’m super satisfied with the team I have around me. We literally work our asses off to make everything happen.” Byrne and her team definitely have worked their magic, already having established a big enough audience overseas to embarked on a European tour; hitting up renowned festivals like The Great Escape, Dot to Dot, and some headlining shows along the way.
Her latest release is a cover of Childish Gambino’s “Sober.” The singer says “I really loved the original, and wanted to be able to reimagine it and make it feel like my own,” continuing, “from inception, the process of building out this track was similar to how I build my own.”
A year later, VÉRITÉ still remains one of the highest acclaimed indie pop female soloists since last year. Having released a number of hits featuring her finished vocals and unyielding production, VÉRITÉ’s proven her mark in the music industry, and she’s only going up from here.
“I’m so excited for the MSMR tour this fall. It came about just because we have lots of mutual friends, I guess? Lizzie’s phenomenal. I work with Zach a lot, who produced ‘Colors.’ I actually got to see Jack play when I was in London. For me, I think it’s a great combination. I’m excited to be able to go out with them and play some really really fucking awesome venues.”
Be sure to catch VÉRITÉ on tour with MS MR and Jack Garratt in October and her recently announced tour dates in the UK below.
October:
5: Royale – Boston, MA
8: Terminal 5 – New York, NY
9: Theater Corona Virgin Mobile – Montreal, Canada
10: Danforth Music Hall – Toronto, Canada
12: Newport Music Hall – Columbus, OH
13: Park West – Chicago, IL
15: Varsity Theater – Minneapolis, MN
November:
3: Underbelly – London, UK
4: Prince Albert – Brighton, UK
5: Castle Hotel – Manchester, UK
6: Iceland Airwaves – Reykjavik, Iceland
photos by: Julia Sariy / EUPH.
hair & makeup by: Yumi Nagashima