Artist Spotlight: Verushka

Shot by @albertoromano_ph

A master of the future-soul sound, singer songwriter Verushka has delivered her highly anticipated album Not Even Bliss, which blends characteristics of jazz, soul, Motown and electronic into a spellbinding, organic and expressive sound. 

Within the album, Verushka flaunts her introspective and astute writing. Weaving through a variety of themes, Verushka touches on her dismay for the current world climate, and preaches of body positivity and self love. An accomplished composer as well as a lyricist, the album showcases Verushka’s first set off string arrangements, connecting her to her grandfather’s time playing violin with the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra.

I sat down with the soulstress to discuss her musical origins, her dazzling new album, and her ethereally atmospheric sound.

Who’s been influencing you lately? 

Oooh. Definitely Jasmine Sullivan, I love her raw honesty and I think she’s one of the best vocalists there has ever been. I’ve also been really into Lucky Daye’s album ‘Painted’. The writing is just incredible, insane melody writing, plus the production is great. Stevie Wonder continues to be an influence on me every single day. 

How and when did you first start writing music? 

I guess it started when I was about 12 and my friends and I used to write songs together, bad ones! I wrote my first ‘proper’ song when I was 17 and was like.. ah ok, I like doing this. 

How would you define your style? 

Oof, every artist’s dreaded question. Haha. It’s been described as future soul, new jazz and alternative R&B by other people…?

This album is a blend of the jazz I listened to when I was growing up (and now!), the old school soul and neo-soul that I love, then some of the more electronic genres/production I started getting into later on. Maybe even small glimpses of some of the more rocky stuff I like. I also clocked recently that some of my writing is pretty heavily influenced by West Side Story. It’s so beautiful. What a genius Bernstein was! Vocally I think I must be influenced by so many people, but when I was little it was all about Ella Fitzgerald for me and I’m sure she’s still with me in there somewhere. 

Where do you see yourself fitting into the UK scene? 

Hmm, I’ve been told the sound fits into the south London jazz scene right now. I find it hard to know sometimes. I’d love to know what more people think! 

Who would you love to collaborate with? 

At the moment I’m really excited about collaborating with people I know on the scene. It’s pretty magical when you get to make music with lovely people who you get on really well with, there’s nothing like it. If we’re talking dream world, I’d probably die from joy if I got to do something with Kurt Elling or James Blake. 

How do you create such a heavenly, otherworldly atmosphere in your music? 

Ah thank you! What a lovely thing to say. I think the production has a lot to do with the atmosphere of the album, combined with my arrangements and the performances of the beautiful people who played on it.

I was so lucky to be able to produce it alongside Alex Klein who is also a really good friend of mine. He totally got my vision and then also brought his own style and skills to the album. We took our time making so many little choices about exactly which instruments/sounds to use, which reverbs and delays, which bits of vocals we pitched up/down etc etc. Many late nights spent recording synth parts, extra vocals and adding tiny details. There are so many little choices when you’re producing music and you’re not always consciously making them all, but we really did take our time moulding the sound of each track. 

How was the recording process for the new project? 

Ah it was so fun. We were down at Octagon Studios who have been a massive supporter of this album and me as an artist.

We started by recording drums (Max Lauder), bass (Rami Lakkis) and keys (David Mrakpor, Dave Koor and Nathan Britton) all together over 3 days. They were all incredible and took so much care with the music. Then we had a horn session and a string session the following week and that was it. I spent the next few months editing and adding vocals, synth parts, percussion, drum layers etc. It wasn’t always easy but I really miss being in the studio! 

The album is stylistically incredibly varied. How do you combine genres so effectively?

So nice to hear you think it’s been effective! This is something I used to worry about as a writer. These days I think as long as there is some consistency then it will probably work, and I try not to think about it too much during the writing process cos I don’t wanna hem myself in, especially as I like so much different music and all sorts of stuff seems to pour out of me when I’m writing. Someone once told to me to trust that having my voice on each track would make it make sense, and I think we tied things together with the production and instrumentation on this album. 

I especially loved the Motown influences that come through. Are you paying ode to the genre? 

Ah that’s great to hear. I guess I’m kind of paying ode to a lot of the music I love (Motown included) without always thinking about it in that way! I’m so grateful for all the music I’ve had and continue to have in my life, and I guess everything I do is because of that in some way. 

What are the main themes and motifs of the project? 

There’s a lot in there about the way I talk to myself and the stories I’ve tended to tell myself over the years. I’ve really struggled with my confidence as a musician and sometimes I feel like I’ve fallen behind. This album has messages to myself to start thinking and doing things differently. There are also some themes around universality/oneness, and I guess existence (what the hell even is it?!).

There’s also a song about bodies and the terrible ways we talk about them, it’s kinda a reminder to focus on all the crazily wonderful things our bodies do every day.  Oh and there’s one in there where I’m trying to let out some sadness/anger about the state of the world and politics.

If you were introducing a new listener to your music, what song would you play them? 

Ooh this is hard. I think maybe Only This. It’s probably the one I’m most proud of both from a songwriting and production perspective.

What’s to come from you? 

More music! I’m really excited about the next year or so. I’m gonna be collaborating with a couple of people on the writing side of things which is great cos I’m often a bit of a loner (control freak?) when it comes to songwriting. Otherwise I’m gonna focus on doing more live shows. I’m so lucky I get to play with such incredible musicians and I wanna do loads more. I’m super hyped to be back down at Octagon for my launch show on the 16th!