INTERVIEW: Vetta Borne releases new EP 'Emelia': I feel like I'm living a new life. Now I know who I am and what my sound is. Everything is a lot more clear to me."
Interview: Jett Tattersall
Vetta Borne (real name Maribelle Anes) previously released music under the name Maribelle before launching her new project in 2019. Today she releases her new EP Emelia and it further cements her position as one of the most exciting young artists in Australia today.
Named after her grandmother, the EP is a journey of acceptance and awakening of emotions with a focus on breakups, the importance of friendships and new relationships. Starting with the delicious, funky disco beats of latest single ‘Kissing Strangers’ which details the ending of a long term relationship (‘It’s okay to blame me / Cause I let you down’ she sings) we travel through the sassy soul & jazz inflected ‘You Can Go’ (‘It’s a shame you couldn’t keep me / Cause I’m finally giving up on you’), the smooth R&B vibes of' ‘Beyoncé’, a love letter to her best friends and the dreamy, summer day vibes of ‘Sunshine’, with its empowering message to ‘look up, don’t look down’. The journey started with a breakup and ends with Borne finding joy and love again on ‘Luv On You’: ‘You’re so god damn beautiful / How did you end up with me? / I feel so lucky’.
Written and produced entirely by Anes (with the exception of co-writing and co-production duties on ‘Kissing Strangers’) Emelia is testament to the enormous talent in this young woman. With a remarkable voice, the ability to create music that keeps you invested from beginning to end and an incredibly creative mind, you can expect to see big things from Vetta Borne in the next few years. To celebrate the release of Emelia we recently caught up with her to find out more.
I want to jump straight in and talk about the delicious single ‘Kissing Strangers’. There's a really beautiful slick pop element to it and it's got this really sexy vibe, but then the lyrics are quite sweet and sad. Can you talk me through it?
I love songs that have that bittersweet feeling where it's about something sad but it feels so uptempo,. There's a beauty in living in that sadness but still living your life, still going for the things that you love. That's something that I really wanted to achieve when I wrote that song.
Can you talk me through the origins of it? Where did it come from?
I started writing it during the second lockdown in Melbourne. I was definitely feeling a lot of different emotions going through the whole breakup process of, wow, that person was such a big part of my life and now I'm by myself sitting in my apartment in lockdown. I thought about everybody in my life and hoped that everybody in my life was doing okay. And especially for somebody that I was with for such a long time. I just wanted to know that they were doing okay doing the same thing as me, living apart and living by themselves. So I hoped that they were doing well in lockdown as well.
That's such a nice, lovely sentiment of a breakup song because predominantly breakup songs have this huge self indulgence. But I love the fact that not only did you put it to quite a dancey pop track, but also there's a lot of kindness in that. Is that something that you're always trying to play with as well to see these things from different perspectives?
Yeah, I think it comes from the point of having a mutual breakup, as well as like a grown-up breakup. Nothing was petty, nothing bad happened. We both ended on good terms. And I think that's where the song was driven from. It wasn’t about negative feelings towards that person. It's just I hope you're okay, and living your life - because I am.
We were all over 'Beyoncé' as well. beautiful song. There are some incredible songs about friendship out there. ‘Girl’ from Destiny's Child, Spice Girls ‘Wannabe’ there's a plethora. What was it to you to have that song coming out?
I have had my friends since I was like five years old. I have a group of friends that are like my family. And again, I wrote ‘Beyoncé’ in the second lockdown and it was a time where you kind of figured out who were the real important people in your life. And I stayed in contact with the same people throughout the whole time, and it's kind of what got me through it as well. ‘Beyoncé’ kind of came out of that, because I was like, I'm so lucky. I got you. You're so lucky that you have me too, because I've been checking in on them as well. ‘Beyoncé’ was a really important song for me to write to express my love for them and just let them know that they're appreciated.
Both tracks feature on your new EP Emelia, and it's been described as an awakening of emotions. We've got a shout out to your very cherished friends and then a very kind, breakup song in 'Kissing Strangers'. What was the theme you wanted to project with the EP?
It’s about self realisation and personal growth in myself that I saw throughout the year, realising who my real friends are and just knowing who I am. That's pretty much the sentiment of the EP, just appreciate sitting down and appreciating everything and everybody that's in my life in the moment.
You self produced the EP, which is kick ass. You've been producing a long time now. but what was it that made you go out and go 'fuck it I'm just gonna do it all myself?
I've low key been producing for a while, but the first thing that made me realise that I could really do it was when I produced a song for an artist called George Alice. The song was 'Circles' and it won Triple J’s Unearthed High competition in 2019. And that was kind of the moment that I was like, ‘oh, people actually like my production, maybe I can actually do this’. I thought she was gonna take to somebody else to produce, but she's stuck with my production. And I was like maybe I should sit down by myself and try making my own music because I've never tried that before. And then I connected with myself in a way that I have never done before with my own artistry and it set the ball rolling.
Do you find now that you're doing that, and you have that much creative control, obviously, there comes a lot of a lot of peaks with that, but then do you find the anxieties are even higher, because it's all on you?
It definitely takes a lot more time. Because you have three different jobs: you're an artist and you’re a producer and then you also the songwriter. So it takes a lot more time. But I actually think the anxiety is a lot less because you don't have anybody else that you have to think about if they think your ideas are good. You're just relying on yourself on what you think is cool. And you block out all the other noise just to make your own music. So I think it's been really good for me.
Are you noticing there's a different space when you're working with other artists as well, because particularly if you're working with someone such as George Alice, she was in high school, when she released 'Circles', there's obviously a different vibe when women are working with other women. Do you find that you're getting a different energy when you’re working with other artists?
Yeah, definitely. I think women find it a lot easier to be more vulnerable in sessions with a female producer, just because it's pretty rare to be in a room full of women to write music. And sometimes if you're not with only women, you hold yourself back a bit with your emotions, you're like, ‘oh, I just have to write a big song’. Whereas I've found that working with young women, they'll cry in sessions, they'll do things like that because it's such a safe space. That's something that's really important and something that has needed to happen for a long time in music.
And how do you go about utilising someone else's vocals? You're an amazing singer and songwriter yourself, do you find it hard to hold back suggesting how other artists should use their voice, or are you just hell excited to see where they're at?
I'm very excited to see where other people are. I love working with other people and especially with George's work, she has such an emotional voice that it brings out other sides of me as well. It's a very collaborative process and it's perfect for me.
You adopted the moniker Vetta Borne back in 2019. Obviously, artists have done this for years, we've got Becky & The Birds Ladyhawke, Bowie did it, Beyoncé did it with Sasha Fierce. What does it do for you to have that other self when it comes to creating music?
It gave me a fresh mind. It gave me a new start. I've made music under Maribelle since I was 13 or 14 for like 10 years now. So it was very much me finding myself to who I am now as Vetta Borne. Now that I've come under this name, I feel like I'm living a new life. I'm just a different person under it. I’ve still grown as Maribelle, but now I know who I am, and I know what this brand is and what my sound is. Everything is a lot more clear to me.
You're a prolific songwriter in your writing for other people and performing with other people. You've been writing and performing for years, but was performance always your goal? What element of the industry was it that you wanted to get into?
I definitely started songwriting. I wanted to be a songwriter for other people. I love connecting with artists and seeing where they're at. I love writing about other people's lives because I don't have to go through that emotional trauma myself. So I love writing for other people and helping them figure out their own artistry. It took me a long time to think that I could be an artist.
What were some of those hurdles for you?
I just enjoyed writing for other people so much that I've never thought about even doing my own thing. I loved singing, I knew that I loved singing but I didn't really know what I wanted to do, what I wanted to write about what I wanted to look like, I never thought about like music videos or anything like that until Vetta Borne really started happening.
And what inspired your shift in sound from Maribelle to Vetta Borne?
My past collaborations with my friend Young Franco was something that really helped me get back to my roots because I've grown up listening to a lot of soul and R&B. And then being a songwriter, I kind of got lost in this pop world, I was just writing pop music but once I met Franco he reintroduced me to all these artists that I loved growing up, and that kind of kind of set me on my way to who Vetta Borne is and the sound of that and bringing back this soul funk elements into my music.
Lastly, what is coming up for you this year?
I definitely want to be doing some shows, filming some live content. And just more music and more collaborations!
Emelia is out now via Soul Modern. You can download and stream here.
To keep up with all things Vetta Borne you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
