Vera Blue returns with new single 'The Curse' ahead of second album
Image: Jason Henley
Australia’s Vera Blue today returns with her first new music of 2022 with the single ‘The Curse’, lifted from her second album which is due to be released later this year.
After the more upbeat pop leaning sounds of her last two singles, 2020’s ‘Lie To Me’ and last year’s ‘Temper’, ‘The Curse’ is more reminiscent of the raw, heartfelt 2017 tracks on her debut album Perennial.
Written by Blue with her partner Billy Johnston, the song is a gentle electronic ballad dominated by Blue’s emotive vocal and explores falling in love with a friend and dealing with the aftermath.
“It's been a long time since I’ve put out a song like this. I think it’s time to show those raw emotions again, in more of a deep, heavy way, with more sadness,” she says. “When I see my friends hurting or going through something, it hurts just as much as it would if it were myself. I am a big empath so raw emotions immediately come to the surface. When writing ‘The Curse’, I’ve found myself inspired by the lives of those I’m close to, yet all these things that I’m writing about, I relate to 100% and have happened to me. It’s almost like it’s happening all over again, but my perspective is on the outside.”
Originally written by Blue at home on her piano, her producer and partner Billy Johnston helped finish the song before her long time collaborators Tom and Andy Mak, alongside Grammy-winning engineer Mark Rankin, put the final touches to the track.
“I've never written with Billy before,” Blue says. “I think the most unique thing for me was the trust and openness we had when writing together. I felt a new level of fearlessness to say certain things I normally wouldn’t. His production and recording knowledge, along with Andy Mak’s, helped me put the song together piece by piece, pushing ‘The Curse’ into a new world.”
Also released today is the mesmerising video for ‘The Curse’ which was filmed in a single take and directed by Tim Madden. “I didn’t want edits or the usual music video tricks to be an unnecessary distraction, so I thought doing it in one shot with no cuts would allow us time to feel Vera Blue’s emotion, as it’s a very raw and emotional song,” Madden says. “She is a fantastic performer and on a really challenging shoot – when there’s no cuts, everything has to go right or you could get 90% into a take and have to start over because the smallest thing went wrong. Not to mention, the video is in slow motion too, meaning Vera had to perform everything twice as fast, the snow had to fall at the right time, the crew had to move lights into position mid-take, it’s like a dance.”
Vera Blue has built a reputation as one of Australia’s most beloved artists over the last five years with over 315 million global streams and appearances at festivals across the world. ‘The Curse’ is another highlight in a career of many and is a tantalising taste of what is to come from her upcoming second album.
‘The Curse’ is out now via Island Records. You can download and stream here.
To keep up with all things Vera Blue you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
