From the very first minute I ever heard Veronica Everheart, I knew she was the embodiment of how the music industry was changing before our eyes. Her music pushes the boundaries of genre and production, creating an incredibly unique sound that is like nothing else out right now.
When meeting the woman behind the music, I wasn’t sure what I was expecting. As we talked, I got a window into someone who was actually quite shy and maybe not entirely sure of herself and what she’s doing, yet fearless enough to keep doing it.
As we sat at a coffee shop in Downtown Phoenix, sipping our lattes amongst the crowd of students and employees, we talked for an hour. From her musical process with her beloved creative partner Junius Karr, to how vulnerability contributes to her unique sound, to what genre means.
In the hour, I got a glimpse into the mind of the genius behind her newest EP Lighter in the Morning: Part 1.
Phoenix Meets New York
While she was born and raised in Phoenix, Everheart took to New Jersey for college. The fresh change of scenery was fated, bringing her not only a new perspective but incredible relationships along the way. “That area is like my second home,” she explained, detailing her experience studying music business in New Jersey. “My creative partner – he’s like my producer and also like the second member technically of the band – he lives in Brooklyn.”
All of her music is recorded back in the city, which creates an interesting process between her and Karr, “We don’t do a lot of the pre-production stuff before we go in the studio because we work really well when we’re together in person.”
Both cities have bustling music scenes, with very different energies. In her pursuit of making music, she’s been exposed to those differing feelings and it has helped her create a unique sound to either. “It is really cool because I get a different perspective than people that are just, like, in one place . . . So musically I think that probably shows through, as well.” A lot of her music is written at home in Phoenix, but the experiences she writes about coming from all over. So, in a way, the music starts in Phoenix and blooms in New York.
“The two of us can kind of balance each other out,” she began telling me about her and Karr coming together to create her sound. “He definitely adds a lot of new ideas and things with music that he learned from just being in that scene for so long. Then I come back with, like, more… maybe grassroots or, I don’t know, acoustic guitar music,” she laughs, finding it hard to find words that feel right. “Then we kind of blend the two sounds together and it’s insane.”
"These communities kind of determine genre. It's like the music that exists in that community is more of that community instead of the actual music."
A Musical Match Made In Heaven
Insane is right. In her new EP, Everheart has found a beautiful balance in gut wrenching lyrics and exciting melodies and instrumentals. She credits much of this to Karr, her partner.
Throughout our entire conversation, Everheart often found moments to praise her creative partner. When discussing how it felt to make music that felt so different, I asked her if it was scary to decide to veer off the normal music path. She began detailing how their process unfolds, and how he’s inspired her creativity.
“It was a very like natural progression because I just got, like, excited by the possibilities that he presented. His ideas really influenced me as well to push the boundaries of what alternative music is,” she posed it almost as a question, both of us knowing alternative was technically correct but didn’t feel right. But she continued anyways.
“So, I made something really cool and different that excites me to do it more and keep pushing myself to record differently, I guess. So it’s very fun.”
A collaborative match like this seems almost too good to be true, but for Everheart it simply aligned in time. She told me the story of her first deal with a distribution label, how that lead to meeting Karr, who introduced her to producer Gordon Raphael (who produced The Strokes first EP and two albums). Seeing her producer have a genuine relationship with someone she admired sealed the deal for her.
“Junius was the first person that I was like ‘Oh, this is my partner, like, we can do something really cool here.’ And that amount of trust is kind of insane to me because, like, this is the person that I needed this whole time. I feel very lucky to have him. I don’t know where the music would be if not for him. Seriously, he’s the best ever.”
Vulnerability Isn’t Scary
In the new EP, Everheart writes crushing, poetic lyrics like ‘I’ll reach for you / but my body is / 15 steps behind my mind.’ The feelings behind the words feel exacerbated by the digital, techno sounds of the instrumental, rather than juxtaposed by them. Her delivery of the lines, whether its screaming or almost pleading, combine to create music that feels cathartic, which makes perfect sense when you learn that the words start with Everheart and an acoustic guitar.
“The writing process is just bare-bones, vulnerable, and at this point, my guitar is just a sound that I can sing over now.” She explained to me how, in working with Karr and developing a process, her initial writing of the song is never concrete. When she gets to the studio, she knows the song will blossom and become something totally different, so no sense in marrying a melody. In this, Everheart has found a freedom in her creativity.
“I’ll write this gut-wrenching song and then we’re like ‘Yippee! We can have fun now!” she laughs. This process, however, doesn’t take away anything from the lyrics for Karr and Everheart. It is more of a balance and relationship between the lyrics and the sound. “That’s been a big thing- Junius is like, ‘Oh, your voice is the thing, you know? It should be the centerpiece of the work.’ So, whatever we do, it doesn’t overshadow the lyrics which I think is really cool.
This is only possible, for her, because the process starts so intimately. “I think that really bare-bones writing process allows for that vulnerability and then you can go in and add more stuff to it.”
The Inspiration of Female Rage
One thing that will immediately catch your attention in Everheart’s new EP is the raw emotion she lends to every one of her songs. From her blatant screaming in ‘Microcosm’, to the exhaustion she emotes in ‘Woman (I Long To Be)’. Unsurprisingly, she takes inspiration from the female legends she listened to growing up, and credits her parents with showing her that.
“Growing up, my parents are two of my biggest fans and they’ve always been [supportive]. I’ve been playing guitar since I was six, so my parents have always like pushed me – because this is what I’ve wanted to do, like, essentially my whole life. So I think they like introduced me to a lot of female artists that never were like, you know… They never wanted to silence me or anything.” As she speaks, its clear she can feel the weight of what she’s saying and how important it is.
“I was always really loud as a kid. Then, I think just, like, through teenage insecurity, I got like a little bit more subdued. So I think now the performance is me kind of taking that back. The influence of, like, my parents showed me of Joan Jett and Peter Ford and they’re just like cool ass women,” she says with a hint of a smile.
And while her emotional expression is different than a lot of emotional female vocalists out right now, she knows there’s nothing wrong with it. “A lot of people have copied Phoebe Bridgers and stuff – who obviously expresses rage or emotion in a different way than I would. But its kind of lost the edge of aggression and it’s still just sad girl guitar music. Which is not bad, it’s for a certain time and place. I just think, for me as an artist, I was kind of over being the sad girl with an acoustic guitar.”
"I'm a huge proponent of just being loud. I think more people just need to be loud, either in volume or in what they do - their intention. That's what I'm trying to do."
Post-Alternative Digital Singer-Songwriter
Figuring out who you are is a pursuit almost everyone in the world has felt. It’s universal, not just for artists. But for Everheart, it is an entirely different process. As you talk to her, you can see how she makes music with such genius, but it is still a bit surprising. She carries herself strong but a bit reserved, yet she opens up quickly. It’s a perfect personification of her artistry.
Post-Alternative Digital Singer-Songwriter is the genre Everheart and Karr came up with to describe her sound. “I am obsessed with it. I love it,” Everheart laughs. “If you dissect that, it is alternative, but it’s not alternative in the, like, Pearl Jam alternative. So it’s, like, post alternative- that’s not even a thing, but there’s so many genre names. It’s like ‘F- it, why not make another one?’ I also like the digital singer-songwriter element of that because there’s electronic elements on top of these very singer-songwriter songs, so I think that’s, like, the thing but that’s the only way I could [describe it].”
“I’ve noticed that, like, there’s niches more than genres now,” she says and I understand immediately what she means. “I think the niche, or whatever, that I’ve found myself… I guess, like, the people around me that are my friends or people that are more prominent in this scene that I’m involved in, just because we love the same music.”
“Very kind supporters, and now friends, of my music are The Hellp and The Dare and – the two of them – their music, first of all differs, but they’re still in the same niche and then my music’s super different from both of them, but still is kind of similar,” she explains. “I think influences kind of just stop at influences. I kind of started to see music more just as these small communities.”
Changing The Music Scene
At no point does Everheart credit herself for any massive musical shifts, either in Phoenix or New York. But she does recognize that there is space for that shift, and is making herself a part of it.
“It’s kind of weird because I am so, like, bi-coastal that it’s hard to find a niche for me to fit in. Like, I definitely probably can fit into New York more than here, but I also think that Phoenix is super malleable. And it’s just small enough that people will still pull up to shows and, like, keep an open mind. I still think there’s room for other genres to exist in – or, like, other communities to exist in that – which is exciting.”
Her music is niche, sure. And new, and exciting, but Everheart has found a delicate balance between shaking things up and creating a sound that many people can find interest in.
“I think that’s like the thing, not that I was deliberately trying to do this, but it’s not industrial, like unlistenable, you know, like noise music. I think it’s still just contemporary enough that it challenges people, but it doesn’t turn them away from the music. And I think that’s the sweet spot that I want to exist in. Because it does touch like a lot of different places.”
We rambled on a bit about the idea of celebrity and fame and what that means. Everheart, like many, wants music to be her main career but fame is still a scary concept. The loss of privacy, the insatiable urge for relevance, what pop culture has become now – it is a bit much.
“The reason why I make music isn’t for other people necessarily, but I think it touches on things that are like universally shared. If I create music that people relate to, but then also challenges someone sonically, I think that’s cool.”
Her Goals: Intention and Inspiration
“For me, I want to bring back like intention to the artist,” Everheart explains. It’s profound and thoughtful, and very obviously not the first time she’s thought about it. “I just think that the style and the image and the things that are discussed or the way that it’s presented to the world – it all is like part of this package that makes the music even more significant because it’s expressed in a very intentional way.”
“I think that’s what I’m trying to do. And like my goal is to just like have people get it, I guess,” she chuckles dryly a bit. “Even to have other artists be like, ‘Oh, I want to do something like that.’ But it is deeper than that.
“I want to inspire other people. And for people who aren’t artists, just… like… girls,” she says simply, though there is nothing simple about it. “I think I really want young girls to listen to me and be inspired by me, because that’s what people like Joan Jett did for me when I was little.”
Part Two?
As the EP title suggests, there is going to be a part two. I asked Everheart what fans can expect from this upcoming sequel. Her answer was simple: “We’re kind of challenging it more and pushing it more. It’s more sophisticated or more polished than like this half. I think now we have the things that we want to work with and the things that we want to push further or dial back. So there’s a clearer vision now. “
Veronica Everheart is not only one of the most genuine people I’ve ever met, she is someone who so deeply cares about everything she is doing. You can hear it in her music, see it in her performance, feel it behind her words – everything.
I could gush about her music forever, writing the same words over and over again. It is indescribable, a new perspective on everything music used to be.
Be sure to follow her on Instagram and Facebook, and keep up with her linktree for merch, show announcements, and new music!
