Vera Blue On Nine Inch Nails, Horror Movies and Eight Modern Rituals

Vera Blue (AKA Celia Pavey) returns to Adelaide next week on Thursday 27 August with her new album Modern Rituals. The national tour kicks off today (21 August) in Brisbane and marks Vera’s first headline tour since 2022. 

Modern Rituals follows eight rituals and eight identities told through eight songs. It’s an album that explores identity and the realisation that Celia Pavey and Vera Blue are one entity. Vera explains that the album reflects the present – the speed and intensity of today’s world – and the past – the eternal, ancient, ever-returning themes of being human. Recorded between LA and Australia, Vera worked with several different writers and collaborators while production was handled by Grammy-nominated Lachlan Bostock (Dom Dolla, ODESZA). 

The eight-song album takes inspiration from a variety of genres and artists, including Madonna, AURORA, Enya and - an artist that one wouldn’t immediately guess - Nine Inch Nails. 

"I'm inspired by ethereal ambience, ambient, trap music, all kinds of stuff," Vera explains to The Note a few days after a bucket list performance with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra at a sold-out Hamer Hall. 

"But for me, I love that Nine Inch Nails kind of grunge and the electronica. Especially with the ‘90s vintage electronic gear, which we've used on 'In the Corner' and on 'Go Lucky'. 

"Working with all of these different producers really inspired the sounds as well, which I really love through working with lots of different creatives. But [with] 'In the Corner' and 'Brittle Wings' there is an element of those punchy bass lines, those aggressive industrial sounds in the beats and stuff like that. I definitely was inspired by lots of different things, but Nine Inch Nails are just like… I don't know why. There's a darkness to it, but there's a real beauty to it as well."

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When writing, Vera always sees visuals that go alongside the music. For Modern Rituals, she was inspired by Australian nature, dormant trees and the ocean landscapes. On the single 'Parallel Desire', she was especially inspired by horror films for the music video. 

"I'm a big, big horror movie fan and just cinema in general. So running around at nighttime in a forest was quite scary, but there were elements of it where I was working with these incredible creatives, Grey Ghost to do the creative production and then his amazing filmographer Jack.

"We were leaning into those elements of spookiness and horror, which inevitably is kind of what 'Parallel Desire' is about. It's kind of the idea of wanting something that you can't have and chasing, chasing it and feeling like something's chasing you. So there are lots of elements of visual cinema on this album."

She continues, "In the first film clip ['In the Corner'], I was hanging upside down, like a bat, existing in this otherworldly place. In that motion, there's this motion of resilience and strength and chaos and unhinged, which has been really cool to express on this album."

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As well as being an extremely successful artist in her own right, Vera is known worldwide for her iconic features on tracks like 'Rushing Back' with Flume, 'Other Side' with ILLENIUM and 'Papercuts' with Illy. When collaborating on songs, Vera always makes sure her feature has the distinct Vera Blue sound to it. Songs like 'Rushing Back' have hundreds of millions of streams, and for some listeners this may be their first ever introduction to Vera's music. This makes carving out her own identity an interesting challenge. 

"It can sometimes be a little bit difficult when someone's just like, 'oh, I know that song 'Rushing Back'', but at the same time, I'm like 'oh, but do you know any of my songs?' But at the same time, I'm always like, 'well, it's just nice that they know and recognise any song that I have featured on or existed on'. 

"Collaborating and being on feature tracks is just such a joy. I love working with electronic music acts, and I hope to do more of it in the future. But it can come with those like 'oh I'd love you to know my own music. That would be really cool'. But it just takes time as well."

Despite this challenge, Vera has nothing but love for her features and will always perform 'Rushing Back'. 

"I have met so many artists and know so many artists that hate their biggest song. They're like, 'I'm so sick of performing this', but I will never ever ever get tired of performing 'Rushing Back'. I will always always have it in my set. I always have that last because people are waiting for it. That is just a joy, and it's just cool. I don't think I have a song that I'm sick of performing. I really enjoy that. I like that. I haven't got that yet… I wonder if there ever will be one?"

Modern Ritual is out now via Island Records/Universal Music Australia. Listen here. Catch Vera Blue performing at The Gov on Thursday 27 August. Tickets on sale at thegov.com.au.