It’s hard to keep track of who is releasing a new music. By the time I download one new album from iTunes, there is another being released, that I love as much as the last new release. How do you begin to even listen to all that newly download music on your iPod? Unless you are going on a long trip without distractions, it is almost impossible. I had just downloaded some new music to my iTunes when my friend Jason told me about VV Brown. I didn’t know anything about her, but from the first song that played on my iTunes it was clear that VV Brown was someone, I would need to pay attention to. I neglected the new music I had just downloaded and shifted all my attention to VV Brown‘s Travelling Like The Light. Months after that, VV was all the buzz. Her music video for Shark in the Water was in constant rotation, I heard her song in commercials and TV shows, I even heard her songs in the stores when I was shopping. When it was brought to my attention that she would be performing at Hiro Ballroom presented by Giant Step, I didn’t pass up the opportunity to hear her music come to life. From the moment she steps on the stage performing Everybody, one of my favorite songs on the album, she welcomed the audience into her world and took us on a magical musical ride.
VV Brown at Hiro Ballroom Part 1
VV Brown at Hiro Ballroom Part 2
VV Brown took time out of her very busy schedule to talk music, fashion and Disney with John Simon Daily.
JohnSimonDaily: How would you describe your music?
VV Brown: Alternative, Pop music. I like the fact that it has mainstream appeal. I’m very much in love with Pop melodies and songs that can relate to anybody from any part of the world and any age. At the same time, I’m very in love with eclectic things. So the alternative side allows me to make the music have a slight twist to it. I call it Alternative, Pop music, rather than a specific genre because it allows me to move in many different directions, but the thing that keeps it consistently the same is that it will always have Pop melodies at the top.
JSD: What or who were some of your inspirations for your album Travelling Like The Light?
VVB: Dorothy Dandridge, Grace Jones, Nintendo Games, and life in general. It is very autobiographical and it is definitely is like a Polaroid picture in the sense that it is taking a snapshot of how I was feeling at the time. I was very much in love and became broken-hearted. When you go through my album and you are listening to the music you really have a window into how I’m feeling.
JSD: I really enjoy this album, because it is a great mix of upbeat, fun, retro, and women empowering songs. When sitting down to write a song, is there a creative process for you or is it more organic?
VVB: It is very organic. It starts off with melody and I tend to write around a one-string guitar. Then once I have written the song and I make sure the song structure is right and that the song stands up on its own. Then we take it to the studio, then it’s kind of a process of experimentation and I tend to throw things at the world, musically, like a [Jackson] Pollard painting. I kind of sit back and listen to it and edit like taking out chunks here and there. Finding the right air in the pockets so that the song can breath. It is definitely experimental and very organic. We usually don’t know where we are actually going to end, but it’s always a process of being very free and open-minded with the creative process.
JSD: For me to pick a favorite song off the album is just next to impossible. Which songs on this album are your favorite or are just fun for you to perform?
VVB: Back in Time and Quick Fix are my two favorites. Back in Time because it shows a deeper side to me and it’s a lot darker lyrically and melodically. Quick Fix because I’ve always loved the way it sounds sonically. It is so cohesive and has great repetition that no matter how many times I hear it, I can’t get bored with it.
JSD: There are so many great artists and specifically female artists like Kate Nash, Lily Allen and Duffy to name a few, who are taking over the airwaves and creating a lot of buzz. What is different about the UK Music scene from the music scene in other parts of the world, that makes the UK stand out right now?
VVB: I think in England we are very much based on an alternative culture, naturally, because we had a massive worldwide explosion with The Beatles. From then on, I think, a lot of bands copied The Beatles and it was a very Indie-esk industry that dealt with a lot of guitar based bands. I think from the sort of Rock-Indie element, it has really created a pop culture in the UK, that is very indie driven and very guitar driven. But I also think it has a lot to do with that England is extremely cosmopolitan country and it is quite eccentric, naturally. Although it is seems conservative, when you actually go right to the core of it, people are mad as hatters, and I think that is what the eccentric culture, mixed with the cosmopolitan culture, mixed with the fact that we have a foundation of coming from a place of alternative music, we tend to generally create things that are much more eclectic. Where America, for instance, has been quite segregated for years, so music is very much in boxes because of the segregation. Also because of isolation in the 50s, where it was just disconnected from the rest of the world during that time. So I think, yeah, England is different. We are an eclectic bunch, due to our eclectic nature.
JSD: I attended one of your New York shows and you performed a cover of Drake’s Best I Ever Had. Who are you listening to right now on your iPod?
VVB: Little Dragon, The Gorrilaz. I love their song the Cloud of Unknowing with Bobby Womack. I’m really excited about the new Vampire Weekend.
JSD: You have a distinct style, how would you describe your personal style? And does your music influence your personal style or vice versa?
VVB: I think both of them are the same. I think when you are an artist you’re just an individual who expresses the things that affect you and what influences you. When you are honest to those responses of the world influences you, you tend to express it through everything, it could be the way you dress or the way you express your music, the way you talk, the way you do your hair. So for me, fashion and music are very much the same and very much married. And they both affect each other because they are coming from one place and that is me. So when I was very much interested in the music of the 50s, when I was making the album, I tended to be influenced by 50s culture and 50s fashion. I’m kind of slowly moving away from that, and I’m falling in love with much more things like Africa, philosophy, and quantum physics, so my dress sense has become a little more space and tribal.
JSD: You and Janelle Monae are bringing back retro hairstyles and owning them. What or who inspired your hairstyle.
VVB: It’s really strange because I kind of looked more towards the men, when it came to my hairstyles, more than the females because the men had the bigger rolls and the bigger quiffs. I was kind of inspired by Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, and people like that, who exaggerate their hairstyles more than the females who were a little smaller and feminine. For me, it was just experimentation one day with my hair and it looked good and it ended up sticking.
JSD: I read that one of your influences is Disney movies. Which Disney character do you feel you most relate to? And if you could describe your musical journey by a Disney movie, which one would it be?
VVB: I think I relate to Daisy Duck because she dated Donald Duck and he’s kind of rude and rather arrogant but extremely handsome, and I usually date ducks like that (laughs). She’s cute as well and feminine and at the same time if you get on the wrong side of her she’s not afraid to quack a lot. She’s got that 50s thing going on with her and vintage shoes that are too big for her. I would have to describe it [musical journey], it would probably be Finding Nemo because I’ve had a lot of ups and downs in my career. This hasn’t been a journey that happened easy and if you watch Finding Nemo there’s a lot of tragedy and along the way he meets a lot of friends.,he ends up going into the whale’s mouth and he is sprouted out, he ends up in a fish tank in a dentist’s office. That can kind of symbolize me being trapped in the wrong record company and me trying to get out of that. Finally in the end he meets up with his fish daddy which is kind of a symbol that I’ve met up with my identity and I know who I am now.
“Game Over” Music Video
For more information on VV Brown, visit:
www.vvbrownus.com
www.youtube.com/vvbrownus
www.twitter.com/vvbrown
www.facebook.com/vvbrownofficial
Her album Travelling Like The Light available now and on iTunes.
[ Best of John Simon Daily | VV Brown Performs at Ann Taylor Fall 2010 Presentation]