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Music

PREMIERE: Stream VÉRITÉ's Sleek and Starkly Honest EP 'Living'

"I'm not one to make love / But I'm down to give a fuck…" The rising Brooklyn-based singer lays it bare on her third EP.

VÉRITE's songs have clocked over 12 million plays on Spotify. Pretty chill numbers given the 26-year-old's only released two EPs independently, Echo and Sentiment. We first wrote about her some two years ago, so we're stoked to premiere her third EP, Living, below. With it the Brooklyn-based singer (born Kelsey Byrne) continues to live up to her name in that her songs are candid snapshots of real life. Thus we have the laid-bare lyrics of "Underdressed" ("All you ever wanna do is take all my clothes off…"), and arguably the finest cut on the EP "Gesture" ("I'm not one to make love / But I'm down to give a fuck") which finds VÉRITE's vocal winding through a sparse opening verse before the song opens up with seductively heavy beats and layered harmonies. Very LDN. Kinda 90s, but flintily modern too. Of the five tracks—three have already made their way online—but "Rest" and the title track are sleek additions to her cool-pop catalogue. It's a collection she created along with producers including Stefan Graslund (Charli XCX), Tim Anderson (BANKS), and Peter Thomas (Betty Who). Not to mention Zach Nicita and James Flannigan.

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"Living was written in the wake of Sentiment and after the first tour," she explains. "It was the first time I had been able to dedicate all of my time to the project and writing. If I'm being honest, it was really uncomfortable and oddly exhausting and forced me to over analyze my writing and process in a way I wasn't used to. The EP takes these tiny moments and magnifies and overanalyzes them until they are unrecognizable. The idea was to present an unadulterated look into how my mind works.

"Sonically, I tried to elevate and push away from what is traditionally 'alternative electro-pop' or whatever labels I had been associated with. I worked with a different producer for each song, which in the beginning was unintentional but became a challenge. The goal was to tie in those conflicting perspectives to sound like one cohesive voice. Ultimately this started as an experiment in how to deal with and interact with time. Hoping that people can resonate with it in any way."

Stream her Living below and catch her on tour this month.

VÉRITÉ Tour Dates
5/15 Washington, DC @ Rock & Roll Hotel
5/16 Philadelphia, PA @ Boot & Saddle
5/18 New York, NYC @ Baby's All Right
5/19 Boston, MA @ Great Scott
5/20 Montreal, QC @ Le Divan Orange
5/21 Toronto, ON @ Drake Hotel
5/23 Chicago, IL @ Schubas Tavern
5/25 Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St Entry
5/28 Seattle, WA @ Barboza
5/29 Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
5/31 San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop
6/2 Los Angeles, CA @ Echo

Living is out on May 6