VICE Spotlight: Vanessa Worm

These days the age-old question to artists, “How would you describe your music in terms of genre?” is as useless as it is impossible. With the internet connecting every corner of the globe, musicians of the last 10 years have regularly rejected the idea that sound and expression can be slotted into one sonic box. As is the case with Vanessa Worm.

Instead, New Zealand artist (and Australian ex-pat), Worm, describes her output as, “raw, vulnerable, dance, pop, punk, edgy. A cathartic experience.”

Of course, she’s right. In 2018, Worm’s music sprung out of a want to bring something new to the club world. At 18 years old, she took to Melbourne looking to bring the Dunedin punk sound and energy to the heaving, underground clubs of the city. 

Her music is versatile, and often, she’ll describe it as “free and anarchic”. In live settings her vocals are improvised, made up on the spot with no predetermined lyrics, “just letting whatever I feel in the moment pour out of me,” she says. 

In fact, various members of the VICE editorial team have fond memories of watching Worm scream briskly and repeatedly into a microphone, caught in improvised emotion, while on stage at shows and festivals, including Meredith and Beacon’s. 

“My personal relationship and understanding of my music is one that is so intrinsically linked to life and soul expression,” Worm told VICE.

“Feeling and expressing certain emotions through sound and diving into the pain, I then get to retrieve the gold of that.”

It seems that rather than let a traditional structure of a song guide her to the end result, Worm allows her intuition to take her there –  and that makes sense, considering her ethos surrounding freedom of expression.

“The music I make is one of self exploration and is a way for me to share my truth,” she says.

“It’s driven by the desire for freedom (of expression) and more love and honesty within myself and also for the world. In turn, I guess I hope that my performances and music creates space for others to lean deeper into their freedom of expression and maybe be met with the opportunity to overcome anything in the way between themselves and freedom.”

Over the years, Worm’s music has caught the attention of influential labels, collectives and DJs including Glaswegian label, Optimo music, as well as Public Possession DJs, Animals Dancing, JD Twitch, Tornado Wallace and Tim Sweeney. 

Optimo music has a hand in releasing her debut album, Vanessa 77, describing her as, “exactly the kind of artist Optimo Music dreams of finding; her music fits in with no genre and no scene – it is its own genre and its own scene.”

Her latest release, “Lost Memories'' – an ethereal, beat-heavy track – entailed a new approach to music-making. For Worm, it relied on storytelling and a larger reliance on her band, who she’s now touring with for the first time around New Zealand.

“There’s something about playing with other people that gives me more of an opportunity to relax, knowing that the boiz got me,” she says.

As for the big goal, Worm says she’s not sure what it is, but whatever it may be, it relies on “authenticity”. 

“I’d like for my music to play a role in the great change occurring in the world,” she says.

“And inspire people to know their creative power, not just in the arts… but with life!”

Follow Julie Fenwick on Twitter and Instagram.

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