There is artistic and commercial benefits to duality across creative fields. Combining a nuance for visual and sonic palettes, Swiss alt-pop multi-faceted talent proceeds to stun with her creativity and ability to draw relatability from her every emotional crevice. Broad in her style, resolute in her vision and explorative in her themes,
Since her debut EP Dream Theory 1 entered listeners into the sonic realm of Vôx, we have been blessed with an electric array of teaser singles in the run up to her defining release. We have now finally been blessed with the full album, We Went Looking for Art. Written from her childhood home in Switzerland during the COVID pandemic, the album follows our narrator through a time of difficulty, documenting the months that the lead up to and aftermath of the death of a family member.
The self produced album is a perfect marriage of atmosphere and emotion. Instrumentally, we find Vé in genre-bending form, striking and confident in her sound, drifting through sound-spheres and into an emphatic and elegant musical world that feels solely her own. Across the album’s eight tracks, we find Vé in searing lyrical form, tackling themes like loss, regret, thankfulness and humanism. Standout tracks include the anthemic “You Don’t Know How Good You Had It” and the moody title track, but across the album the artist illustrates a dextrous approach and consistent level of musicianship. Accompanying the album comes an opportunity to enjoy the album at its creative height; alongside the sonic release, Vôx is unveiling a limited edition vinyl print for the record, alongside to launching an official e-shop of her striking abstract art.
We had the utmost pleasure of connecting with Vôx Vé, who talks about her musical origins and how her experiences have shaped her artistry, spilling all on the freshly released album along the way.
Listen to We Went Looking for Art
Read the full interview below
What inspires you to create?
I’ve been most consistently inspired by a desire to question the cultural elements that seem to steal our collective and individual happiness—like misleading definitions of success, materialism and fame-culture, and pervasive shame around inherently human vulnerabilities—and on the flip side of the coin, inspired to celebrate and elevate the best elements of our being, like true human connection.
How did you first get into making music?
I took piano and sang around Geneva from a young age. One of my teachers apparently heard me belting in my 1st grade cubby area and kindly threw me into a bunch of shows where that would be more welcome. Then I started writing songs at 15 for a high school rock band I formed with four guys in music class called “Fusilli” (I was overruled on the name…)
My start in production, though, was initially reluctant. At first I always partnered with producers I found on GumTree or through referrals in nyc, because too often we assume these things are so technological and leave it to the producer boys and all their plug-ins and keyboard shortcuts.
But, at one point, several of my collaborators had higher priority jobs or went on tour and I couldn’t take the waiting to finish projects. So I began to teach myself on Logic (with help from Youtube), and it’s ultimately been the most fun, empowering, and sound-defining gift to myself as an artist. A huge relief too to know that I never have to depend on anyone else’s assent or availability to create a track I love.
How would you describe the essence of your sound?
Sonically, it often comes down to a combo of chills-inducing vocals x genre-bending beats.
It’s a half-haunting, half-bumping Alternative-Pop sound that’s been most often likened to FKA Twigs, Låplsey, or London Grammar, though with its own philosophical, empathetic, epic feel.
How has your background and experiences in life affected the way you write and create?
My experience has definitely reflected the pressure turns carbon to diamond metaphor. No one welcomes pain or difficulty, but I can’t deny that it has an incredible power to sharpen your focus around your purpose and why what you’re doing is even worth it.
When I first wrote songs for public consumption, they were cool and catchy, but, in my opinion, not especially valuable to the human collective, because they were mostly created to be cool and catchy—ego-driven, for my own recognition. Those shallow motives did not stand up to the pressure of personal struggle though, and I nearly quit. I continued writing only because I increasingly felt something meaningful to express, for my own growth and hopefully to add value to our collective consciousness.
Do you feel more at home in the production, writing or performing field?
Writing is the sweetest home. I feel most alone, authentic, and aligned with self there. Production is half-way there; there’s still some self-consciousness when I’m trying new techniques that feel beyond my technical knowledge, but that lessens with time and work.
Performing these days is an interesting battleground for my perfectionism. As a kid and teen, I performed without the slightest self-consciousness, but as an adult I’m often very anxious about sounding perfect, in a way that takes away from the freedom and pleasure of performing. But finding that freedom again is very much the goal.
What are your interests outside of music?
Ah too many interests, too little time! Positive Psychology (the study of what actually makes people happy and well) is my second love, that I’ve studied for my own growth over many years and have been able to impart to others as a certified life coach for the last 5. All other crafty or artsy things, though, also welcome! I love painting (I sell some abstracts on my Instagram), dancing, pottery, needlepoint, you name it 😉
Your new album We Went Looking For Art is stunning! Can you talk us through the creative process?
Thank you.
I was suddenly back in my childhood bedroom in Switzerland in spring 2020, going through the hardest experience of my life, losing a family member, as the world was going through its own massive losses during the first waves of Covid, and I felt like I had no other way to escape or externalize the grief than to open my laptop or piano and paint with the sounds and synths in my imagination. I was writing new songs and producing old ones that felt therapeutic to me, either because they provided me a window to escape into pure fantasies or a space to process harsh realities.
That’s why I called it We Went Looking for Art, because I felt like, in many ways, the world was doing the same—surviving the lockdowns and the grief through the fantasies and therapies of art, whether that was a window to a new world though Netflix or a connection to emotional expression through the “Together at Home” Gaga concert, human stories of our healthcare heroes, or a sudden appreciation for virtual museum tours. Isolation had us seeking the collective humanity inherent in art.
What would you say are the main themes and ideas you are touching on throughout the album?
The difficulties of loss brought with them a lot of clarity about what matters in this short life and what is illusory BS not worth the suffering it causes. So, I ultimately found myself in themes of values, regret, gratitude, self-compassion, and above all human connection.
What are you trying to convey to listeners through the album?
I think the honesty and emotion of the songs convey a sense of urgency to release our superficial hangups and get to the truth of what will bring us fulfillment.
For me that was stuff like: don’t waste time not living in gratitude; if you have health and love in any of its forms, choose happiness, because you don’t even know how good you have it, or how long you’ll have it for. Don’t waste time disconnecting yourself from others through perfectionism; the ideas that conditioned your shame were manufactured to drive profit; being vulnerable with like-minded souls is the absolute best. Don’t waste time chasing fame; it’s an empty god that sews dissatisfaction amid the masses and doesn’t even seem to save the few who have it. You know, stuff like that 😉
I wanted to conjure a beautiful universe that exists beyond the illusions that create unnecessary suffering.
If you could pick one track on the album as your personal fave, what would you choose and why?
“You Don’t Know How Good You Had It,” probably because of this lyric: I’ve been sorry, ‘bout how much I lived in worry. We make feeling worthy so much work, don’t we? What I wouldn’t bargain, to have back those “problems.”
Or “Pines” because it was my ultimate escapist fantasy about the intoxication of desire, and because the sonic work my mixer C-Ray Roberts did on the chorus still makes my eyes roll back in my head.
Where do you want to take your artistry in the future?
I think it’s going to get lighter. There was a definite shedding of heaviness and inner-conflict that happened with this album and I feel ready to fly a little lighter. I recently wrote a song I’m excited about called “She Feels Free.”
Lastly, what else is to come from you this year?
A Master’s actually! It’s finally the right time for me to tackle the next level in my knowledge as a helping professional and get a graduate degree in Clinical Psychology with emphasis on becoming a licensed psychotherapist. I’m also excited about it from a creative perspective too because I sense it will all circle back into my creative output and enhance my music with more meaning from the life experiences I’ll have.