Vera Blue’s third studio album Modern Rituals has arrived.
An eight-track exploration of patterns that shape, comfort, and sometimes confine us, the album turns inwards, tracing identity, self-discovery, anxiety, self-sabotage, and personal growth through blending electronic, pop, and cinematic sound.
Each song on the album centres on a different personal ritual, capturing the cycles we repeat and the tension between the lighter and darker parts of ourselves.
Blue (real name Celia Pavey) is taking Modern Rituals on tour, kicking things off tonight (August 21st) at Brisbane’s Princess Theatre, before stopping in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, and Adelaide. See all the details here.
To celebrate the album’s release, Blue gave us a special track-by-track breakdown of its eight tracks. Check it out below.
“Rituals”
Vera Blue: “Rituals” was the last song written for the album, and I remember sitting at my piano with a glass of wine, candle lit, and my little dog curled up on the couch as I started to write. It felt really intimate and peaceful, which was the perfect headspace for a song about trying to sit with yourself rather than constantly trying to change yourself.
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I find it really hard to look at myself without immediately wanting to critique something or thinking I should be better or more perfect. Even now that the song exists, that’s still a constant challenge. I think that’s just part of being human, and the song became a reminder to stop trying so hard to be perfect and just allow yourself to be who you are, just witness yourself honestly.
I took the sketch of the song and finished it with with Lachy Bostock, who also produced it, and I love how cinematic he made it feel while still keeping it really intimate. I especially love how the vocals build throughout the song. We stacked so many harmonies, and I loved blending multiple takes of emotional ad-libs and hearing them weave in and out of each other, almost like all these different parts of yourself existing at once. It became the emotional centre of the album for me, not because I’d figured everything out, but because I realised maybe I didn’t need to. Sometimes you just need to stop and allow yourself be human.
“Brittle Wings”
“Brittle Wings” came from feeling frustrated with myself and those periods where I felt really low, kept giving up or slipping into a victim mentality. I wrote it on a writing trip in LA with Alexandra Veltri and Tim Nelson. Tim played me some pre-existing beats, and something about them immediately tapped into that part of me that was struggling but also the concept of seeing someone you care about fall back into unhealthy patterns.
I loved the gritty, distorted synth bass, it felt really powerful and aggressive. Alex’s vocal saying ‘Do ya?’ feels like this confrontation with myself, like one part of me screaming at the other part that keeps giving up and not helping itself. I tried recutting that ‘do ya’ vocal myself but I just loved how Alex’s voice sounded and the tone.
This track lives for a while without a chorus, the moment to let the song breathe. I realised there was a lyric missing that tied it all together. ‘You are the only one that holds me down, but you are the only one to fix it.’ The idea that in the end it’s up to you to pull yourself out of the dark place.
My favourite part is the ending, where the choir comes in singing, ‘You can come along with me’. I picture it as my stronger self picking up my fragile self. It changes the feeling of the whole song, suddenly it’s not just anger, it’s compassion. I love that underneath all the aggression and grunge, it’s really a song about trying to save yourself.
“Maze”
“Maze” started with Flume in LA while I was on tour with him. The song needs time to breathe but it just kept popping into my head every so often so I collaborated with Nat Dunn and Jono Ma in lyrics and structure and then Eric J Dubowsky produced the final track to a whole new level of dance music.
A big part of the song is about repetition and learning to find peace in not knowing everything. I can be someone who wants to understand and control every detail, particularly when I’m anxious about the future, and sometimes that just makes me feel more lost. I wanted to explore what happens when you stop trying to figure everything out, let go of the fear of the unknown.
There’s also this idea of returning to someone you love, and the repetition that can happen in relationships. Sometimes you find yourself back in the same place because something still pulls you there whether it’s good or bad. The breakbeat and dance elements give it this feeling of movement and anxiety at the same time, like you’re constantly running through the maze but slowly learning that maybe you don’t actually need to find the exit. I loved going to a literal maze to create the visual for this track. It was wild genuinely being lost in a maze. Magical and daunting at the same time.
“Go Lucky”
“Go Lucky” is really about freedom, that feeling of deciding where you want to go and not letting life knock you off course. There is love weaved through the lyrics too. Working with Chris Collins and Jono Ma really opened my eyes to electronic dance music and the world of analogue synths.
I was also inspired by Madonna’s “Ray of Light” and “Like a Prayer” with the stacked choir like vocals and that euphoric dance feeling. I love dancing in my music videos because it feels like such a release, there’s something freeing about letting your body take over and not overthinking for a moment.
Dave Jenkins directed the video, and he’s actually in my band, so he knows me really well. He’s such a creative, clever person, and we shot it around the Sydney surrounds, which felt perfect for the song. The whole thing feels like a moment of choosing your own destiny, instead of waiting for life to tell you what to do, you decide where you’re going. We sampled a bird that was singing from outside the studio!
“Imprints”
“Imprints” is about the power of love and the way another person can become permanently woven into your life. I wrote it with Lionel Crasta and Nat Dunn, and I was really inspired by Massive Attack. I wanted that cinematic darkness and atmosphere, but underneath it there’s something really warm and powerful.
When I wrote it, I was thinking about my relationship with my husband, who was my boyfriend at the time. I had never experienced something that felt so safe and powerful. It’s about choosing each other, standing by each other no matter what, and knowing you’ll get through whatever comes.
I remember loving the process of cutting the vocals for this one. I kept playing this demo over and over in the car and on long walks, just listening lost in the feeling of it. The idea of an ‘imprint’ came from realising that love can change you permanently, even as life changes, you carry what you’ve built with someone. It becomes part of you. I love the industrial chugging bass line with the ethereal ghostly bvs and ambient production.
“In My Head”
“In My Head” is about being haunted by memories, past lovers, things that have happened to you, the mistakes you’ve made and thoughts you wish you could switch off but somehow can’t. I wrote it with Christen Carpenter and Tim Nelson, and I loved taking it into this lo-fi, trip-hop world. I loved the crackle of the vinyl and the slightly more digital tone of the vocals, and playing with these Middle Eastern-inspired melodies which I experimented a lot with on this whole album, gave it another layer that felt a little mysterious and unsettling. The chord patterns all throughout modern rituals inspired some unique melodies based off chromatic scales. In my head is about that feeling of being trapped inside your own thoughts, where the more you try to push something away, the louder it becomes.
Dave Jenkins shot the music video again, and we went to this incredible abandoned railway tunnel in Helensburgh. It was such a visual place, dark, eerie and completely removed from the world, and it captured the feeling of the song perfectly. I’d just watched the new remake tv series of Cape fear and fell in love with the thriller esque red inverted film technique that I just needed to have for this music video, i felt it symbolised the intrusive thoughts like flashes and the tunnels and tree trunk cavities symbolised the tunnels in your mind that you get lost and trapped in. I love when a location can become part of the song itself.
“In the Corner”
“In the Corner” was one of those moments where I thought, wow, this is cool, this is different. I loved diving into the darker part of myself and just saying it exactly as it is in the chorus. There are these interesting melodies running through it, vocal samples that weave through the whole track, and this really industrial production that reminded me of Nine Inch Nails. I became obsessed with the song and watching Jono Ma and Chris Collins build it in real time while I say literally in a corner and wrote the lyrics was such a cool collaborative experience. It felt like creating this character of a girl who is completely fed up and has nothing left, and I thought of myself in a boxing cage just constantly getting back up after every hit, indestructible and sassy.
My fav lyrics are, ‘Sitting in the corner, ticking like a thug’. And, ‘Fools play along’. It’s tongue in cheek kinda like saying ‘fuck around and find out’ or ‘try me’. I often find it quite difficult to stand up for myself so when I listen to this song it’s like a reminder to not let people walk all over me or make me feel like a push over. In the industry and in my life.
For the video, Grey Ghost directed, and we shot it in a dormant universe. I hung upside down like a bat on wires and danced really aggressively and cathartically in a skull cap. It was completely unhinged and exactly what the song needed. Underneath all that anger, the line ‘I’ll stand back up’ is really what the song is about, being knocked down, letting yourself be angry about it, and then getting back up.
“Parallel Desire”
“Parallel Desire” was born from wanting to write something spooky for a change. I was watching horror films when I wrote it with Lucy Healy, and I became obsessed with ominous production and that feeling that something is about to happen. I loved writing and creating the bare bones of this track with Lucy. She just got it! And we leant into that fucked il feeling of wanting to manipulate or force someone to desire you.
Later, my good friend and bandmate Ross James produced more on it, adding these spooky beats and textures. We stacked the vocals almost a million times in the choruses, which gives it this huge, otherworldly feeling. Our good friend Jenny played live violin in this song which was so special, playing the melody of the lead vocal adlib in the huge end section.
The whole song feels like a gothic landscape to me, seductive, dark and a little dangerous. We shot around the Mornington Peninsula in these spooky forests and gothic-looking landscapes, and the sunset hit at exactly the right moment while I was on the cliff edge. It felt almost unreal. I wanted the song to feel like being inside a horror film, where you know you probably shouldn’t walk through the door, but something is pulling you towards it anyway.
Vera Blue’s Modern Rituals is out now.
