After playing in bands, producing and running the Vancouver Mural Festival, David Vertesi is back making music again.
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Fictionalized is the new solo record from Vancouver singer/songwriter David Vertesi that dropped two days ago on indie label Tiny Kingdom.
It’s the fourth release from the artist who first came to prominence as a member of the trio Hey Ocean! and co-founded the local public arts fixture the Vancouver Mural Festival with Drew Young. The VMF now boasts two seasonal festivals as well as an agency.
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As well as his own solo work, Vertesi is a touring player for Juno-winning acts such as Dear Rouge and Said the Whale as well as a producer for Haley Blais, Noble Son, Riun Garner and former Hey Ocean! singer and My Little Pony voice actor Ashleigh Ball.
He took time to talk about his new, intensely personal, 10 track album that kicked off with the single Mind Reader, featuring Jill Barber:
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Q: Reading over your latest bio, I’m almost tempted to refer to you as David Vertesi Inc. Do you have to spreadsheet you life?
A: To a degree, yes. The hardest thing about being a professional artist these days is all of the time that goes into the aspects of the job that aren’t about the creation. It’s not intuitive to me to be always thinking about what to film for social media, all the business side of things and so forth. Things like producing are really rewarding, though, and a lot of it feels like what I did at VMF, which is about making a safe space for artists to create.
Q: You’ve roped in a lot of those artists to make a great record with Fictionalized songs such as Mind Reader, One in a Million (ft. Jordan Klassen), That’s What’s Up (ft. Blais) and others. Do you like collaborating?
A: What happened with the record was that I was writing it during the pandemic and felt really lonely. I’ve been in a band forever and love collaborating and missed that fix. So I put myself out there and started contacting people I knew and some I didn’t to strike up these really cool relationships. It introduced me to this whole other new generation of really cool artists who are so open and welcoming.
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Q: Given the album opens with a lovely instrumental titled One Day We Woke Up and the World Was Gone, is it safe to say you were feeling more than lonely for some of the writing?
A: The first song I completed for the album was Who Am I Now, which was written and recorded shortly after I’d released my previous album Life Ghouls in 2020. That was a direct reaction to the pandemic. Then the rest of the songs came as things progressed.
Q: A lot of the songs seem to be about searching for meaning, whether in relationships in Breaking Up is Hard to Do or My Parents’ House.
A: I think the songs are my reaction to something that caught me and my friends with the pandemic and what followed which was that everything we thought the world was, everything we had been taught it was, how it works and how you should show up in it weren’t necessarily true. It was a giant renegotiation of self.
Q: Given that one of those renegotiations was working with more people than ever before, how will you present this album live?
A: We are looking at doing a show in April and bringing in a lot of those people as guests to celebrate the album in that way. But for touring, I find a quartet is even pushing it. I like being in a trio with keys, guitar and drums. That way, everything can sound huge.
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