Amy Vee announces new single
Emerging from the ashes of one of the toughest years on record for independent music artists, NSW singer-songwriter Amy Vee’s latest track evokes the image of an artist still searching for belonging.
Amy Vee is many things. Award-winning independent singer-songwriter. Touring multi-instrumentalist. Psychology Honours graduate and Masters student. Staunch mental health advocate and charity volunteer. Mother of two.
Yet in her latest single release, Only Just, Vee honestly recounts the life of an artist who, now more than ever, struggles with identity.
“Being stuck in one place during the pandemic, I was suddenly forced to look inward and face the reality of my own dysphoria. I think this song was my attempt at being real about not knowing who I am,” said Vee.
“I’ve always been a misfit. Not in the cool, punk sense of the word. Just in the sense that I’ve never really seemed to ‘fit’ anywhere. I feel like I play these ‘roles’ – musician, mother, artist, scholar… but I don’t really know that I identify with any of them.” she added.
Hailing from the steel city but spending her schooling years growing up in North West NSW, Vee speaks plainly about her working-class roots.
“I literally grew up playing music in country pubs from the age of about 13. It was a tough training ground and soul-destroying at times, but I never gave up the search for my people. Music has always been how I tell my story,” said Vee.
Now with two solo albums and several EPs and singles under her belt, and over a decade of touring with a range of artists as diverse as Jon English, Tim Freedman, and Moby, as well as a slew of awards for songwriting and performance, Vee is still in constant pursuit of connection.
“It’s an interesting predicament – to have the constant urge to connect but to struggle with identity. Makes it hard to find a community you truly belong to.
“I wrote this song in the midst of a one-song-per-week writing streak in 2020. I have close to 40 new songs that I’ve never recorded. It was the one silver lining of an otherwise pretty devastating year,” reflects Vee.
“I wanted this to be the first single from this new song collection where I go full production. I drew on a bunch of influences in the sounds but especially fierce females… PJ Harvey, Joan As Policewoman, St. Vincent. There’s a mix of 90s and 70s sounds in there.. I worked with my long-time producer Gareth Hudson, who has a penchant for blending digital and analogue”.
“It’s a song for the literal misfits. I see you. I am you”.
