Veronica Swift , daughter of Stephanie Nakasian, listed in the Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz as one of the world's leading jazz singers, and the late bebop piano great Hod O'Brien, was destined to follow in her parents' footsteps. At just nine years old, she recorded her first album, Veronica's House of Jazz , and began touring with her parents. At age 11, she appeared in the Jazz at Lincoln Center series, "Women in Jazz," and continued her studies, earning a bachelor's degree in Jazz Voice at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music. After graduation, the Virginia native moved to New York City, performing Saturday nights at the legendary club Birdland. She has continued to record her own material and collaborate and tour with such artists as Chris Botti, Benny Green, Wynton Marsalis, and Michael Feinstein. Now a leading international vocalist, Swift dropped her third release, a self-titled 11-track album, which includes originals and covers. Combining elements of pop, bebop, swing, funk, rock, and jazz on the record, Swift pays homage to greats from Duke Ellington, Janis Joplin, Billie Holiday, and Ludwig van Beethoven to Queen and Nine Inch Nails. The first singles of the album include a rendition of Jerry Herman's 'I Am What I Am' and cover of the cover of NIN's 'Closer.' The singer, knighted by France, stopped by the LifeMinute Studios to tell us about the new album, her unique sound, and how she keeps her instrument, her voice, pitch perfect.
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00:00 Hey, what's up everybody?
00:03 Vocalist Veronica Swift here, and you're watching Life Minute TV.
00:07 Twenty-nine-year-old Veronica Swift was destined for greatness.
00:11 She's the daughter of jazz singer Stephanie Nikesian and late bebop piano great Holt O'Brien.
00:17 At just nine years old, she recorded her first album, Veronica's House of Jazz, and began
00:21 touring with her parents.
00:23 At age 11, she appeared in the Jazz at Lincoln Center series, Women in Jazz.
00:27 Now an international vocalist, Swift just dropped her third self-titled album, which
00:32 includes both originals and covers, spanning everything from bebop, swing, and funk to
00:38 rock and jazz, paying homage to her favorite greats from Duke Ellington, Janis Joplin,
00:44 Billie Holiday, and Beethoven to Queen and Nine Inch Nails.
00:48 The truly eclectic singer, who's been knighted by the country of France, stopped by the Life
00:52 Minute studios recently to tell us all about her new album, her unique sound, and how she
00:58 keeps her most valued instrument, her voice, pitch perfect.
01:02 This is a Life Minute with one to watch, Veronica Swift.
01:06 I've been known to the world as just one thing, and finally, you know, post-COVID world, I
01:10 get to, I mean, just like anybody else can hope to be, is be their fullest self on and
01:16 off the stage.
01:17 So, I finally have released an album that represents the full spectrum of my musical
01:21 personality and my journey, and in hopes to inspire people to do the same.
01:25 How would you describe your sound?
01:27 Well, there's of course, the first thing people think about is vocal sound, and because I
01:31 have a very broad, dynamic palette to choose from, kind of like an artist's palette, you
01:35 know, the more colors for me, the better.
01:37 And so, I've spent 20 years of my career not only developing my craft in the jazz world,
01:42 you know, I kind of, you can hear I have a smokier voice, but I also have a very strong,
01:47 powerful rock and roll sound that I have been working on for like 20 years.
01:51 It's been my passion, and I also studied opera as well.
01:54 So, people who listen to my music, it's not different hats per se.
01:59 It's the same hat worn differently.
02:01 You know how you can sometimes wear a baseball hat, and you turn it around, and it looks
02:05 different, but it's the same hat, and that's the thing, you know.
02:08 Did you always know you wanted to be a musician when you were younger?
02:12 I grew up in a family of musicians, so just like people when they grow up speaking languages,
02:16 you know, it's not something you really, "I'm going to decide to speak English."
02:20 You spoke, you spoke growing up before you even had cognitive thought and memory.
02:24 You're copying the sounds of what you hear around you, right?
02:27 Da, da, ma, ma, and then you develop the language understanding.
02:30 That was how it was musically for me with jazz music, especially my mother and father
02:35 both took me on the road with them while they were performing.
02:39 My father was a great piano player, bebop, and my mom, bebop singer, Stephanie Dacassian
02:44 is her name, and my father was Hod O'Brien.
02:46 So, I grew up in jazz clubs, and you know those little kids at festivals that are always
02:50 running around getting their face painted, and you're like, "Who's watching them?"
02:54 Or I was the kid like that.
02:56 That was me, and at jazz clubs, I was the kid sitting at the bar with the coloring book
03:00 and a Shirley Temple, sleeping in green rooms, absorbing all this great music.
03:06 So, it just made sense that the next step would be to perform with my parents at nine
03:10 years old, and then a career started, and kind of a whole life began to unfold.
03:15 And how did you hone your skills?
03:18 Like did you have lessons or anything like that?
03:20 I mean, osmosis really is where it all starts.
03:23 Like I mentioned, you copy the sounds you hear, and that also translates to vocal stylings
03:29 of my mother, who is a brilliant singer in her own right.
03:38 Also a brilliant performer and communicator, and so just kind of copying through osmosis
03:45 in a way.
03:46 I mean, I did take vocal lessons, too, and choirs were very important.
03:49 As a young child, before you take voice lessons, because your voice isn't developed enough,
03:54 private lessons, usually around 15 or 16, but before that, singing in choirs and playing
03:59 instruments.
04:00 That's where the really crucial elements of education come into play for developing your
04:07 sound and your style, and knowing what it sounds like and feels like to blend with singers
04:12 around you, knowing how to read music so you can eventually arrange your own songs.
04:17 I owe it all to my band director in middle school and high school.
04:21 What instruments do you play?
04:23 So I played, actually my first instrument was piano, but my horn instrument, I play
04:26 the trumpet as well.
04:27 And I was playing piano and trumpet before I ever like started singing professionally,
04:31 seriously.
04:32 I was playing trumpet in a youth jazz band called the Young Rascals Jazz Project at nine
04:36 years old, and of course then I started to kind of sing a few songs here and there with
04:40 them.
04:41 So it really started professionally for me.
04:43 I read something just yesterday that most people don't ask about the voice.
04:48 I find that I do, but how do you take care of yours?
04:51 Well, warming up is crucial, but cooling down is, if not equally, if not more important
04:57 than the warm up.
04:58 The show that I used to do, I was just singing jazz in a trio setting, but now our show has
05:04 developed to, I call it the trans-genre experience.
05:07 We start with the jazz stuff, because that's what people know me as, right?
05:10 And then we introduce a new element with each song, and then before you know it, it's a
05:14 full-on rock and roll show.
05:16 And the important thing is to keep the voice healthy, so I practice a technique called
05:20 open throat singing.
05:21 It's exactly how it sounds.
05:23 I mean, you kind of have to keep the back of the throat open, like almost like a caveman
05:30 noise.
05:31 If I'm going to do it, it's going to sound weird.
05:37 You hear I'm almost like yawning.
05:42 And the vocal cords get used to this openness.
05:44 A lot of straining comes from the closing of the throat, and people think, "If I just
05:49 push the notes out," and that's the absolute wrong way to go about singing rock and roll.
05:53 I mean, it's harder in the beginning, because a lot of air escapes, right?
05:56 And that's like building your muscles at the gym.
06:00 So you practice through this open throat singing, and then you get power that you never knew
06:04 you had, and it's healthier.
06:06 And then the cool down, you definitely want to do it after you talk to people a little
06:10 bit.
06:11 Just very brief shaking hands, saying hello to the fans, and then afterwards I always
06:15 blow bubbles through a straw into a glass of water or something, which is just relaxing.
06:21 Some of that kind of stuff, just like a gentle massage.
06:25 But the cool down is crucial.
06:28 Who are some of your favorite singers?
06:30 I mean, I could list.
06:31 There's the jazz singers I love, Mildred Bailey and Ethel Waters and Anita O'Day, Sarah Vaughan
06:37 and Billie Holiday.
06:38 But then there's the rock and rollers who also inspire me, Janis and Stephen and Freddie
06:43 and Tina Turner and Robert Plant.
06:46 And then, of course, Maria Callas and the opera singers I love.
06:50 I try to create a world where I can combine all these heroes of mine in one place and
06:54 pay homage to them while also showing that they're all equally a part of my sound.
07:00 What's something else that you want to do?
07:01 What do you see next happening?
07:03 I've spent 20 years of my career singing other people's music, secretly writing my own, not
07:09 just music, but musicals as well and screenplays.
07:12 And one of my heroes in this regard is David Bowie because he was a multi-medium artist
07:17 that he was directing.
07:18 He was doing dance and movement and photography and art.
07:22 And this is something I aspire to do eventually, to direct a film, whether it's with me in
07:27 it or not, to write a musical one day.
07:31 I have a 1920s musical I'm working on that I hope to release down the road.
07:36 But it all starts with hopefully a project coming that will get to showcase my skills
07:41 as a composer and lyricist.
07:42 How does it work for you creatively?
07:44 What's your process like?
07:45 Do you write words first or sound?
07:47 It's different every song.
07:49 Sometimes I have a style in mind, but the best songs come seemingly out of nowhere.
07:54 But really it's the subconscious having absorbed all of these influences that I've mentioned
07:58 and even some influences that I'm not cognitively aware of that just make their way through.
08:03 It's like the best time to memorize a song or study for a test is when you're cleaning
08:08 your house or doing something that's mindless activity.
08:13 Sometimes the song, for example, on this record, "I Am What I Am," which utilizes my writing
08:19 of a fugue-like piece in the middle of the song where I sing with the piano and the bass
08:24 and we do like a Bach baroque fugue thing.
08:36 That came while I was just literally cleaning my house.
08:38 And I started improvising some fugue-like, just because I've spent so many of my young
08:43 years singing baroque fugues and preludes and playing them.
08:46 You start to learn it because of the language you know, you develop.
08:49 And you can improvise on it.
08:50 So like, you just kind of mindless activity.
09:02 You know, and then you go, "Oh wait, I got to record this.
09:04 It's stream of consciousness writing."
09:06 That's where the best stuff comes from.
09:07 And then later on you can refine it and whatever.
09:10 When that happens, what do you do?
09:11 You just like put down the vacuum and go run?
09:13 Yes, exactly.
09:14 Or, or even better, continue to vacuum, just push record on the phone, on the voice memos.
09:19 You have a phone, right?
09:20 You can do everything with it.
09:21 You have a cool sense of style too.
09:24 How would you describe it?
09:25 I can't help myself.
09:26 I had an interesting question I was asked not too long ago where someone asked, "Does
09:30 the fashion reflect the music or vice versa?"
09:33 And fashion has always been important to me.
09:35 I've never been comfortable going out in jeans and a t-shirt.
09:38 Not to school, I dressed like Lady Gaga all the time and Frank-N-Furter and all these
09:42 crazy kooky characters.
09:44 Just like with developing your craft, you refine your fashion and it's an important
09:47 part of who you are.
09:48 Live I perform in kind of like military parade costume because I actually am knighted in
09:54 France.
09:56 And so I see myself and my band as we are important kind of protectors of self-expression
10:02 and individuality.
10:03 Not just for artists, for everybody.
10:04 Because it's so hard, if you think about it, it's so hard to just be yourself sometimes.
10:09 And that's something I try to inspire in every show.
10:12 And that's why the fashion reflects the musical and creative mission of ours.
10:18 You're knighted in France.
10:20 Tell us about that.
10:21 Are you French?
10:22 I'm not French, but it's not like in Great Britain where you have to be British, right?
10:27 But in France it's a global inclusivity, kind of globally.
10:32 The Minister of Arts and Culture works directly with a friend of mine, Francois, who runs
10:38 the L'Académie du Jazz, which is bringing artists from all over the world to the French
10:43 people.
10:44 And I've been going to France a long time just because I have friends there.
10:47 It's kind of like how New York City is the heart of jazz in the world.
10:51 In the United States, it's one of the jazz centers.
10:54 Paris is kind of the heart of jazz city in the world in Europe.
10:58 So I would go all the time, sing on the scene, meet people.
11:02 And I developed a beautiful community out there.
11:04 And then I performed there in 2019, I think.
11:07 So I'm glad I get to go back and finally get the official ceremony to take place.
11:11 Nathalie Desay, also, I'm a huge, huge, huge fan.
11:13 She's an opera singer and friend.
11:15 And so I've grown a beautiful community of friends out there and artists.
11:19 And I'm just, I kind of feel like I'm a part of their culture just by, you know, our countries
11:24 share a bond of revolution, you know, taking what's ours and standing up to freedom against
11:29 oppression, freedom against conformity and, you know, insert word here.
11:35 But yeah, I'm all the things I talk about, the French really reacts to my kind of mission
11:41 in life.
11:42 Tell us about your shows.
11:43 Like what do fans get when they see you live?
11:46 We have a huge, like, there's really not like a demographic of art.
11:50 That was like a goal of mine as a young child.
11:51 I didn't want like a specific demographic.
11:54 I didn't want just jazz fans.
11:55 I didn't want just rock fans.
11:57 I wanted Veronica Swift fans, you know, create my own community.
12:00 And I think any artist would hope to have that kind of fan base.
12:04 For some people that had been quick to come back after, you know, bounce back after COVID.
12:08 But since I was still on the come up before COVID, I had to kind of not start from scratch
12:13 in a way, but because I've been rebranding, as you can see, I have all these different
12:18 looks and trying to make something cohesive out of it that made sense to my fan base from
12:22 before while also still meeting new people and creating a new fan base.
12:26 I had to kind of rethink my show and COVID, while it was a horrible time, it allowed me
12:31 to take a step back and restructure everything and make it all make sense.
12:35 And so now I'm finally back on the road again after not just two years, it's like four years
12:39 because I had to spend a couple years convincing people, though, this show is jazz.
12:43 It's not subtraction, it's addition.
12:45 And believe it or not, that was hard.
12:46 It's a hard sell for some venues, right?
12:48 They want what they know.
12:50 But now we finally have the tour ready.
12:53 It's going to be a Midwest run in the fall.
12:54 We're hitting Chicago, Cleveland.
12:58 We hit Detroit, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, and then we do some West Coast dates, SF Jazz
13:03 and Malibu.
13:04 And then we go to Auburn, Charlotte, and then I head over to Europe after four years.
13:09 I'm going to be doing Ronnie Scott's in London, Duc de Lombard in Paris, where the ceremony
13:13 will take place.
13:14 It's amazing.
13:15 I get to perform all these different kinds of venues.
13:18 The beautiful thing about this show is you can perform at a rock club for people standing
13:22 with beers in their hands and screaming, or you can perform at a performing arts center
13:27 with a more elegant audience.
13:29 And that's what I love about this show.
13:30 We start with the show.
13:31 We start with jazz, as I mentioned, just because we established the past and roots.
13:36 I think of my show as a tree.
13:38 And first we establish the roots, and then out from the roots has sprung this strong
13:43 trunk, which is the transgenre approach, which is when we take songs from hundreds of years
13:49 of music history, and we relate them to each other and connect through lines through these
13:54 different genres, and then create something, a cohesion out of it.
13:58 That for me, that transgenre concept is the base, the trunk of the tree.
14:03 And then later we have all the branches and the leaves that beautifully spring out that
14:07 create beautiful shapes and colors, and that's what I consider my original music, because
14:12 that springs from all that, that knowledge and that lineage.
14:15 And my original music is also, it could be a branch over here that's jazz or 20s musical,
14:22 or it could be a branch over here that's just classic glam 70s rock, and it's all connected
14:26 because of the roots.
14:28 And your parents, are they still, do they play with you at all anymore?
14:32 My dad, he was, I mean, he was playing in New York in the late 50s.
14:36 He was born in 1936, so he's not with us anymore.
14:39 I had an older dad.
14:40 My mom, of course, she's an incredible vocal educator.
14:44 I mean, a lot of my technique I got from her.
14:47 And she is teaching at UVA and then also performing on her own, a great artist in her own right.
14:52 So she still, sometimes we sing together and do a kind of apple and tree.
14:56 Speaking of trees, that seems to be a common theme here.
14:59 What's something you always take with you when you travel?
15:02 Lucy, my dog.
15:03 Yeah, you would think because of all those crazy clothes I wear that I would have like
15:06 the world's biggest suitcase.
15:08 Honestly, I only have room for my performance outfit, singular, because there's only one.
15:12 Oh, you don't change 50 times, like Cher?
15:14 I don't have the space.
15:16 All my suitcases, it's merch, it's gear, and I have percussion instruments and pedals and
15:22 it's so much.
15:23 And I also have jackets for the band.
15:25 I only get to bring like one outfit for sleeping, exercise, and casual.
15:30 And then my one performance outfit.
15:32 So I always make sure I have everything.
15:35 If it was going to be the end of the world, God forbid, tomorrow, that I would have all
15:38 the stuff I need to do one last show.
15:40 And what do you do when you're not working?
15:43 When I'm not working?
15:45 I'm always working, baby.
15:46 My musical life doesn't stop when I walk off a stage.
15:49 I had a funny, someone asked me, "What do you do for fun?
15:51 What are your hobbies?"
15:52 Like, I couldn't think of a single thing.
15:55 It's my life.
15:56 I live and breathe what I do.
15:58 And that's not for everyone.
15:59 I totally get that.
16:00 And all the things that I do for fun relate back to the art.
16:04 I had to sit and think and I was like, "That's ridiculous."
16:06 But then I thought, "Is it really so ridiculous?"
16:08 And I thought of my heroes and so many of them were the same way.
16:12 So I wouldn't change it for a second.
16:14 It's fun for me.
16:15 You know, I have to definitely distinguish between time for business so that that doesn't
16:20 interfere with my enjoyment.
16:21 You have to remember why you got into this in the first place.
16:25 Because you love to sing.
16:27 You love to draw.
16:28 You love what you do.
16:30 If you lose that, there's no point.
16:32 Agree.
16:33 Yeah.
16:34 Biggest life tip since this is Life Minute.
16:36 Life Minute, biggest life tip.
16:38 I mean, what I just said, I guess.
16:40 Love what you do.
16:41 There's really no big secret to life.
16:44 And what do I know?
16:45 I'm 29, but 20 years is a long time when you're 29.
16:48 And the answer to everything has just been gratitude for me.
16:52 It's easy to get wrapped up in, "Where I'm going?
16:54 What I have to do?
16:55 And I need to make sure people get me."
16:56 No, you don't.
16:57 As long as you do it for yourself in a non-selfish way, but love what you do and sing or whatever
17:02 it is you do out there.
17:04 Do it for yourself.
17:05 Only then can you share that with people so that they can enjoy it too and inspire them
17:10 to do the same.
17:11 A little bit of scat.
17:12 How about that?
17:13 You did a little bit before.
17:14 Oh, yeah.
17:15 Yeah.
17:16 Well, I guess we can talk so much about how to connect genres and all this, but really
17:19 the best way is to show you by example.
17:21 Like I mentioned, when I was a kid, I was singing Bach and fugues and preludes.
17:25 And I would try to break down every part to the point of learning the language and developing
17:30 my own understanding of Baroque music.
17:32 And then I would start to connect the bebop genre to Baroque and say, "These are very
17:36 similar.
17:37 They're kind of..."
17:38 Bebop was an extension for hundreds of years, an extension of Baroque music.
17:43 So when you think about Baroque music, right?
17:45 I'm just going to make up something.
17:58 Then you swing it.
18:02 Right?
18:10 That's just the same kind of thing, but swung.
18:12 Add some blues and bebop language in there.
18:25 You see how the elements are passed through?
18:28 There's an example of what transgenre is.
18:30 Just paying homage to both Bach in Baroque music and bebop while making something kind
18:35 of your own thing out of it, your own language.
18:38 Amazing.
18:39 That was awesome.
18:41 I took years to develop, right?
18:43 It's like learning a language.
18:44 You can't just straight out the gate, "Okay, I read everything there is to know about Italian.
18:48 Now I can speak it."
18:49 No, when you practice in conversation, and that's music.
18:52 It's like a language.
18:53 It's conversant.
18:54 You can't really learn music unless you're playing with people, all kinds of people,
18:58 playing with different bands.
18:59 It would bring you different challenges.
19:02 Think of it like notes are like words.
19:04 A word by itself has meaning, but not really.
19:07 It can completely change meaning depending on the context.
19:10 When you place a note in a musical phrase with rhythm, harmony, melody, or lyrics even,
19:16 then you have conversation.
19:17 You have a story.
19:20 To hear more of this interview, visit our podcast, Life Minute TV on iTunes and all
19:24 streaming podcast platforms.
19:26 (upbeat music)