An Interview With Singer-Songwriter VERONICA FUSARO On New Music, Biggest Inspirations and More!

SyncStories artist Veronica Fusaro‘s debut self-produced EP Lost In Thought surprised the Swiss music industry by winning the Demo of the Year at the M4Music Festival. She was then awarded ‘Best Talent’ by the national radio station SRF3 and nominated for a Swiss Music Award in 2017. The following summer, Veronica presented her music at a number of festivals and performed at international conferences, including MUSEXPO in Los Angeles and the Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg.

Her sophomore EP Ice Cold was released in early 2018 and it featured the single “Better If I Go,” which gave Veronica the opportunity to perform at the Winter Olympics in Pyeong Chang and showcases including The Great Escape in Brighton and Music Matters in Singapore. Veronica has continued to take her talents on the road as she tours Australia, Thailand, China and Switzerland, performing new material.

More recently, Fusaro put out her third EP called “Sunkissed” last month via Deepdive Records. She is currently on her EP Release Tour which takes her all over Europe for now.

Connect With Veronica Fusaro Online Here- www.veronicafusaro.com

Learn more about Veronica Fusaro in the following All Access interview-

What does a typical day look like for you? What do you have scheduled the rest of today and this week?

I’m on tour at the moment, we played a gig in Köln, Germany, yesterday night. I had a lot of fun! Today is a day off, which means time to open my laptop and catch up on mails. My new EP „Sunkissed“ just came out, so there’s plenty of things that have to be done, maybe even a little more than usually. We’re gonna go grab dinner with my band tonight, and tomorrow we’re off to the next city, Heilbronn. So yeah life on tour generally looks a bit like this, you drive to the city you’re playing in, go to the venue, check the sound, go through the set with the band one more time, have something to eat (sometimes after the gig, depending what time we’re playing) play the gig, put all the stuff back in the van and eventually go to sleep, at some time.

Now that we are in the latter half of the year, how has 2019 treated you? What are some goals that you have had for yourself this year? How close are you to reaching them or did you already? What are you already excited about for this fall and even looking towards 2020?

2019 has been pretty nice so far! I got to play at the Glastonbury Festival, got to open a concert for Mark Knopfler in the beautiful amphitheater in Nîmes in front of 13’000 people (never played in front of so many people before!), toured with Eagle-Eye Cherry as a support through France, played many other great shows and just released my new EP “Sunkissed“! It’s been quite of a journey. The goal is to keep making steps forward, and it feels like there’s a constant and organic growth – which is very nice. Of course, I’m still at the very beginning, but there’s certain things that keep you going even through rougher times.

Regarding the things I’m looking forward to, I’m going to India at the end of October, can’t wait for this trip! The response to my music out there has been incredible. Also I’m very much looking forward to be playing Eurosonic in January 2020. Generally, I’m just very excited to see how the new music will do out there in the world. I’m very proud of this new project and it was and still is a major goal for me to make the greatest music I can possibly do in the moment, and I am very happy with the world of „Sunkissed“.

Growing up, how important was music in your life? Can you recall the moment when you decided that you wanted to be in this industry? Was it an easy or difficult choice to make?

Music was always something that I’ve loved to do. I never questioned it, I just really enjoyed singing. I participated in any sort of musical activity in school, such as choirs or school bands. My parents aren’t really musical, but they got me a guitar and send me to classic guitar lessons, and music was often played at home or in the car. I eventually stopped taking the guitar lessons but kept learning by myself by watching Youtube videos. I always dreamed about standing on stages and getting to share my music. There was a weird phase when I was around 12 or 13 where I was really jealous of Justin Bieber because he got to tour the world and do what he loves, haha (but really I was quite of a fan). So I don’t think there was a specific moment where I decided that music is what I wanted to do. It was sort of always clear, because this is what I love doing the most.

Was there ever a time when you thought about doing something else? If you weren’t a musician today, what else could you see yourself doing? Would you be as fulfilled in life?

I think when I was little I wanted to be the first woman in the Italian national football team, which unfortunately didn’t work out. Then I had a bunch of plan Bs like becoming a teacher, but they weren’t really plan Bs because I knew that I would spend the rest of my life in regret, wondering what would have happened if I ever went for music. So yeah, here I am, full in and trying my best.

What has been the biggest surprise so far about making music your career? What has been an unexpected or welcome challenge to it all? What has been the best part about it all?

Sometimes it’s a little crazy getting to see the world because of music. And wherever I go people seem to like my voice and music   which is so weird but so cool and I feel very grateful that something that I simply love doing touches people. It’s a weird feeling, and I’m just realizing now that I can’t really explain it. But that’s really the best part – seeing the power of music and seeing that it indeed does not know borders. I think that’s beautiful.

Let’s talk about your recently released EP “Sunkissed.” What was it like putting this collection together? Did anything surprise you about the overall process?

The vision of the sound of my new songs was pretty clear. I wanted to dive deeper into the world of soul music, organic sounds and real instruments. I had already written some songs that are on the EP like „lie to me“, others I had started to write and just weren’t quite finished yet, such as „hello old friend“ or „all I ever wanted“. The more tricky part was to find the right produced for this project. After working with Jamie Ellis on „lie to me“, I stumbled across the name Paul O’Duffy after listening to music that I loved the production of. My manager got in touch with him, he liked my music and we ended up working on the songs together in his studio. I really enjoyed working with him, it was a lot of fun and had the right amount of different opinions too.

Can you talk about the inspiration behind the songs on this new collection?

The inspiration for these songs is life. As simple as that. Observations I make, stories I hear, stuff that basically won’t let me sleep at night.

Typically, how do you go about writing your songs? Do you follow one process for them all? 

Usually a sentence or melody pops up in my head quite randomly, so I write it down in my little notebook or record it on my phone. I then go back to my little home studio at home and take it from there. I start turning the little idea, the sketch into a full picture. I usually do that with a guitar in my hands or when sitting on the keys, trying to find the right chords, melodies and words for the stories I want to tell.

Where can people see you perform next? Do you have any fall tour dates scheduled yet? 

I’m currently on tour, so there’s quite a few more dates, you can find them on www.veronicafusaro.com/live to see when I’m playing in a city close to you.

How do you think you have grown as a musician since you first started making music? 

In many ways! There’s a lot of things that I learned in the past 3 years. I got to learn a lot about the industry/business aspect of music and all components of it, which I think is really important to know about. Also, last year I played 136 shows, so I was able to learn a lot from just doing that and being on the road. Some of these shows I played in front of 100 people, some were attended by more than 1000 and others I played in front of 5. All of these are very different to play and take along different challenges. And the overall personal growth again has an influence on how I write music.

How do you feel about social media? What do you think social media has done for your career so far?

Social media is blessing and curse at the same time. It’s so easy to get sucked into this pixel perfect world and wanting to live lifes so far from reality. When used in a respectful and aware way, it can be a beautiful way of communication and exchange of ideas. As a musician, it’s a great place to talk to people around the world about your music. It’s weird to say this, but you really have the world and the ability to write whoever is on the same platform in your hands, wherever this person might be. It’s helping me to spread the word of my music. Also it has helped me getting in touch with other creatives such as the video director of „lie to me“ and „rollercoaster“, Steve Glashier.

Who are some of your favorite artists or rather, what musicians have continued to inspire you and your music? Who would you absolutely love to work with in the future?

One of my biggest inspirations is Amy Winehouse. I love her music, lyrics and voice. I admire how she wrapped very ordinary situations in beautiful words. I’m also a big fan of Frank Ocean, especially how his lyrics and the sonic world go hand in hand. But really there’s so many artist that I love, Lana del Rey, Rihanna, Janis Joplin, J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar and lately I’ve been very much into The Supremes. I would love to work with Childish Gambino once. I’d dare to say he’s a genius.

If you had an unlimited budget and your schedule was free, what would your dream music video look like?

That’s a great question! I would shoot a music video to my song “Venom“ which came out last year. We had this very specific idea in our heads, the song is that sort of song that you sing with anger in your stomach and a certain amount of tension in every muscle of your body – very dramatic. I can’t tell you too much about the idea because, who knows, maybe one day we’ll be able to turn it to reality?

Where would you love to hear a song of yours played? 

In a James Bond movie. I think „Venom“ would actually be a quite good fit.

At the end of the day, what do you hope people take away from your music? 

Any kind of emotions. From happy to sad, or even making them think about things, music is a beautiful way to try to explain what we have going on inside of us with a little more than words.

Would you like to share anything else about yourself or your music with our readers?

To hear some of my albums go to https://www.syncstoriessearch.com/ and type in Veronica Fusaro to hear my music.