NYC Scene Report – VÉRITÉ, Vaeda Black, & more


This week’s NYC Scene Report features indie pop fave VÉRITÉ teaming up with all-female chamber orchestra Little Kruta, 17 year old Vaeda Black proving to be a bold new voice in the city’s the indie pop scene, an indie rock project about a heavy subject from Hawk and Dove, and melodic punk rockers Cycle Static walking the line.

* VÉRITÉ has made a name for herself in not just the city’s indie pop scene, but in the indie pop scene on a national level. Her latest project is Bunker Studio Sessions, a collaborative EP with all-female chamber orchestra Little Kruta. The EP, which is available now, reimagines five of VÉRITÉ’s songs in the most gorgeous way possible.

VÉRITÉ says of the project, “I never imagined I’d have the opportunity to work with an orchestra. It’s such a luxury to work in a studio with live musicians, reinterpreting songs that I’ve lived with for so long.”

She continued, adding, “I was introduced to Little Kruta, a crowd funded, NYC-based orchestra, by chance when I was asked to perform arrangements of my music with a 20 piece, all-female orchestra at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, NY (in 2018). The reaction to the performance, and working with such talented, badass women, made this EP inevitable.”

You can check out the Bunker Studio Sessions version of her standout single “Nothing” right here.


* Seventeen year old Long Island native Vaeda Black isn’t your average teenage pop artist. Sure, there’s choreography in the video for her latest single, “Suicide Love,” but it isn’t the high energy dance moves one might expect when they see the phrase “teenage pop artist.” Rather, “Suicide Love” features choreography from Tony nominated, and Emmy winning, choreographer AC Ciulla, who brings Black’s lyrics to life in an unexpected way.

Black explains the inspiration for those lyrics saying, “It actually started with a text message from my ex-boyfriend while we were together probably about a year ago. I don’t remember exactly what we were talking about, but he wrote ‘that’s called suicide, love.’ Something about those two words next to each other really struck me. They’re so different. I kept thinking it would be such an interesting way to express love, passion, and deep wanting, so I wrote a song around it.”

She adds that despite the song’s title, “It’s really a love song. Being vulnerable is hard for a lot of people, but I want this song to represent the good things that come from showing yourself to another person and letting them love you.”

Black will be performing “Suicide Love” at her show at Rockwood Music Hall tonight at 7pm, and you can see the video for the song right here.


* Brooklyn-based indie rock act Hawk and Dove have a very heavy subject as the basis for their upcoming album, Our Childhood Heroes – the search for a miracle cure for frontman Elijah Miller’s father’s early-onset Parkinson’s disease.

Sadly, Miller’s father lost his battle, but if the single “Taxidermy Eden” is any indication, on Our Childhood Heroes Miller will not just tell his story, he’ll tell it in a way where anyone who has gone through pain, searching, and loss, will be able to relate, and perhaps find solace.

Out Childhood Heroes will be released on January 18th, and you can check out “Taxidermy Eden” right here.


* New Jersey-based melodic punk rock trio Cyclone Static are readying the release of their full-length debut, From Scratch, due out February 8th via Mint 400 Records, and in anticipation of this they’re hitting listeners with the single “Walk This Line.”

“Walk This Line” – as is the case with the entire album – was recorded at Forest Of Chaos in Hawthorne, NJ by Neil Sabatino, who also engineered and co-produced the project, and owns Mint 400 Records. With all that in mind I think it’s safe to say the label supports the project.

Drawing on influences that range from late-‘70s-punk, mid-‘80s hardcore, and early-‘90s alternative rock, there’s also a fine art influence in the band’s life, as drummer Jonathan LeVine is a well-known curator, and art gallery owner in the NYC area. Additionally, the cover art for From Scratch was created by Orion Landau of Relapse Records who has designed artwork for a plethora of bands.

Check out “Walk This Line,” and get caught up in Cyclone Static.


For more of the best of NYC’s indie music scene, come back next Wednesday, and check out the archives for previous columns.

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