Vera Blue to headline Australian summer festivals

Vera Blue, the artist formerly known as Celia Pavey, won hearts on The Voice in 2013 and now she’s doing it all over again with the song of the Australian summer.

Vera Blue owns the song of the Australian summer.

All The Pretty Girls is already blasting out of car radios and headphones and has more than two million streams.

The breezy slice of folk electronica influenced by her love of Fleetwood Mac was written and recorded in Los Angeles only a few months ago.

“It’s a cheeky little play on stereotypes. It’s that moment when you’re walking down the street and you spot a good-looking person and wonder if you should say hello but decide you are not going to approach that person to save yourself from getting your heart broken,” she said.

Vera Blue is back with her summery new single All The Pretty Girls. Picture: Richard Dobson

The artist formerly known as Celia Pavey who reinvented herself after winning hearts on The Voice in 2013 is also the queen of the Australian summer festival circuit.

She was one of the highlights of the recent Spilt Milk event in Canberra, will headline Festival of the Sun in Port Macquarie in two weeks, Lost Paradise in Glenworth Valley in NSW and Beyond The Valley in Victoria over the New Year’s holidays, Party in the Paddock in Tasmania in February and perform at the annual Twilight at the Zoo concerts in Melbourne and Sydney next year.

“As soon as this song came together, I thought we have to do all the summer festivals we can because people will love to sing along to this song at festivals,” she said.

“The thing I love most about them is I’ve always been one to dream about what it would have been like to be at Woodstock. Before I did festivals, that was the fantasy in my head.

“It’s so important to get that live show right, to make it big and colourful and make people feel something beyond just the music.

“And backstage, it’s such a good little community of people who have your back.”

Vera Blue’s new single has inspired her to perform at Australian summer festivals. Picture: Richard Dobson

In between her touring duties, Pavey is spending a lot of time with her fellow artists, including Flume, Montaigne, Briggs and Alice Ivy, for future potential singles or songs for other artists.

Love songs could dominate her upcoming repertoire.

“I am in a relationship now, it’s a new thing. So love songs are going to come; I don’t think I’ve written a love song since Hold which was one of the first songs written for the whole Vera Blue project,” she said.

“They’re hard to write without sounding cheesy. You kind of have to write all the cheesy songs and get them out of your system, to get to the non-cheesy.”

Performing on The Voice in 2013 for Team Delta. Picture: Channel 9

Pavey and many of her musical mates have also rallied to advocate for greater awareness of the mental health issues facing performers and other music industry workers after a close friend, musician Luke Liang, lost his battle with depression in August.

She said advice from friends including Delta Goodrem and Julia Stone had helped her deal with the pressures of touring and maintaining wellbeing on the road.

And chocolate helps to soothe the adrenaline rush after a gig when she finds herself in the quiet of her hotel room.

“That feeling when you are on stage and you have all these people in front of you who are there for you and the experience is the best feeling ever,” she said.

“And you get off stage and go to your hotel room and it’s complete silence. Everything about playing music and touring is the most incredible thing but a lot of people don’t understand it can be a little bit lonely sometimes when you’re coming down from that natural high.

The young artist says advice from friends including Delta Goodrem have helped her deal with the pressures of touring. Picture: Channel 9

“You have to figure out how to deal with that and find your things whether it’s having a bath, maybe a foot rub, chocolate is a big thing for me after a show. It’s a comfort thing.

“I’ve recently started talking to a psychologist and for years I was terrified of doing it but it’s not about something being wrong with you, it’s about talking to someone to help you through certain feelings and emotions.

“We’ve lost a few people in the industry close to our heart and it’s been a big wake up call for all of us to look out for each other. It’s brought us all closer together and motivated us more to look after our own wellbeing.”