LA-based singer/songwriter V Torres captivated me with the first three singles from her upcoming album Woman. The title track, “Winter Solstice” and “That Night” showcased her vibrant and roots mix of indie rock and Americana. Torres describes her new album as “a journey” and a “testament on things that have shaped the woman I am today.”
With the album dropping tomorrow, September 1st, Torres gave us a track-by-track breakdown of every song on the album, which you can read below!
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Beginnings
The idea behind beginnings started with the concept that every ending leads to a new beginning and every beginning will have an ending. It’s the cycle of life. The thought that everything is temporary. Something that has become somewhat of a mantra for me. It also focuses on how hard it is when you feel ready to love someone, but they are not ready to receive that love. It’s that tender moment of realizing that everyone’s timing is different and their own. The song encourages evolving and strengthening the relationship with yourself, as that is the one that needs to be looked at before you can look at relationships with others. How can we change if we always stay the same? When writing this song, I went through iterations of how the rhythm of the guitar would end up before settling on the staccato beat of the track. I think it lends itself to an interesting way for the vocal melody to dance around the guitars in the verses. I also wanted to add an 808 to the beginning of the bridge so that the listener could really feel the shift and the weight of the song opening up. I really love how the bridge builds into the breakdown chorus. Fun fact about this song is that it was not originally slated for the record. I sent my co-producer my demo of it and he insisted that it belonged on the record. I am so glad we included it.
Woman
This is the title track of the record. “Woman” is my song for Women that really steps into the journey of being a Woman and being inspired by Women. The constant grind women experience, and often-times, the attending to the needs of others, while trying to keep it all together. The grief we experience in letting go of the past versions of ourselves and the roles we play: lover, mother, caretaker, friend, etc. There is still a hopefulness somewhere in the journey and strength and acceptance of life and the work we have to do to heal. The light we see in this is the letting our guard down and being open again to love. When I first wrote the song, I wanted the acoustic guitar and drums to drive the rhythm of the song. It feels as though you are riding horseback through the desert. My lead guitarist, Kira Lingman, added her lead lines to bring a Latin/americana feeling to the track. Making the music video for Woman was really fun. Cinematographer, Dylan Pelle, approached me and said he wanted to make a desert themed music video and that he thought my music would lend well to it. We listened to all the songs on the record, and it was clear that Woman was the track to use. It already has a cinematic feeling to it, and we wanted to capture that old spaghetti western vibe. We shot in the Joshua Tree desert, at an old grimy motel in Rosemond, and at an abandoned music venue in Hermosa Beach. It was a lot of fun to see our vision come to life.
Winter Solstice
This is a track I wrote when a very close friend of mine had lost her brother to a tragic accident. I was in a position of wanting to console and be there for them but there really was nothing I could do for them at the time. These words came out fast and the song was written on the Winter Solstice, hence the name. This friend is one of those people who makes everyone feel loved and good. They are always the one making everyone laugh. They had been there for me through really hard times, and this song was written for them during this time. Sometimes you don’t have the words to express what you want to say. Sometimes the act of just giving someone a silent hug is enough. I wanted this song to embody that feeling of being there for someone who’s always there for everyone else and I think in some part of this it was also giving myself that love. Knowing that you can love someone from afar and you can love yourself and hold yourself up even when you’re feeling alone. Visually, the Winter Solstice is the darkest night of the year, but it also leads to more light coming through in the near future. I felt like the visual of that dark night was present in this song but the sliver of light on the horizon was a sign of hope and something to look forward to as well. Sonically, I heard the harmonies of the chorus in my head when I was writing the song. I wanted it to start a little more rocking and surf/punk like but then turn into this beautiful choir during the chorus lines. I also wanted a slide guitar in the song to give it a little bit more americana and that tinge of country. When I hear the slide guitar, it feels like a hug, it feels like comfort and can bring me to tears, which is exactly what this song is really all about to me.
That Night
This song is about the possibilities of a new adventure and allowing yourself to be open to vulnerability. It paints a picture of the moment when you go from being friends with someone to falling for them and seeing them in a completely different way. It’s highlighting that scary and exciting part of letting your guard down. The song sits in the anticipation of letting go and letting them know how you feel. Lingering in that moment when there isn’t an answer yet can be exciting to think of the potential that life has ahead for you. Sonically, I wanted those intro harmonies to shine and cut through. I really love how the song is a little more stripped down during the verses and a little more dance-y than the rest of the tracks. The guitar line I play after the first verse was inspired by the sound of the Breeders and it’s one of my favorite parts of the song along with the vocal intensity of chorus that comes after the bridge. The ending speaking part in the song is my grandmother speaking the bridge line in Spanish. I wanted her to be a part of this record and had her send me a voice note to include in the song.
Slow
True story, I went to Joshua Tree for the first time and stayed in an air bnb on a property that got raided by the police in search of the body of a woman who had gone missing weeks prior. Yes, it’s crazy and yes, it happened. This moment was scary and tragic, and it got me thinking about how finite life is. I started thinking about my own life and that I wasn’t living my most authentic self. It got me thinking about what is “right” and what is “wrong” and what is the grey area in life. Can we live in that area? Being raised catholic was a lot of things but the whole “sinning” part of life and not being able to express your true self without it being thought of as unconventional or just plain wrong was running through my head. This song explores a desert landscape where there is no right or wrong, just the grey. I love how this song is more of a harder rock song than the rest of the record. I added a harmony in the chorus that I feel brings a little psychedelic rock into the song. I really love the bridge of the song that takes the song on a segue into a really cool, stripped-down groove. My lead guitarist, Kira Lingman, wrote that bridge line on the guitar and we really ran with it from a production standpoint to create this interesting breakdown which includes me using the WAH pedal for the first time on a record. The production feeling on the bridge makes me feel like something BECK would have done.
Great Escape
This is probably the oldest song I wrote for this record. I was going through my divorce about 9 years ago. My ex called me and asked if I knew what today was. Thinking, thinking, I had no idea what he was talking about. He said it was six months to the day since we split. I had heard someone earlier in one of my yoga classes say that time was just a man-made thing. That thought came right back up to me when I realized I was not tracking this time period like he was. I immediately started writing Great Escape. The song is about leaving a situation that is not right for you anymore. It is both the knowing what you did was the right thing but also the challenges with loneliness in the aftermath. You need someone to console you and tell you everything will be okay, but you do not have that person to do so. When I wrote the song, I really wanted it to have variations in timing and melodies. I knew that I wanted the song to start with a faster tempo that felt driving and I wanted the chorus to be in half time. I felt like the half time chorus really spoke to the message of the song and symbolized the feeling of time and processing the emotion of the track. Conversely, I wanted the bridge of the song to feel like you were running through the middle of the night frantically searching for some kind of sign that you are going to be okay. I wanted it to feel chaotic and uncontrolled. The BPM of the song changes from 119 to 151. If you listen to the beginning of the song right after the end of the song, it seems SO slow, but it works in context of the song from start to finish. It was challenging recording the song and understanding where it sat the best tempo-wise. At one point I suggested a slower tempo from the offset, and it was exactly what the track needed to really get to the right place. It’s sludgy, beautiful and electric how it all turned out. I feel like it’s the most epic song on the record.
I Know Nothing
This song is about getting older and knowing less. Realizing that so many thoughts and influences go into your decisions as a younger person and the older you become, the more you realize that you really don’t need to think that hard. It is also about opening up myself to loving again after patterns of running away. Sonically, I had a demo of this track that I gave to my co-producer, and it was really bare boned with just guitar and vocals. We almost wanted to keep the demo version because there was something really beautiful and vulnerable that was perfect about it. We opted into re-recording it through amp splitting with a ‘72 Princeton reverb and a Roland jazz chorus. I was really pleased with how the guitar tones and vocals shine through on this short and sweet track.
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Pre-Save the album here (or starting tomorrow, play it wherever you stream music). And if you want to order the album on vinyl, you can do so here.
And if you’re in Los Angeles, you can catch V Torres playing at The Mint on September 9th: https://themintla.com/listing/sue-foley/
The Indy Review 