Photograph by Morgan Gold
There’s few things like hearing a band for the first time and their sound stops you in your tracks.
That was our experience listening to VERTTIGO. We first heard a live version of their Mazzy Star cover of “Fade Into You” and signed them almost immediately.
It was that exact cover, popping up on a playlist, that caught our ears’ attention, too, and why we’re writing about the Canadian cuties making some of the most inventive and moody music we’ve heard in a minute.
So we hopped on a call with Ryan Rathjen and Karimah from the band to pick their brains about the band’s creation, their artistic influences, and the process of becoming one of the darkest dream pop bands in Canada.
What’s it like working on a cover song versus an original? Your version of “Fade Into You” tingles with the sort of hopeful promise that comes after a good first date.
Ryan: I think that’s interesting that you say that, because I said something similar at some point, about wanting a romantic summer song [that] has a light hearted feel to it. The original is such a shoegaze-y classic that I’ve always loved, so it was an interesting mixture, to make it double time and make it fast and kind of driving, and brighten it up the mood. The Mazzy Star version feels very romantic and dreamy—a little almost heartbreak-y. Adding that upbeat flair with the synth and all that was just kind of like, ‘yeah, let’s see how it goes,’ with the music setting the stage a little bit. And then [Karimah] just took it in a totally different direction with new melodies that made it so cool. I’ll let her speak to that part, but I mean, she just nailed it out of the box. The vocals on the actual recording are from our first session, her first trying it—which is crazy impressive.
Karimah: There’s a lot of pressure I find with covers, so I’ve actually avoided covers my whole career. There’s a lot of freedom that has come with working with this band and working with Ryan, though, and letting go of any pressure to be anything specific. So I felt like I was just letting go. It’s such a well known song, but it’s not a song where I’m trying to emulate it at all, which I think is the perfect type of song to cover. Like, I love covers when they’re completely redone. Some artists want to do a cover song justice by emulating the artist. Whereas in anything I do, I want to do the exact opposite—I don’t want to be anywhere near anything anyone is expecting or even desiring.
Ryan and I talk a lot about, like, creative instincts. We both really like Rick Rubin and the things he says about being an artist and trusting your creative instincts, the first idea being usually the best thing—just following that magical, kind of ethereal feeling. And as I work more with Verttigo and progress as an artist, I’ve developed a clarity of how I think [regarding my] artistic philosophy.
Can I ask how you all began playing together, and at what point you realized you had something special going?
Ryan: The brief history of the group is that we were all friends from the music scene and playing in various, different projects. Edmonton is like a very small community in that way; the music scene all knows each other. We were all playing in various projects, and then it just fell in line with everyone being available and wanting to do this project, and then it kind of grew from there.
Edmonton is such a working class city, but it’s also a very artistically rich environment, especially—I would imagine—given the artistic grants and things Canada has for artists (compared to the US). Has that impacted you and your sound in any way?
Karimah: Our nickname is Dirt City and I own that. I’m kind of proud of it—you have to embrace it. People are scrappy and really supportive. So it’s like, that kind of small town, ‘we’re here for each other’ mentality within the artistic community, because we’re all we’ve got. It’s fostered a lot of opportunities to collaborate with people and learn in so many different genres. Things like songwriting competitions, or having opportunities to go write in a cabin and learn from elder artists—super-professional, seasoned musicians who are twice my age and have toured the world. Those are amazing opportunities that I’ve been given to just absorb as much as possible.
It’s also very important to me, with our band, to represent that there is a cultural shift towards focusing on people of color, and people our age are really accepting the mantle of being the elders now for younger artists. In mid-size towns, if you don’t actually talk about these things, it’s very easy for people to just gloss over it, to never really think about it, and then never really get involved in the community. But artistry is really a community cause.
Ryan: Edmonton is unique because it’s isolated. It’s like the most northern capital city in Canada. So in a city like Edmonton, it’s more sparse, stylistically. So people don’t really have boundaries—there’s no scene built around what genre you’re in. So all the bands play shows together on mixed builds. There’s no real hierarchy, there’s not like a ‘cool scene.’
And I bet that plays into the music that you make, too. I’d love to know what your songwriting process is like: as a big fan of The Cure, I can feel their influences on what you’re doing here.
Ryan: I really appreciate The Cure comparisons, because I think that’s a very interesting band to be influenced by. They’re cool because they have a very dark edge, and people would consider them goth, but really, the music is just pop music done in a really cool way that has this melancholy spirit to it. I’m pretty influenced [in my] songwriting by Elliot Smith, too: I love how he can make this really dark material, lyrically, have this melancholy but also lighthearted feel. Melancholy is a very apt feeling, because it really permeates everyone’s life. So our music encapsulates a lot of that vibe. But at the end of the day, we all have so many different influences in the band. From song to song, everyone’s infusing different vibes from the different music that has influenced us. Lauren, our keyboardist, loves dark wave and all the goth stuff. Ed’s a big black rebel guitar rock guy. And Karimah has a million influences vocally, which is really cool because she’s a talented vocalist that can transform her voice into different vibes. So it’s an amalgamation of a lot of things.
Karimah: I came into it after the songs were written and the bass tracks were finished. [So] I came in like, ‘I’m going to take the vocal parts and I’m going to add in, like, texture, harmony, melody changes (working with Brian).’ In terms of the lyrics, there’s so much storytelling. That’s what we’re doing as people: we’re telling stories. And the stories being told in this upcoming album [are] very methodic. To find really beautiful, interesting ways to describe real experiences. When I joined the band, we talked so much about our film influences and it’s not just that we’re creating songs. We’re creating this multi-sensory experience, which is why live is so fun.
What are your favorite things about playing and performing live together?
Karimah: My favorite thing is challenging people with eye contact and reaching out to connect to people. It was at a French singer/songwriting competition, maybe 10 years ago now, [where] this performance coach talked to me about closing my eyes while singing. He taught me about the power of looking people right in the eye and challenging them. I remember he came like, almost up to my nose, and was like, ‘sing your song and look at me—you can’t look away.’ And it was so intimidating. So when I am on stage, I find someone, look at them, and I sing to them. And I can see them sometimes looking away, like ‘Oh! Is she looking at me?’ Sometimes people stare back, sometimes people will reach their hand out and come to me. I’ve had a person come up crying, sobbing on their knees. But I think everyone has that power. It’s the whole philosophy of being a person: all we’re doing is communicating, every minute of the day. That’s literally all we’re ever doing is communicating—with our clothing, our voices. So, really, being able to get honest and get inside? To see what is causing people to hurt? That’s how people end up processing grief and pain and all that stuff a lot of the time. And with Verttigo, we’re talking about love and loss and heartbreak and hopes and dreams—it’s the human experience turned into this magical fantasy kind of thing, you know? That’s the stuff of performing live, you know?
To be honest with you, I’m chronically ill; I’m exhausted as a person all the time, have been since I was a kid. It takes a tremendous amount of effort for me to do anything, so when I’m performing live, I’m in pain every second of it, but it’s totally worth it. Performing is important. People need it. People need to be in a room together and have experiences together, to hear music, and experience something where [we] can all feel together. Because people, in general, aren’t necessarily like all of us, you know? Where we can talk about our feelings, put them down on paper and everything. A lot of people will never have that opportunity. People would kill to be able to express something that’s true inside of them. So to be able to like, allow people to do that, together, is the art of what we’re doing as artists.
OK, last question: what inspires and astonishes you as creatives?
Ryan: I like bands that know their sound and carve out their own niche; [something] that may not be the biggest thing on earth, but has a timeless feel to it, has a legacy to it. Rather than being the hottest thing at one moment or just trying to follow the next thing. Slow Dive is a good example: they do their thing, and it sounded like nothing really else at the time. They slowly continued to do that thing, and people caught up with them later. So I’m always inspired by groups that have that kind of feel to them. Because then it doesn’t sound dated. I find that a lot of music in that arena doesn’t generally become popular immediately. It takes time for the audience to get it.
Karimah: I am inspired and astonished—I love this question—by courage, fearlessness, and uniqueness. That’s been the driving force my whole life, since I was a little kid, just being different and and showing that you just don’t give a fuck about what other people think about you, or if you do, doing it anyway. Like the people who are nerdy as hell, like making a band based on their favorite Dungeons and Dragons character or whatever is like, I see that, and I’m like, Yes! I’m right up at the front. I want to see that. I want to see you giving it like, 1,000% to whatever you’re doing. That is what gets me going! Like, be weird! Weirdness, like unabashed weirdness, where you are just doing what feels right to you, no matter what other people think.
Catch VERTTIGO playing Purple City Fest this weekend in Edmonton. The band’s “Snow Angels / Fade Into You” 7-inch vinyl is now available on Dum Dum Records.
Alicia Lutes is a writer/director based in Los Angeles. Her work has been featured at places like Elle, Vulture, Playboy, MTV, and more. You can find her on IG and via her Substack, Loose Leash.