Though Sydney electronic artist Verna Bloom exchanged her place in the ever-exciting Melbourne punk scene for a journey as a solo producer, her instrument of choice – the Yamaha Reface CS – remains the core of her distinctive, weightless and weary sound. Our Independent Artist of the Week, she joined Sim Cheuanghane on The Bridge to chat about the evolution of her music.  

Digging further into her change of path, Verna told Sim about a childhood memory of a pianola becoming the launching pad for her musical journey. 

“I did a couple of years of piano, but I got a bit sick of it. And being young, I wanted to do all sorts of things.”

It was this yearning further than the classical sphere that had Verna releasing music on Cool Death Records with her band in Melbourne.

 The soundscapes she composes through drum machine, multilayered sounds and synth work with the melancholic vocalisations can be heard across her latest EP ‘you don’t listen, you don’t hear me, but you do fear me’.

“Everything that I do is so on the spot, I kind of have a melody or a rhythm in my head or I’ll pick a particular sound that I really like.”

Since her move to the coast, Bloom took the unexpected ride into motherhood during lockdown It was the stillness of that time and the birth of her daughter that continue to influence her instrumental experimentation, responding to nature with, at times, haunting atmospherics. 

“I think it’s a really beautiful connection that people have, music is so integral to everybody, it’s not necessarily in everyones journey, I didn’t think it was in my journey either, but now that it is I can embrace it with my family.”

Verna – when time provides – continues to explore her interest in connection through both her music and personal blog, where she invites fellow creatives to explore and explain their work:

“They themselves start to see what they’re capable of or what they’ve done and I think that’s really cool.”

Wanna hear more from Verna Bloom? Listen to her full chat with Sim Cheuanghane up top, stream ‘you don’t listen, you don’t hear me, but you do fear me’ below, and keep an eye on her Bandcamp for future releases.