Véronique Vella’s debut solo album One of the Number reverberates with personal experiences common to many during these COVID-stricken times. Lara Zammit speaks with the musician about her album.

The album One of the Number centres around 10 women’s experience of the COVID-19 pandemic, the title of which reminds us of how this turned people into daily statistics, both here and abroad. Why are women the focus of this album?

Composer and musician Véronique Vella.

One of the Number is my debut music album which uses the spoken word. The album tracks are named after women who shared their personal experiences of life during the pandemic, the title of which is a quote from the opening track Elspeth.

This Scottish musician, long-distance runner and close friend of mine contracted the virus during the first wave of the pandemic in Scotland. The fear of becoming “one of the number”, especially during a time when the virus was still relatively “new”, is palpable in Elspeth’s account.

The main motivator for choosing women as the protagonists of the work was perhaps more of a personal/practical one than a feminist one… although it is, of course, important to acknowledge that most women around the world remain largely underrepresented in many spheres…

 As a woman, I felt that I could relate to the experiences of my female friends, colleagues and family members, the majority of whom seemed to be doing an incredible amount of multi-tasking, such as trying to hold down full-time employment while home-schooling children, along with everything else. Also, aesthetically I thought that having only female voices on the album would result in a more homogenous experience, somehow.

There are five different languages in the album, which I think creates interesting timbral variety. More importantly, I believe the presence of these different nationalities highlights the fact that many of the challenges faced by the women I spoke to continue to be shared by many, both in Malta and abroad.

Aside from approaching wo­men I deeply respect, I tried to seek participants who play various roles in society and who work in different spheres. The resulting album includes testimonials by frontliners, educators, musicians, dancers and journalists, some of whom have lost their jobs during the pandemic.

Having said that, both the speakers and myself are very much aware that we are all “privileged” in a sense and that our “plights” pale in comparison to those who really suffered or did become “one of the number”.

The album artwork for One of the Number by Oliver Degabriele.

The electronic component of the music morphs into different moods throughout the album and takes on a range of qualities, sometimes taking minimalist slants. Could you speak about your use of electronic music here?

I chose to write synth-based tracks because I could have a myriad of sounds at my disposal in order to create a different soundworld for each track. It is the women’s monologues that dictated the mood and the narrative of each track, which range from the bleak to the hopeful.

The human voice is the most arresting, powerful instrument we possess

Once I familiarised myself with the speaker’s monologues, I’d set off to find the ‘right’ sounds that I felt would best complement or in some cases contrast the voice and the words spoken. I would then create the music material while listening to the monologues, listen back, chop and change as I saw fit and then layer more sounds and motifs. This improvised quality of the music reflects the casual delivery of the women’s accounts.

Along with electronic music, the human voice features as a pervasive instrument throughout the album. The human voice, particularly the spoken word, seems to be an indispensable medium with which to address the pandemic due to the personal dimension intrinsic to it. What is the role of the human voice in your album?

The human voice is the most arresting, powerful instrument we possess. In this work, however, there is no hierarchy bet­ween the spoken word and the music material composed. In a sense, the relationship is a symbiotic one. The spontaneity in the women’s voices draws the listener in to create an intimate, almost confessional experience.

The fact that many of the observations made are not self-consciously profound but are mundane accounts of what life during this time was like, perhaps makes it a more ‘real’, less fabricated listening experience.

What have you gathered from the experiences of these women? How do we heal from this pandemic?

Despite the fact that the gene­ral theme of the album is a gloomy one, all the women featured on the album at some point highlight the “silver linings” of living through this humbling situation.

The voice recordings reminded me of why I look up to all the women featured on the album, how much I admire their strength, tenacity and dedication to their work and loved ones. Of course, there are many other wonderful women in my life whose experiences would have been as touching, but in the end I had to narrow it down to 10.

I think there is much to be learned from the pandemic if we were lucky enough to survive it virtually unscathed. Perhaps we can learn to focus on what really matters – a good support network of family and friends, access to a good healthcare system and, last but not least, the urgent need to preserve our natural environment, where many of us sought refuge during this socially-distanced time.

Above all else, the pandemic may have reminded us not to take anything for granted.

One of the Number is available for purchase on Bandcamp or streaming on Spotify and on most online music-sharing platforms. The project was funded by Arts Council Malta.