She’s a wicked songwriter and vocalist with memorable songs that deserve an audience. She’s not in a band. She’s not playing live. She says she has a stage name, but wouldn’t tell me. She’s a mystery, which adds allure to her music.
She says she can’t do small talk; she can only go deep. Within 5 minutes of a first meeting, she tells her life story. “Silliness is my addiction,” she says, as if she means it.
It’s hard to know what is real or fantasy with her. She says she was a mute. Now she talks for hours non-stop in English, Spanish and French. She went to art school in Miami and studied ballet. She loves grunge and the Latin and French songs of her grandmother’s era. She rides horses on a farm in Nicaragua, and spends her days with dogs and trees. Animals love her.
A fashionista with her own fabrics, she wears a bright red dress to the beach and jokes about looking like Minnie Mouse while tourists gawk at her like a freak show.
A long green dress transforms a Cowgirl into the Little Mermaid.
Free-range village dogs stop wrestling to bask in her touch.
Then, as the spirit moves in the wind, she’s suddenly in Swan Lake.
It all seems unreal; and then her fighting spirit emerges from her fragility.
She’s truly a one-of-a-kind with a unicorn mind and an unforgettable way of being.
All of this makes her a compelling songwriter. With a seductive bedroom voice, she sings about the treachery of sex and obsession, begging for words “between a rope and a hope”.
In Cutting Room Floor, she broods:
“Applause in my head, nobody hears it.
Dreams stay in my bed no one to steer it.
You never watched the film, you never stayed for more.
I keep editing myself just to stay on your cutting room floor.”
In “Hands in my Hair”, she sings:
“You loved me like a project, you loved me like a cure.
I told you I was dangerous, you said you wanted more.
I said I was broken, you said you didn’t care.
You tried to fix me with your hands in my hair.”
In another song, she laments about a man loving her “too hard”:
“Why can’t you see my flaws? Everybody else does.
Why can’t you see my claws, they’ve drawn so much blood.”
While plucking her balalaika, she lampoons her generation’s addictions to social media and youtube tutorials in songs with lines such as “the world economy, is a hoax”.
Her youtube channel, with 28 videos, deserves more than 55 subscribers.
https://www.youtube.com/@VaraVictorMusic
https://www.bandlab.com/vaerauz
With the right people and structure around her, she could remind people of Amy Winehouse, Fiona Apple or Lana del Ray. Even if she’s not ready for the rigors of touring, she could still forge a career as a mysterious songstress recording in the shadows. Much will depend on how she can manage her own talent and real life challenges. She’s too good not to be heard.
words and images copyright Christopher Johnson Globalite Media all rights reserved
