Louise Post has it made these days, though maybe not in the way you think.
We talked with the Veruca Salt frontwoman and solo artist via Zoom about her journey 30 years into her career.
She first found success in 1994 with her indie/alt-rock outfit Veruca Salt, when it burst onto the scene with the uber-catchy single “Seether” from its debut album, American Thighs, released by indie Minty Fresh. There was MTV support and successful tours. It was a huge time for alt-rock, led by Nevermind and the growing public acceptance of more eclectic music spawned from the underground.
Veruca Salt was fronted by two solid and talented frontwomen and songwriters, Post and Nina Gordon, who seemed cut from the same cloth as songwriters and guitarists. So much so that it was hard to imagine one without the other, and it wasn’t always easy to tell who wrote what without a glance at the credits.
But—like always—success came with a cost. Indie rock heroes? Not in Chicago, where they were regarded as sellouts. After American Thighs, they recorded the EP Blow It Out Your Ass, It’s Veruca Salt (originally titled Blow It Out Your Indie Ass, according to Post) with Steve Albini. The was a response to the grumbling. And then they shifted gears again with Eight Arms to Hold You, produced by Albini’s polar opposite, Bob Rock. And then, well, things went south. Nina Gordon left the band. Post soldiered on with a different lineup, releasing albums still beloved by fans but that didn’t resonate as well with the general public or lead to the same kind of success.
Veruca Salt had a successful reunion in the 2010s and they dropped the album Ghost Notes. The band is now on “indefinite hiatus,” though Post explained there are no issues, save logistical ones, while Post dropped a fabulous solo album, Sleepwalker, last year.
We talked about what Post regards as her favorite music gig, and you may be surprised to learn it’s not Veruca Salt or even her work as a solo artist. Oh, and we hit on having none other than superstar Olivia Rodrigo cover “Seether,” which Post described as “the little song that could.”
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
There were a lot of years between Ghost Notes and Sleepwalker. When you’re not doing music, what are you doing?
I took a break from writing my own music or Veruca Salt music for some number of years because my daughter was five and started kindergarten. There wasn’t any music in the school, so I started volunteering. This was in 2015, right when Ghost Notes came out. I started volunteering and created a class with another fellow mom who was also a musician, and we did that for four years with our kids’ class. It was 75 kids. We brought them up and sang with them every week. We put on these elaborate concerts with parent bands. You can’t throw a stone without hitting a musician in LA. So many talented musicians were parents at the school. We sang with the kids and put on these concerts at the end of the year and winter break. I ended up being the de facto music teacher for the whole school. Well not the whole school, but pre-K through third. And I ended up starting a band with this woman and her husband, who was also in their previous band. That band is called Veils. I just released an EP under that name with them, which we recorded before the pandemic. It was going to be a full-length album, but we only got four songs done and the pandemic hit.
Right around that time, I naturally realized that if I continued to teach music to kids I would never make another record of my own. And Veruca Salt was on an indefinite hiatus and still is. There’s nothing negative happening except that we’re not creating music together. We don’t all live in the same city and the stars aren’t aligned for the moment. But I did start collaborating with these two friends of mine and created this band called Veils. At the same time, I started writing like a maniac. It just happened. I felt like I turned the faucet on—or someone did—and the songs started pouring out of me. The ideas. Dream ideas. I dream songs, I write while I’m driving. I started just recording demos and had a ton of them. I was sending them to Matt Drenik, who was someone I trusted and became the producer of Sleepwalker. He was really interested in working with me. Even now, my daughter goes to school much farther away than in the neighborhood. I look back on that time wistfully. It’s so recent but it feels like “wow, our lives were so small.” I wasn’t touring. I wasn’t recording an album. I got to be a stay-at-home mom and work at the school. And the work wasn’t work, it was teaching kids music and singing. My favorite thing. It was really such an honor to be able to do that. And honestly more terrifying than playing the Forum. Going in to sit in front of 25 kindergarteners was really something.
You mentioned Veils, which brings us to Sleepwalker. You mentioned the production hook-up. But after Ghost Notes, after Veils, after all these years, why now? Why did you decide “this is the moment for a solo record?”
The solo record was demanding to be made. It wasn’t that I set out necessarily to create, write and release a solo record. I felt more like there was no escaping it. There wasn’t necessarily any great demand for me to make a solo record. I didn’t feel that coming from the universe necessarily or from my fanbase. I think people in my fanbase were hungry for more Veruca Salt and that we weren’t doing that. And I was writing. I had a conversation with Nina over the course of time—a few—and I said, “Look, if we’re not gonna make a record right now, I just wanna let you know I’m gonna make my own.” Because I’m an artist and have to keep writing, I can’t help myself, I just keep writing. At that time, I thought about other paths and what I might do. But music just kept calling me insistently. And I felt like I was being called to make this album. And that’s what I did.
The big change in Sleepwalker from the Veruca Salt records is in production and arrangements. The vocal melodies could be on Veruca Salt albums, but the songs would have had more riffs, distortion, and a more hard rock/indie sound. Would you agree? And, if so, how did that come about?
I wasn’t looking to make a rock record. I wasn’t listening to rock, and I didn’t have any desire to make a big rock record. In the past when I have kept the band going without the original lineup, I stayed true to the sound. (The songs) were naturally what I was writing. I kept the band going because I didn’t feel like it was over. The band, the brand, it was too hard for me to let it go. I was not letting the band go because we’re still a band, just not active. But I really wanted to explore more of what I was listening to at the time, which was a lot of stuff that my kid was playing for me. I grew up listening to all kinds of music. I wasn’t born on the day Nevermind came out. Or Bleach. I listened to Classic Rock, R&B, jazz. Then trip hop happened. I was in an R&B band in high school. Little-known fact. I’ve loved Prince—loved Prince—more than life itself. I wanted to be him, wanted to be with him. I idolized him and worshipped him. When I was 17, Purple Rain came out. So, it was on. And he was like my version of punk rock, you know? Dirty Mind and Controversey and all that. Really exciting music at the time.
I just grew up listening to all kinds of music, and what really changed my life was the Pixies’ Doolittle. Brian Eno Another Green World came to me around that time. While listening to Prince, I was also listening to The Cure and XTC’s English Settlement. That’s my favorite record by them. All kinds of music that came out of that era. And I’ve always just been crazy about music since I heard Abbey Road and David Bowie. “Golden Years” played on my little transistor radio. I always wanted to be in a band. I had Rumors and I used to stare and stare at the album cover. It’s so funny that I ended up in a band with another woman. Stevie and Christine McVie. And Nina was in her bedroom listening to Rumors and looking at the album cover. Regarding production, Matt and I just wanted to do something exciting and different. And also, more intimate.
“Hollywood Hills” feels like a true story. Is it, and can you share some of the inspiration?
I woke up one morning with that song in my head. In my dream there was a band playing it. A female-fronted band. Two women. And it was more of a rock song. It was such a strong melody. I went to the piano and started playing the chords singing it and plucking it out. Finding the song. So it wasn’t that I sat down, and it was an idea that spilled out into this song. It was more like an impressionistic song filled with memories. It’s interesting that you say this, because it’s definitely more informed by own experience and own sort of melancholy. It’s not an actual story that happened word-by-word.
But it captures a moment in time and a feeling that I did experience. It also was influenced by a book called Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. It’s a beautiful novel, and it touched me deeply. And it came to me at a time when I was feeling wistful about the past and letting bygones be bygones, what it feels like to have evolved and come to this mature place of acceptance. Where I can see people from my past with whom I had this tremendous love, conflict, and grief. I can see connecting at this age being a beautiful thing. And having a new, deeper understanding because the time has passed. That’s a lyric in the song “You’re the raincoat man/I’ll be the coffee cup/And I’ll run up to you in the future/We’ll be ok then/We’ll be all patched up/And we’ll know what to do and we’ll do it sooner.”
Let’s talk about the horns on “Secrets.” Are those trumpets? French horns?
That’s my favorite part of the record! It came out of nowhere. I heard the solo being played by trumpets. I could hear the notes and picture the harmonies. This wonderful trumpet player named Kelly Pratt played on that song. And for that song, we played the notes on a trumpet keyboard sample and sent it to Kelly. And he played pretty much what I asked of him. It was born of my love of a song by Sufjan Stevens called “Chicago.” It harkened back to that song for me. I haven’t heard the song in a long time but it reminded me of that song when it came to me. And then, again, on “Don’t Give Up” I heard trumpets. I said “Matt, you’re not gonna believe it, I hear trumpets again.” I had a very strong sense of what I heard. In the case of “Don’t Give Up,” we sent it to Kelly with the idea, and then he loved the song and took it and ran with it. The whole outro is him. I couldn’t believe it when I heard it. I thought my heart would explode.
According to “Volcano Girls,” you were a “Seether” back in the ‘90s. Have you mellowed with age? And—if so—does that allow the reflection of a record like Sleepwalker?
I don’t think my husband would say so (laughs). I hope so, anyway. I hope that the type of vitriol I expressed in the ‘90s has morphed, at minimum. There’s still clearly a lot of passion behind my words and my feelings about the world and the politics of what is happening in it. That passion hasn’t diminished. It’s funny, I just wrote a banger about what is happening in the Middle East. I may say this too soon, but I think I have mellowed out of necessity because I was raging. I needed to come to terms with that. “You need to calm down/To figure it out.” I needed my life to be mellow and calm and centered and focused. I want to be a healthy, happy, whole person, who is grounded and centered and not fighting the world on my own. And so, I found a higher power, first of all, who’s not me. That took a lot of weight off my shoulders. I was always very suspicious of religious people and anyone religious. Any talk of God. But also envious at the same time. I didn’t trust them not to be fanatics. I needed to prove that I could do it on my own. Then, one day, I realized I don’t have to prove that; in fact, it’s too much of a burden to carry. I let God in and started to let go of the reins a bit. That happened, again, out of necessity. And needing to grow up.
You’ve got more live dates coming up for Sleepwalker. You balance a good helping of Sleepwalker with Veruca Salt material. How do you know where the balance is? You’re excited about your new stuff, but the fans love Veruca Salt.
It’s funny. I had no intention of playing any Veruca Salt on this last tour, except possibly in the encore. My vision was just playing Sleepwalker, even from start to finish. It came to my attention that all of my fans were placing bets on which Veruca Salt songs I would play. And they were excited to hear them, especially the ones that weren’t with the original lineup, because those were songs I couldn’t play on the Ghost Notes tour. Those are a little touchy (laughs). Somewhat touchy after all these years. A lot of my fans were like “is she gonna play stuff from Resolver and IV?” I realized I was going to need to do that. Once I wrapped my head around that and got used to the idea, I got excited about it. I realized it was also the smart, strategic thing to do. Give the fans what they know and love and expect and hope to hear. It became fun to mix it up. The people who bought Sleepwalker and who love me and are embracing my solo career, there are certainly some new fans on board. I have no idea the numbers. But in terms of the majority, there’s people who followed me through Veruca Salt from the beginning or jumped on at any given point.
Did you see people discovering you because Olivia Rodrigo covered “Seether?” How did you feel about that and what was the response from younger people who are into her?
I think it was all around very positive. I loved her first record. I loved her second record. My daughter was a big fan. When we found out she was covering “Seether” on tour, we were really touched by that. We thought it was so sweet and super cool. We went to her show in L.A, went to the after party, and she was so darling. Really, really genuine and kind. She met our daughters and gave them hugs and was really sweet to them.
And she’s way cooler than you. It doesn’t matter if mom is in a rock band, mom is not cool.
Right, right. Of course (laughs). I don’t need my daughter to think I’m cool. In fact, I don’t need any of that. This is her life and her show. I have my career, but I don’t need my baby to think mom is cool.
Louise Post upcoming dates:
4/24/2024 St. Louis, MO, Red Flag
4/25/2024 Nashville, TN, Blue Room
One Response
Correction: the band she refers to is “Veyls,” not “Veils.”