Verity Susman is an English songwriter, composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist. She is best known as a founding member and the frontwoman of the English indie rock band Electrelane.

Music career

Following classical piano, clarinet and saxophone lessons as a child and teenager, Susman formed the band Electrelane with drummer Emma Gaze soon after leaving school. The band released four albums, an EP, multiple singles and a Singles, B-Sides & Live compilation album between 2000 and 2007. Verity was lead singer and played keyboards, guitar and saxophone in the band. As they evolved from the post-rock sound of their mostly instrumental first album Rock It to the Moon, Verity Susman grew bolder in her role as the arranger and main songwriting force in the band. She took on singing and lyric-writing duties on their acclaimed second album The Power Out, also composing and arranging a song for choir called The Valleys, with lyrics drawn from

Siegfried Sassoon Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English war poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both describ ...

's poem A Letter Home. Both this album and the following, more experimental,

Axes Axes, plural of '' axe'' and of '' axis'', may refer to * ''Axes'' (album), a 2005 rock album by the British band Electrelane * a possibly still empty plot (graphics) A plot is a graphical technique for representing a data set, usually as a g ...

, were recorded by

Steve Albini Steve Albini (pronounced ; born July 22, 1962) is an American musician, record producer, audio engineer and music journalist. He was a member of Big Black, Rapeman and Flour, and is a member of Shellac. He is the founder, owner and principal en ...

Electrical Audio Electrical Audio is a recording facility founded in Chicago, Illinois by musician and recording engineer Steve Albini in 1997. Hundreds of independent music projects have been recorded there. Unlike most producers, Albini refuses to take any roya ...

. Albini praised Susman's musical abilities during an Q & A saying "Verity is a fantastic musician with the capacity to hear impossibly complex arrangements in her head, and I admire that". In 2007, Susman started performing live and releasing music as the solo project Vera November. The single ''Red Dream'' was released as part of Too Pure Singles Club in 2007. She also took part in

Jens Lekman Jens Martin Lekman (; born 6 February 1981) is a Swedish musician. His music is guitar-based pop with heavy use of samples and strings, with lyrics that are often witty, romantic, and melancholic. His work is heavily influenced by Jonathan R ...

's Arthur Russell cover project, singing ''Our Last Night Together'' on

Rough Trade Rough Trade may refer to: *Rough Trade Records, a record label * Rough Trade (shops), London record stores *Rough Trade (band), a Canadian new wave rock band * "Rough Trade" (''American Dad!''), an episode of ''American Dad!'' *Rough trade (slang), ...

’s Four Songs by Arthur Russell compilation EP. Writing for

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...

, Mark Hogan declared: "Susman ..steals the show, ..(her) flitting, double-tracked vocals give the melancholy lyrics an emotional reality only heightened by her bare, evocative piano playing (Lekman name-checks Satie). Susman's version of the song was remixed in 2012 by

Nicolás Jaar Nicolas Jaar (; ; es, Nicolás; born January 10, 1990) is a Chilean-American composer and recording artist based in New York. Among his notable works are the albums ''Space Is Only Noise'' (2011), ''Sirens'' (2016), and '' Cenizas'' (2020). He ...

for his BBC Essential Mix as ''Last Night Together (You're Coming Back Edit)''. In the 2010s, Susman deepened her composition skills with a Master of Music degree in Studio Composition from

Goldsmiths College, University of London Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wor ...

. This led her to compose several Electroacoustic pieces, focusing particularly on cut-up spoken word in works akin to forms of

sound collage In music, montage (literally "putting together") or sound collage ("gluing together") is a technique where newly branded sound objects or Musical composition, compositions, including songs, are created from collage, also known as Photomontage, ...

and

sound poetry Sound poetry is an artistic form bridging literacy and musical composition, in which the phonetic aspects of human speech are foregrounded instead of more conventional semantic and syntactic values; "verse without words". By definition, sound poe ...

. This experimentalism informed subsequent compositions, including most notably a commission by

The Wire ''The Wire'' is an American crime drama television series created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon. The series was broadcast by the cable network HBO in the United States. ''The Wire'' premiered on June 2, ...

magazine for their John Cage Centenary concert series in 2012; and in 2013, a commission by Scottish Film to perform a live original soundtrack for the 1922

Benjamin Christensen Benjamin Christensen (28 September 1879 – 2 April 1959) was a Danish film director, screenwriter and an actor, both in film and on the stage. As a director, he is best known for the 1922 film ''Häxan'' (aka ''Witchcraft Through the Ages'' ...

film Häxan as part of BFI's Gothic Season . Verity's performances of the soundtrack in Edinburgh, Dundee and Glasgow proved popular and she was asked to reprise the live score in Paris in 2019. Further commissions followed, including a soundtrack for contemporary dance company Project O's Voodoo performance at

Sadler's Wells Sadler's Wells Theatre is a performing arts venue in Clerkenwell, London, England located on Rosebery Avenue next to New River Head. The present-day theatre is the sixth on the site since 1683. It consists of two performance spaces: a 1,500-se ...

in 2017. Susman composed her first original soundtrack for a feature film in 2013 when French filmmaker Katell Quillévéré asked her to write the score for the Adèle Haenel-starring Suzanne. That same year, she used Soundcloud to release some solo tracks under her own name; the song ''To Make You Afraid'' was singled out as a Baroque Pop gem by

. Also in 2013, Verity performed

Pauline Oliveros Pauline Oliveros (May 30, 1932 – November 24, 2016) was an American composer, accordionist and a central figure in the development of post-war experimental and electronic music. She was a founding member of the San Francisco Tape Music Ce ...

' score ''To Valerie Solanas and Marilyn Monroe in Recognition of their Desperation'' in an art film by Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz, with fellow musical artists

Peaches The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and cultivated in Zhejiang province of Eastern China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and others (the glossy-skinned, non-fu ...

and Rachel Aggs amongst others. Throughout the 2010s, Verity diversified the scope of her live performances, performing solo shows of ever-evolving new material, often involving multimedia elements, most notably at

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up i ...

’s

Meltdown Festival Meltdown is an annual festival held in London, featuring a mix of music, art, performance and film. Meltdown is held in June at Southbank Centre, the arts complex covering and including the Royal Festival Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and The ...

and in support of the band

Savages Savages may refer to: Films * Savages (1972 film), ''Savages'' (1972 film), by James Ivory * Savages (1974 film), ''Savages'' (1974 film), an American TV film * The Savages (film), ''The Savages'' (film), a 2007 film by Tamara Jenkins * Savage ...

and French singer

Étienne Daho Étienne Daho (; ; born 14 January 1956) is a French singer. He has released a number of synth-driven and rock- surf influenced pop hit singles since 1981. Career Daho was born in Oran, French Algeria. He sings in a low, whispery voice somewh ...

. During this time, she was also playing saxophone in free improvisation groups, including with The London Improvisers Orchestra, with Maya Dunietz, and in groups including

Steve Beresford Steve Beresford (born 6 March 1950) is a British musician who graduated from the University of York He has played a variety of instruments, including piano, electronics, trumpet, euphonium, bass guitar and a wide variety of toy instruments, such ...

and fellow Too Pure alumnus Matthew Simms ( It Hugs Back,

Wire Overhead power cabling. The conductor consists of seven strands of steel (centre, high tensile strength), surrounded by four outer layers of aluminium (high conductivity). Sample diameter 40 mm A wire is a flexible strand of metal. Wire is co ...

). It is with the latter that Susman started working during the pandemic on soundtracks to the Sonia Gonzalez-directed documentary ''Women Against The Bomb'' and the Kevin Hegge-directed documentary ''Tramps!''. Both documentaries premiered in March 2022 (the former being televised). Verity Susman and Matthew Simms have officialised their partnership as "Susman and Simms". As a guest musician-writer , Verity has recorded piano and keyboards on songs by Taken By Trees and

, and saxophone on songs by Beatrice Dillon, Frànçois & the Atlas Mountains, Trash Kit, It Hugs Back and Bamboo. She has performed live as a guest musician with

The Raincoats The Raincoats are a British experimental post-punk band. Ana da Silva (vocals, guitar) and Gina Birch (vocals, bass) formed the group in 1977 while they were students at Hornsey College of Art in London. Signed to the label Rough Trade, th ...

Deerhunter Deerhunter is an American indie rock band from Atlanta, Georgia, formed in 2001. The band currently consists of Bradford Cox (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Moses Archuleta (drums, electronics, sound treatments), Lockett Pundt (guitar, vocals, keybo ...

and The Hidden Cameras. Verity is currently putting the finishing touches to her debut album as a solo artist.

References

External links

Official website

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Susman, Verity English songwriters English women singer-songwriters English film score composers British film score composers Women film score composers Experimental composers Electroacoustic music composers Choral composers 21st-century composers 21st-century English composers 21st-century British composers 21st-century women composers British music arrangers British alternative rock musicians Art rock musicians Art pop musicians Experimental pop musicians English experimental musicians Alternative rock singers English punk rock singers English rock singers English rock pianists English rock keyboardists Alternative rock pianists Alternative rock keyboardists English rock saxophonists Feminist musicians LGBT film score composers English LGBT songwriters English LGBT singers Queer composers Queer songwriters Queer singers Women punk rock singers 21st-century English women singers 21st-century multi-instrumentalists Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century women pianists