By her own admission, the early pursuit of a music career left her alone and thoroughly off-course. The teachers’ daughter skipped university, and signed to a major label at the age of 19 in Los Angeles, gathering pseudononymous co-writer and background vocal credits on the albums of platinum artists. But after three years in the mill, she felt profoundly bereft of purpose, not to mention devastated by a bad break-up. “I lost myself completely,” she remembers. “I lost my identity. My voice. Everything.”
But she woke up and found her voice, in every respect: “Artists I love, from Alicia Keys through to Amy Winehouse, connect with people because they do not compromise,” she realized. “They make music which reflects who they are, and when you’re honest on all levels, people will connect with that. People can tell. The way you walk, talk, wear your hair and breathe. Everything that’s happened in the last few years has taught me to value the idea of knowing yourself, and being yourself.” The far wiser, deal-less V V was so broke that she sold her keyboard to pay for her flight home (England) from California — but she was not broken. Back home (England) with her aunt and sisters, “every day was spent making music. Every hour, every day from nine in the morning until two the next morning.” Money was so tight that V V bought a one-stringed guitar in a charity shop — and wrote “Crying Blood” about her ex the very next day. She later continued that story in “Crazy Amazing,” inspired by a new friend who “made me feel like a princess,” and put her in the mood to write a joyful song based on the piano-beginner and doo-wop standard “Heart and Soul.”
Now, V V Brown is a dynamo self-starter: a songwriter and producer; an absolute trouper through two European music festival seasons; a fashion maven with a retail website devoted to her personal eye for retro style in the 21st century, and even a model, first signed through a chance in-flight meeting, and now represented by Next Models. But be aware that these are all deeply integrated, under her creative ownership, not the scattered branding efforts of a newbie with a “360” deal. “It’s honest – it’s not about being festooned with 10-million-pound diamonds or having perfect hair. It’s about letting out all these ideas I’ve had locked up in my mind,” V V states.
Source: ABC Go Music
http://vvbrown.com/