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lot of influences in my playing and especially on this album, but I like to think of what brings it all

together is me and my own kind of playing style and singing style, that kind of wraps it all together
and makes it my sound, but I definitely love to take inspiration from all different genres and eras.

BiTS: Unfortunately, I’ve never seen you play, but I gather that you’re very energetic.

VL: [Laughs] Absolutely, yes, and hopefully I can come over to England one day soon so we can
meet and you can see a show, but I really love it so much, so definitely lots of energy and

excitement [laughing].

BiTS: When you listen to musicians now, Veronica,
who do you listen to? What’s on your playlist at the
moment?

VL: Oh gosh. It definitely varies depending on what I
feel like listening to, but it can be Ray Charles or
Little Richard. Katie Webster is a really big one.

Recently I was listening to a lot of New Orleans
players like James Booker was one that I just recently
found again. I think a lot of the times because a lot of
music listening is online, I can
go on to Spotify or wherever

and find great playlists where
you can find new players from
anywhere that you may not
have heard of. I think some of
it too comes from just trying to
discover new artists every day
because that’s really where the

most excitement comes. You
find a new player that you fall in love with or a new artist [chuckles].

BiTS: I gather you went to Mississippi, to Clarksdale. That’s presumably where ‘Clarksdale Sun’
comes from. What was that about?

VL: When I was around 12 years old, I went down to the Mississippi Delta for the first time as a

part of this Pinetop Perkins foundation master class workshop. I got to work with lots of really
great piano players and musicians and I actually performed at Morgan Freeman’s blues club,
Ground Zero, in Clarksdale, which was amazing. That was very, very inspirational that trip, to say
the least, and that’s where ‘Clarksdale Sun’ came from, just writing about that experience and also
‘Put Your Wig on Mama’, came from feeling the energy and vibe of where the blues began and
trying to capture that in that song. Lots of songs came out of that trip [chuckling].

BiTS: Forgive me for saying this, Veronica, but you’re very young. You’re young enough to be my
great-granddaughter, believe it or not [chuckles]. Have you been able to get COVID vaccinations?

VL: Yes. I think as a musician, it’s definitely important to take all the precautions, and as an artist,
I definitely feel responsibility to be as safe as we can as we’re inviting people to come to shows. I
want to make sure the audience is safe and everybody behind the scenes is safe, so yes, definitely
taking all the precautions necessary to get the music, live music back where it should be.