VÉRITÉ

Vérité emerged as the moody electro-pop project of Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter Kelsey Byrne. Her initial breakthrough arrived with the 2014 viral track “Strange Enough,” after which she issued three self-released EPs—Echo, Sentiment, and Living—before a 2016 reinterpretation of the 1975’s “Somebody Else” amassed more than 100 million streams across the following decade. The 2017 full-length Somewhere in Between marked her official debut, followed in 2019 by the reflective second album New Skin; into the 2020s she continued with New Limbs (Vol. 1) and several joint releases. Her third album, Love You Forever, appeared in 2023 and sustained the atmospheric, rhythm-focused introspection that defines her work.

Raised in New York’s Orange County, Byrne absorbed the sound of ’90s alternative acts including Nirvana, Green Day, the Breeders, and the Cranberries while studying piano from a young age. She joined her father, a rock musician, onstage during elementary school and later assembled an all-girl punk covers group in middle school. Songwriting began at sixteen; after earning a Bachelor of Arts in studio composition from SUNY Purchase, she launched Vérité alongside drummer-producer Elliot Jacobson while employed full-time as a waitress at the Times Square Applebee’s. The 2014 YouTube posting of “Heartbeat” preceded the July release of “Strange Enough,” which topped Hype Machine and accelerated the project’s online audience. “Weekend” followed in August and appeared on the October EP Echo. In 2015, “Wasteland” and “Colors”—the latter produced by MS MR’s Zach Nicita—led to the June arrival of Sentiment. The 2016 single “Underdressed” and EP Living expanded Vérité’s sonic range through collaborations with producers Stefan Graslund, Tim Anderson, and Peter Thomas, while Byrne’s cover of “Somebody Else” again spread virally.

Early 2017 brought the Phantoms collaboration “Just a Feeling,” and the single “Phase Me Out” preceded the June release of Somewhere in Between on Kobalt Music. January 2018 saw a recording of Sufjan Stevens’s “John My Beloved,” followed the next month by a remix EP drawn from the debut album. New material resurfaced in May 2019 with “Gone,” which anchored the sophomore album New Skin. Two years afterward she issued New Limbs (Vol. 1), adding joint tracks with Jax Anderson (“Bigger Picture”), Showtek (“Pour It Down”), Pussy Riot (“Laugh It Off”), and Portair (“Above the Salt”). Love You Forever reached listeners in February 2023, spotlighting the atmospheric singles “Are We Done Yet?” and “Cry Cry Cry” that pair programmed beats with her signature spacious production.