Don’t let the date on her birth certificate fool you, there is a palpable depth, maturity and precocious wisdom to the music created by Texan rocker Very Alora.
Barely out of her teens, the native of the aptly named community of Poetry, Texas, just outside of Dallas, has relocated to the music epicentre of Nashville, and is already becoming known as a go-to collaborator and an eminently talented vocalist and songwriter, who has seemingly melded the best of 1970s and 1990 hard rock and metal, with the sensibilities of a 21st century musical maven.
After touring with the Texas Hippie Coalition to wrap up 2019, Very Alora released the first single from a forthcoming EP, Mama Don’t Make Me, and is currently back out on the road for a swing through a number of southern U.S. states, including many dates in her home state, wrapping up in late February in Arizona opening for Smile Empty Soul and Tantric.
Mama Don’t Make Me is highly representative not only of Alora’s sound but her approach to music, which brings together the sound and tones of the music she grew up, combined with wistful and nostalgic lyrics, but also a sense that time has moved on and that ‘growing up’ needs to happen.
“It’s really hard to describe my music. I would say its modern rock with classic rock elements. I think that’s the best way to describe it, because I know that everyone’s sound is unique, but sometimes it’s a little easier to place it for other people. And I am still messing around with finding my sound and grooving with it. I do have to say that I am so in love with the 1970s and 1980s guitar sounds in particular, as well as the really heavy, driving drum beat from that era,” she said, adding that one thing that does set her apart is her vocal delivery, which is more modern pop sounding than modern rock, complementing the hard driving instrumentation with a more lilting melodic voice.
“I feel that sometimes I sound like Hayley Williams from Paramore. I love her voice, her powerful vocals, but I didn’t want to be her growing up, I wanted to have my own sound. When I turned 13, I fell in love with Styx and Toto and Queen and that whole era of music, and I am still in love with it. I am still right in the middle of that phase and I don’t think I will ever leave it. But a lot of the melodies that I write, they don’t necessarily sound like classic rock, but they’re very inspiring to me. The singers that continue to inspire me the most are Freddie Mercury and Hayley Williams above all else. I would love to be an amalgamation of those two singers.”
For the single Mama Don’t Make Me, Alora began the writing process about 18 months ago. Working alongside veteran Nashville songwriters Mark McGuinn and Ray Horton, she penned a tune that not only appeals to people around her own age, but anyone who remembers being that age, or even those folks who have kids that age.
“I started thinking about my mother and how I kind of missed having to be woken up every morning for school and the luxury of having someone to wake you up instead of just an alarm or your phone, and how I even kind of missed that high school feeling. We started bouncing those ideas off each other, me as someone who just go out of school and them as parents who had to deal with that from the other side every morning,” she said.
“Generally, for me a song idea or title will come first and the usually the first couple of verses, then some chords on the guitar before the melodies, words and then moving on to the chorus. Of course, every writing session is different. Sometimes the vocal lines come first, sometimes melodies come first, words come first. For me, it’s easier if I have a guitar part to write the melody off of first, which is why I like to work with co-writers. I do try to write as much on my own as possible, but I am not the strongest guitar player – I am taking lessons to get better. A lot of times I like to bring my ideas to a writing session with someone who plays guitar and sings. I like to write with other people a lot more now because I feel like I get so many more creative ideas when I can bounce stuff off of other people. That’s how all the songs on this album came about especially.”
Alora has found Nashville to be a very welcoming community, even though it is at the heart of what can sometimes be a heartless music industry.
“I love it here. There are so many different kinds of music and I have met a lot of amazing people who play around here. There are a lot of fantastic, creative people, and the city’s got a very cool vibe. I have never been anywhere where there are so many people who work in the same field. It’s kind of cool to do what you love to do and run into so many people who work in the same field as you, wherever you go in town,” she said.
The forthcoming, as-yet-untitled Very Alora EP was produced by a true legend of the business, German-born Michael Wagener. Wagener’s pedigree as a music producer and engineer, especially in the hard rock and metal world, is hard to match. With a list of credits highlighted by the likes of Accept, Dokken, Alice Cooper, Skid Row, Metallica, Stryper, Warrant and White Lion, prospects of a young Texan musician/songwriter, barely out of her teens being intimidated by such a personage would be understandable.
But two things mitigated this situation from occurring. The first is that Alora is a self assured artist and woman. She knows what her strengths and limitations are, she is confident in her ability and her sound, and she is unafraid to set boundaries and stand her ground. Secondly, Wagener is an exceptionally decent, understanding and welcoming human being.
“I first met Michael when I was 17. I was in Nashville with my manager at his house and doing some writing sessions and he said, ‘hey let me introduce you to somebody.’ And he took me out to Michael’s studio, and I got to meet him for the first time and saw his studio and everything. My manager said he knew Michael from years and years ago, back when he was in his own hair metal band. And I guess he worked at a pizza place next to a studio that Michael used to record in. He’d order pizza over a couple of times a week and my manager met him through that. It’s crazy who you can know and how you can meet someone in this business,” she said.
“It did kind of surprise me when Johnny [Dwinell, her manager] said, ‘hey I want to introduce you to somebody’ and it turned out to be this legend Michael Wagener. That was amazing because that first time I met him, he had just hit 100 million records sold as a producer/engineer and he was celebrating. I could not imagine doing that, it’s a pretty massive number. And he turned out to be one of the sweetest people I have ever met. I am so grateful to have been able to work with him. He treated me very respectfully, like I was a professional.
“So, he would say, ‘okay this is what were doing’ and he mapped out what days we were doing certain things, what days we were doing vocals, what days we were recording bass, guitars, drums. And we just worked through it one step at a time. After a couple of takes, once he was happy it was like, okay let’s move on to the next song. It was awesome. It was amazing to get to work with him period, but it was also amazing to be in his studio and record my first album. I had never done an album before.”
For more information on the forthcoming EP, any new singles coming forth, and tour dates, visit www.veryalora.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
