Nuda Veritas

When she was only 12 years old, Burlington singer-songwriter Rebecca Kopycinski decided she wanted to be a rock star. These days she doesn't play with a band or even own an electric guitar, but her passionate vocals and Wall-of-Sound arrangements produce powerful music - in her recordings and onstage.

Music contributor Matt Bushlow has this story.

(Bushlow) Kopycinski, also known as Nuda Veritas, often sings songs while she plays an acoustic guitar. But she doesn't want you to think of her that way.

(Kopycinski) "From the very beginning, I didn't want to be ‘a girl with her guitar,' I think that's just kind of played out. And personally, it bores me. So I always wanted to have something else. I call it ‘The Unique Factor.'"

(Bushlow) Her personal unique factor involves loops of repeated sounds or phrases. When Kopycinski loops some keyboard lines, a snippet of a cassette tape squealing through fast forward, and a few layers of her voice, it's easy to forget there's only one of her.

(Kopycinski) "I've shown up to gigs before and I've heard, the club promoter say to people who are asking, "Oh, it's a band with a few girls in it. It's a girl band." This happened recently in Northampton, and I walked up and said, "No, no, no. It's just me." And people don't realize that I can get this large sound behind me just by myself."

(Bushlow) For years, Kopycinski split her creative energy between this kind of heavily layered music and more subdued acoustic tunes. But recently, she's begun to find common ground between the two sides of her musical personality.

She also explores the theme of duality both onstage and on her 2011 album, Verses of Versus.

(Kopycinski) "I started to realize that I was a person that at the same time embodied two extreme opposites - in many different, different aspects of my life. I was eating really well and exercising, but then I would go out and, you know, have a really good time. And, ah, I was a super introverted hermit, but I was also desperately in need of socialization and people around me."

(Bushlow) Writing about the conflicts within herself - and bringing together the acoustic and experimental sides of her music have helped her gain greater balance in her life and art.

Kopycinski says it also helps that she had great experiences in the past year touring New England playing songs from Verses of Versus:

(Kopycinski) "People don't really know what it is I'm doing, and I think a lot of times they're - I don't want to say floored, because I don't want to sound full of myself, but I've had random strangers come up to me after shows and just wordlessly give me a bear hug. I'm like, Okay, I guess that was good. [laughs] I guess you liked that."

(Bushlow) Sometimes the reaction to her shows is more traditional. During a set at Higher Ground in South Burlington, the crowd listened in silence and then broke out in enthusiastic applause after each song.

You could say it was the audio equivalent of getting a bear hug from 150 people.

For VPR, I'm Matt Bushlow. - Vermont Public Radio

When she was only 12 years old, Burlington singer-songwriter Rebecca Kopycinski decided she wanted to be a rock star. These days she doesn't play with a band or even own an electric guitar, but her passionate vocals and Wall-of-Sound arrangements produce powerful music - in her recordings and onstage.

Music contributor Matt Bushlow has this story.

(Bushlow) Kopycinski, also known as Nuda Veritas, often sings songs while she plays an acoustic guitar. But she doesn't want you to think of her that way.

(Kopycinski) "From the very beginning, I didn't want to be ‘a girl with her guitar,' I think that's just kind of played out. And personally, it bores me. So I always wanted to have something else. I call it ‘The Unique Factor.'"

(Bushlow) Her personal unique factor involves loops of repeated sounds or phrases. When Kopycinski loops some keyboard lines, a snippet of a cassette tape squealing through fast forward, and a few layers of her voice, it's easy to forget there's only one of her.

(Kopycinski) "I've shown up to gigs before and I've heard, the club promoter say to people who are asking, "Oh, it's a band with a few girls in it. It's a girl band." This happened recently in Northampton, and I walked up and said, "No, no, no. It's just me." And people don't realize that I can get this large sound behind me just by myself."

(Bushlow) For years, Kopycinski split her creative energy between this kind of heavily layered music and more subdued acoustic tunes. But recently, she's begun to find common ground between the two sides of her musical personality.

She also explores the theme of duality both onstage and on her 2011 album, Verses of Versus.

(Kopycinski) "I started to realize that I was a person that at the same time embodied two extreme opposites - in many different, different aspects of my life. I was eating really well and exercising, but then I would go out and, you know, have a really good time. And, ah, I was a super introverted hermit, but I was also desperately in need of socialization and people around me."

(Bushlow) Writing about the conflicts within herself - and bringing together the acoustic and experimental sides of her music have helped her gain greater balance in her life and art.

Kopycinski says it also helps that she had great experiences in the past year touring New England playing songs from Verses of Versus:

(Kopycinski) "People don't really know what it is I'm doing, and I think a lot of times they're - I don't want to say floored, because I don't want to sound full of myself, but I've had random strangers come up to me after shows and just wordlessly give me a bear hug. I'm like, Okay, I guess that was good. [laughs] I guess you liked that."

(Bushlow) Sometimes the reaction to her shows is more traditional. During a set at Higher Ground in South Burlington, the crowd listened in silence and then broke out in enthusiastic applause after each song.

You could say it was the audio equivalent of getting a bear hug from 150 people.

For VPR, I'm Matt Bushlow. - Vermont Public Radio

“Please don’t let the fact I’m on the Aether Everywhere label plant the evil seed of ‘experimental’ music in your mind. It’s really quite listener friendly.” So reads the email sent by local experi . . . um, electro-acoustic songwriter Rebecca Kopycinski, a.k.a. Nuda Veritas, regarding her debut double album, Songs for Doing Dishes/Still Lives. The two-disc epic presents a tenuous blend of folk sensibility and electronic dalliance, tempered by solid and, in several cases, powerful writing and some truly stunning arrangements, both vocal and instrumental. In a way, it could be regarded as the local “other music” label’s first crossover release. And yes, it is indeed “listener friendly.” Although that may depend on just who is listening.

Dishes should appeal to a wide swath of fans across both the folk and experimental spectrums. If genre tags are your thing, I suppose it would fit, though not exactly neatly, into that nebulous gray area known as indie-folk. Or better still, chamber-folk. But if you’re looking for neat and tidy, you’ve come to the wrong place. Because the good stuff in life usually requires you to get a little dirty, right?

From the opening salvo, “Captain,” it’s clear we’re in for an unpredictable journey. Backed only by a chorus of voices — all hers — and a sprightly bassoon, Kopycinski’s lead pirouettes around the tune’s shanty-ish lyrics like some siren combination of Joni Mitchell, Leslie Feist and Ishmael.

“Drive” follows with a more conventional, soothing guitar-voice folk sound. While it’s a seamlessly pretty number, it almost feels as if Kopycinski is buttering us up for the following tune, “Conflict of the Flesh.”

Very simply put, the allure of “experimental” music stems largely from its purveyors’ appreciation of and willingness to play around with the building blocks of music: sounds. On “Conflict,” Kopycinksi takes the practice a step further, applying it to her poetry as she contorts her considerable vocal prowess to render her words into near-imperceptible syllables, the emotive qualities of her voice delivering their meaning.

Listeners, friendly or otherwise, would do well to keep that playfulness in mind when approaching the second volume, Still Lives. The disc is an approximate meld of Aether Everywhere’s stated bailiwicks: “drone, ambient, sound collage, heavy psych, noise and all the points where they intersect.” Or to put it in layperson’s terms: far out, man. Put yet another way, the album is the musical manifestation of its handmade cover art. Each copy’s jacket was sewn together from pieces of recycled LP covers — mine: Robert Plant’s Shaken & Stirred. Not for the faint of ears, Kopycinski’s sonic abstractions — vocal and otherwise — challenge the listener to pay attention. But those who do will be rewarded with a glimpse into the stirring creative soul of a visionary local artist.
- Seven Days

“Please don’t let the fact I’m on the Aether Everywhere label plant the evil seed of ‘experimental’ music in your mind. It’s really quite listener friendly.” So reads the email sent by local experi . . . um, electro-acoustic songwriter Rebecca Kopycinski, a.k.a. Nuda Veritas, regarding her debut double album, Songs for Doing Dishes/Still Lives. The two-disc epic presents a tenuous blend of folk sensibility and electronic dalliance, tempered by solid and, in several cases, powerful writing and some truly stunning arrangements, both vocal and instrumental. In a way, it could be regarded as the local “other music” label’s first crossover release. And yes, it is indeed “listener friendly.” Although that may depend on just who is listening.

Dishes should appeal to a wide swath of fans across both the folk and experimental spectrums. If genre tags are your thing, I suppose it would fit, though not exactly neatly, into that nebulous gray area known as indie-folk. Or better still, chamber-folk. But if you’re looking for neat and tidy, you’ve come to the wrong place. Because the good stuff in life usually requires you to get a little dirty, right?

From the opening salvo, “Captain,” it’s clear we’re in for an unpredictable journey. Backed only by a chorus of voices — all hers — and a sprightly bassoon, Kopycinski’s lead pirouettes around the tune’s shanty-ish lyrics like some siren combination of Joni Mitchell, Leslie Feist and Ishmael.

“Drive” follows with a more conventional, soothing guitar-voice folk sound. While it’s a seamlessly pretty number, it almost feels as if Kopycinski is buttering us up for the following tune, “Conflict of the Flesh.”

Very simply put, the allure of “experimental” music stems largely from its purveyors’ appreciation of and willingness to play around with the building blocks of music: sounds. On “Conflict,” Kopycinksi takes the practice a step further, applying it to her poetry as she contorts her considerable vocal prowess to render her words into near-imperceptible syllables, the emotive qualities of her voice delivering their meaning.

Listeners, friendly or otherwise, would do well to keep that playfulness in mind when approaching the second volume, Still Lives. The disc is an approximate meld of Aether Everywhere’s stated bailiwicks: “drone, ambient, sound collage, heavy psych, noise and all the points where they intersect.” Or to put it in layperson’s terms: far out, man. Put yet another way, the album is the musical manifestation of its handmade cover art. Each copy’s jacket was sewn together from pieces of recycled LP covers — mine: Robert Plant’s Shaken & Stirred. Not for the faint of ears, Kopycinski’s sonic abstractions — vocal and otherwise — challenge the listener to pay attention. But those who do will be rewarded with a glimpse into the stirring creative soul of a visionary local artist.
- Seven Days

The cover image of Nuda Veritas’ latest album, Verses of Versus, offers two opposing impressions of the Burlington-based songwriter, whose given name is Rebecca Kopycinski. On the left is a quiet, contemplative woman whose gray-blue eyes are piercing yet warm. A thin smile creeps toward the corners of her lips, her inviting visage framed by a pixieish hairdo and brightened by a white sweater.

Standing next to her, in profile, is a hellion in black. Unkempt hair hangs in limp, greasy strands above her shoulders. She sneers while exhaling the last drag of a cigarette held loosely between her thumb and forefinger, perhaps readying to flick it toward her twin in white.

“It’s about paradox and irony and opposites,” says Kopycinski, 27, explaining the central themes of her new record — though she could just as accurately be describing its cover art. “So many times, two extreme opposites can coexist as one. So this was supposed to be a picture of how that happens.”

Her debut double album, Songs for Doing Dishes/Still Lives, released on local “other music” label Aether Everywhere, was also an exposition of opposing aesthetics. Dishes featured largely accessible, folk-based songwriting accented by ethereal experimental flourishes. Still Lives dove fearlessly down the rabbit hole, challenging listeners with an unwieldy assortment of ambient noise, drones and loops. Gestating for nearly two years, Verses of Versus is the offspring of those two discs and represents the artistic nexus where they intersect.

Sonically, the album melds the varying disciplines explored on her debut. On the a cappella opener, “Tension/Release,” a blooming, unadorned chorus of Kopycinski ebbs and flows. The following track, “Sheets,” employs ambient noises and loops of unidentifiable voices — perhaps taken from an answering- machine tape — to create a foreboding undercurrent of uncertainty beneath a bed of otherwise simple, pretty acoustic guitar and voice. Other songs, such as “L-I-V-I-N,” are based almost entirely on constructing and then deconstructing repetitive electronic loops. Still others are mostly au naturel. “Zodiac for the End of Time (aka Lion’s Share)” is entirely built on guitar and voice, while “Anachronistic Heart” comes to life in a swell of layered voices and harmonica.

“It’s chaos mixed with beauty,” Kopycinski suggests.

“Opposites Attack” is emblematic of her approach. A clean, staccato acoustic- guitar progression fights for space with a grimy and equally aggressive synthesizer line. The singer alternates between anguished wails and a controlled but exquisitely emotive melody. The song is Verses in microcosm.

“She has a great musical instinct,” says Mars Pyramid Records founder Jay Blanchard. “And if the emotions she is trying to express require both a hand-plucked harp and a reversed loop of synthesizer noises, then she does it.”

Blanchard is as intimately familiar with Nuda Veritas’ growth and evolution as anyone, other than Kopycinski herself. He served as her recording engineer on Verses. He was also the public-relations director at Aether Everywhere when the label released her debut in 2009, though he views releasing that album under the AE banner as a double-edged sword.

“Rebecca gets lumped into the ‘Burlington experimental scene’ too often, usually to her detriment,” Blanchard says. “While her affiliation with Aether Everywhere probably didn’t help that, it did hopefully open her up to a new fan base that probably wouldn’t have been interested in another female singer-songwriter otherwise.”

He adds that while Kopycinski takes risks with her music, bewildering the listener is never the goal.

“The most important thing is always the music,” Blanchard says. “The experimentation is only useful if it helps to accentuate her lyrics and melodies. It’s never a superfluous flourish.”

Verses is lyrically dense. Kopycinski says she initially intended to write more broadly. But she ultimately turned inward, using conflict in her own life for inspiration.

“I’m a total extrovert and, at the same time, a total introvert,” she explains. Kopycinski lives alone. And she prefers to work and, especially, make music alone, calling herself a “complete creative control freak.” Conversely, she admits a strong need to connect and surround herself with other people.

“Sometimes when you spend all that time with yourself, and don’t foster those relationships … they might not be there anymore because you’ve neglected them,” Kopycinski says, revealing the inspiration for “Sheets.”

“I washed you right out of my sheets / so I could be alone when I sleep. / I don’t need you, / Most, most, most of the time,” she coos on the song. Then, at its conclusion, “When I need you you’re not there, / Most, most, most of the time.”

Blanchard says Kopycinksi’s lyrical depth has evolved since her debut.

“While she has always been a great writer, her works have been becoming more and more intensely personal and - Seven Days

The cover image of Nuda Veritas’ latest album, Verses of Versus, offers two opposing impressions of the Burlington-based songwriter, whose given name is Rebecca Kopycinski. On the left is a quiet, contemplative woman whose gray-blue eyes are piercing yet warm. A thin smile creeps toward the corners of her lips, her inviting visage framed by a pixieish hairdo and brightened by a white sweater.

Standing next to her, in profile, is a hellion in black. Unkempt hair hangs in limp, greasy strands above her shoulders. She sneers while exhaling the last drag of a cigarette held loosely between her thumb and forefinger, perhaps readying to flick it toward her twin in white.

“It’s about paradox and irony and opposites,” says Kopycinski, 27, explaining the central themes of her new record — though she could just as accurately be describing its cover art. “So many times, two extreme opposites can coexist as one. So this was supposed to be a picture of how that happens.”

Her debut double album, Songs for Doing Dishes/Still Lives, released on local “other music” label Aether Everywhere, was also an exposition of opposing aesthetics. Dishes featured largely accessible, folk-based songwriting accented by ethereal experimental flourishes. Still Lives dove fearlessly down the rabbit hole, challenging listeners with an unwieldy assortment of ambient noise, drones and loops. Gestating for nearly two years, Verses of Versus is the offspring of those two discs and represents the artistic nexus where they intersect.

Sonically, the album melds the varying disciplines explored on her debut. On the a cappella opener, “Tension/Release,” a blooming, unadorned chorus of Kopycinski ebbs and flows. The following track, “Sheets,” employs ambient noises and loops of unidentifiable voices — perhaps taken from an answering- machine tape — to create a foreboding undercurrent of uncertainty beneath a bed of otherwise simple, pretty acoustic guitar and voice. Other songs, such as “L-I-V-I-N,” are based almost entirely on constructing and then deconstructing repetitive electronic loops. Still others are mostly au naturel. “Zodiac for the End of Time (aka Lion’s Share)” is entirely built on guitar and voice, while “Anachronistic Heart” comes to life in a swell of layered voices and harmonica.

“It’s chaos mixed with beauty,” Kopycinski suggests.

“Opposites Attack” is emblematic of her approach. A clean, staccato acoustic- guitar progression fights for space with a grimy and equally aggressive synthesizer line. The singer alternates between anguished wails and a controlled but exquisitely emotive melody. The song is Verses in microcosm.

“She has a great musical instinct,” says Mars Pyramid Records founder Jay Blanchard. “And if the emotions she is trying to express require both a hand-plucked harp and a reversed loop of synthesizer noises, then she does it.”

Blanchard is as intimately familiar with Nuda Veritas’ growth and evolution as anyone, other than Kopycinski herself. He served as her recording engineer on Verses. He was also the public-relations director at Aether Everywhere when the label released her debut in 2009, though he views releasing that album under the AE banner as a double-edged sword.

“Rebecca gets lumped into the ‘Burlington experimental scene’ too often, usually to her detriment,” Blanchard says. “While her affiliation with Aether Everywhere probably didn’t help that, it did hopefully open her up to a new fan base that probably wouldn’t have been interested in another female singer-songwriter otherwise.”

He adds that while Kopycinski takes risks with her music, bewildering the listener is never the goal.

“The most important thing is always the music,” Blanchard says. “The experimentation is only useful if it helps to accentuate her lyrics and melodies. It’s never a superfluous flourish.”

Verses is lyrically dense. Kopycinski says she initially intended to write more broadly. But she ultimately turned inward, using conflict in her own life for inspiration.

“I’m a total extrovert and, at the same time, a total introvert,” she explains. Kopycinski lives alone. And she prefers to work and, especially, make music alone, calling herself a “complete creative control freak.” Conversely, she admits a strong need to connect and surround herself with other people.

“Sometimes when you spend all that time with yourself, and don’t foster those relationships … they might not be there anymore because you’ve neglected them,” Kopycinski says, revealing the inspiration for “Sheets.”

“I washed you right out of my sheets / so I could be alone when I sleep. / I don’t need you, / Most, most, most of the time,” she coos on the song. Then, at its conclusion, “When I need you you’re not there, / Most, most, most of the time.”

Blanchard says Kopycinksi’s lyrical depth has evolved since her debut.

“While she has always been a great writer, her works have been becoming more and more intensely personal and - Seven Days

To some (jerks like me, for example), the phrase nuda veritas calls to mind the famous Gustav Klimt painting that depicts a nude female gazing starkly back at the viewer; a look in her eye suggesting that she knows, relatively speaking, a whole lotta stuff. On the other hand, to those who don’t really know any Latin (or just plain don’t care about art history), the term nuda veritas refers literally to the “naked truth,” or rather, the bare and utter rawness of reality. The title, therefore, aptly fits up and coming electro-acoustic composer/performing artist/singer songwriter Rebecca Kopycinski (aka Nuda Veritas) out of Burlington, whose haunting yet stunningly beautiful vocals and minimalist approach to music force the listener into hearing pure sound: plain and simple.

The experience of listening to music can be, under certain circumstances of course, truly transcendent to some; Nuda Veritas attempts to achieve the same transcendence through her music, and surely succeeds. She uses an array of instruments, most notably her voice, looped creatively and methodically to create a sound distinguishable among many. Fans of Sufjan Stevens or Imogen Heap will rejoice; while everyone else will be simply amazed by the Goddamned gorgeous sounds she creates.
- The Deli Magazine

To some (jerks like me, for example), the phrase nuda veritas calls to mind the famous Gustav Klimt painting that depicts a nude female gazing starkly back at the viewer; a look in her eye suggesting that she knows, relatively speaking, a whole lotta stuff. On the other hand, to those who don’t really know any Latin (or just plain don’t care about art history), the term nuda veritas refers literally to the “naked truth,” or rather, the bare and utter rawness of reality. The title, therefore, aptly fits up and coming electro-acoustic composer/performing artist/singer songwriter Rebecca Kopycinski (aka Nuda Veritas) out of Burlington, whose haunting yet stunningly beautiful vocals and minimalist approach to music force the listener into hearing pure sound: plain and simple.

The experience of listening to music can be, under certain circumstances of course, truly transcendent to some; Nuda Veritas attempts to achieve the same transcendence through her music, and surely succeeds. She uses an array of instruments, most notably her voice, looped creatively and methodically to create a sound distinguishable among many. Fans of Sufjan Stevens or Imogen Heap will rejoice; while everyone else will be simply amazed by the Goddamned gorgeous sounds she creates.
- The Deli Magazine

The music is Beautiful and the soundscapes are wonderfully intriguing. Nuda Veritas oscillates very smoothly between a more conventional style of vocal-centric song writing and abstract sound manipulation that create a wavy, transcending experience. Rebecca, the voice and musician of Nuda Veritas, is noted as being a minimalist interested in conveying emotions through sound, softly and clearly, and she does just that. Not that you need to bring a pen and pencil to take notes at the show, but it will be a bit more than just nice sounding noise. The layered looping instrumentation and vocal harmonies coalesce into a gentle hum reflecting the attention and complexity of Nuda Veritas. - The Deli Magazine

The music is Beautiful and the soundscapes are wonderfully intriguing. Nuda Veritas oscillates very smoothly between a more conventional style of vocal-centric song writing and abstract sound manipulation that create a wavy, transcending experience. Rebecca, the voice and musician of Nuda Veritas, is noted as being a minimalist interested in conveying emotions through sound, softly and clearly, and she does just that. Not that you need to bring a pen and pencil to take notes at the show, but it will be a bit more than just nice sounding noise. The layered looping instrumentation and vocal harmonies coalesce into a gentle hum reflecting the attention and complexity of Nuda Veritas. - The Deli Magazine