Post was the only founding member to remain and – joined by a fluctuating assortment of band members – she delivered two additional albums. Meanwhile, following her exit in 1998, Gordon went on to release two records under her own name. So, the pair’s creativity never ceased, but their time playing together appeared completely finished.
“I think Louise and I both felt that we were done,” Gordon says. “We didn’t speak to each other for years, we didn’t see each other for years. We did not think that we would play music together again.”
However, in April last year Veruca Salt’s original four members announced that they were back together. In recent years, there’s been a million and one bands from bygone decades staging supposedly-triumphant reunion tours. In many cases, skepticism is warranted concerning whether the reunion is basically conducted for the sake of financial profit. While Veruca Salt’s return was essentially unforeseen, Gordon assures that it wasn’t instigated by corporate intent.
“We were just so happy to be together,” she says. “We clicked back into it so quickly and seamlessly. When [Louise and I] sat down together in my basement and sang together the first time it was just like the heavens parted and angels sang. We were like, ‘Yeah, this is what we were meant to do’.”
OK, so this is an exceedingly positive story of reformation. But why has it happened now, after 15 years of separation? At the time of Gordon’s exit, it was made evident that an insurmountable personal conflict had developed within the band. Thus, it was only once these former hostilities had been laid to rest that Veruca Salt’s recommencement became feasible.
“We started speaking and emailing and our friendship started picking up again,” Gordon says. “There were certain obstacles that made it impossible for me to even imagine playing music with them, particularly with Louise, again. Those obstacles were slowly removed over time.”
While Post and Gordon’s friendship was back on track, it’s not as though as the band then immediately re-launched. Rather, the trigger for that decision came courtesy of the age-old source of motivation: envy.
“One day I got this jealous pang when I heard that Mazzy Star were playing at Coachella after 15 years of not playing together,” Gordon recalls. “It was the first time I’d had this feeling, like ‘I want to play with Louise again, and with Jim and Steve. We’ve got to do this’. That chemistry was too precious.”
“I just thought, ‘Oh shit! I want to do that’. I emailed [Louise] and I said, ‘Mazzy Star are doing it, shouldn’t we?’ and she wrote back, ‘Yeah we should. Let’s go have coffee’. So I called Jim and she called Steve and then we all had dinner and we were like, ‘Let’s play one show. We’ll play American Thighs from beginning to end and then we’ll be able bury the hatchets and lay it all to rest’.”
Getting back together to perform classic material is a fantastic opportunity for both the artist and the fans to bathe in nostalgia. But beyond this sentimental excursion, a lot of bands struggle to reconnect on a creative level. Upon reuniting, Veruca Salt didn’t set themselves any distinct targets, but the prospect of making new music quickly beckoned.
“Louise played a song for me that I really loved, a new song, and I thought ‘that sounds really good, we should record that’. Then we started recording and we both started writing like crazy again. It all kind of took off and now we have an album’s worth of material.
“Part of what makes it possible in our case is we were cut short before our time. The rift was personal – it was not musical. We were in the middle of working on our third album together and, I think, writing some of our best songs. Then all of a sudden all hell broke loose and we parted ways. In a way we’re picking up where we left off.”
Yes, on Record Store Day this April Veruca Salt unveiled two new singles, It’s Holy and Museum of Broken Relationships. The sheer fact that this happened was a major surprise. And it was an even greater surprise to discover that the songs are both pop-rock gems, which comfortably slot into the band’s revered repertoire.
“All I know is it feels genuine and it feels right and it sounds like us and it’s not like we’re actively trying to re-write Seether or Volcano Girls or something,” Gordon says. “I think in a lot of cases a band that’s been together for years and years, then went on hiatus and then got back together, it’s like they don’t really have anything new to say and it feels like they’re phoning it in. In our case, there’s still that same passion because we weren’t finished with each other, so it has a life of its own.”
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
