We Speak Music

Veronica D’Souza calls for a new world order of equality and protection of our planet with powerful new single “A Mountain”

Published

1 year ago

December 13, 2024

Don Reed

“Masterfully melds sensations of impatience, passion, dread, and hope”- The Line Of Best Fit

“Soulful and rustic… retro soul backbeats and lush backing vocals”- TMRW Magazine

“Celebrates self-acceptance and liberation through infectious alt-pop rhythms”- Notion Magazine

“Her unique sound authentically reflects emotional depth, lush harmonies, and a courageous commitment to change.”– Wonderland

“A defiant celebration of self-expression and liberation.”- NBHAP

Veronica D’Souza is an Indian/East African/Danish independent producer and songwriter, with a feminist, multicultural, and artistic approach to music and the world. Her first two singles “Just Because A Crush” and “Peaches In My Halo” have set the music world alight with praise from The Line Of Best Fit, Wonderland Magazine, NBHAP, Notion Magazine, TMRW Magazine and many more.

Her new single “A Mountain”, which was produced by Veronica herself and mixed by Jorge Elbrecht (Sky Ferreira, Caroline Polachek and Weyes Blood), continues the string of excellent alt-pop singles. The vibrant song with its bold, fast-paced expression explores a whole new world order, of a matriarchal society where there is balance between genders, generations, between humans and nature. It’s a powerful rebellion against the entrenched world order of late patriarchy, extractive economics, and power games, calling for a fresh narrative.

“Instead of asking for a seat at the table, this song is asking for new tables”, explains Veronica. “It’s asking for tables where magic, feminine energy, nature, collaboration and friendships rule.And it’s asking for gatekeepers to step down from the boardrooms to give space for a new world grounded in values of equity, stewardship, and collectivity. Our future depends on making space for those who build from a different set of rules”, she further explains.

The video for “A Mountain” which was directed by Veronica and shot with the help of acclaimed Danish film director & screenwriter Martin de Thurah, features Veronica’s young daughters and their friends, a new generation, ruling their world of kindness. The sweet visuals are juxtaposed with the track’s serious sentiments creating a striking vision of hope for the future, where young girls do not have to abide by destructive systems but can rebuild from friendship and goodness.

The thought-provoking song with its repeated refrain, “I won’t be giving my whole life”, is a powerful manifesto for those ready to break free from outdated paradigms, reclaim their narrative, and rise up in solidarity for a world where equality and respect for our planet prevail.

Veronica D’Souza is the founder of fashion label CARCEL, which made headlines in Vogue, i-D mag, The Huffington Post and made the cover of The New York Times globally for its innovative approach to empowering women in prisons with paid employment and education through luxurious and sustainable clothes. She also co-founded Ruby Cup, a social enterprise dedicated to providing sustainable menstrual products to women and girls in East Africa.

Having to close down CARCEL due to Covid was a catalyst for Veronica to find her voice again in a new way and teach herself how to produce music. In line with her entrepreneurial spirit, she took the lead and spent the nights on YouTube to emerge as a self-taught and independent artist. Veronica’s music is an extension of her work promoting women’s rights and her fight for social change. There is a common thread in her messages and her way of looking at the world with an in-depth storytelling of many different layers and genres.

We Speak Music

Michele Ducci teases new album with uplifting indie single ‘Woman Like You’

Published

1 day ago

April 17, 2026

Don Reed

Michele Ducci has unveiled the second single, ‘Woman Like You’, from his forthcoming album and animated film ‘Snail in the Clouds’.

‘Woman Like You’ pairs bright distorted electric guitar with an electronic drumbeat, adding in Ducci’s soulful vocals and a catchy uplifting chorus with Letizia Mandoleisi’s sweet vocal harmonies. A vintage organ pedalboard operated by Ducci simultaneously generates chords, bass and rhythm, like a one-man band. Shane Kennedy (Girl in the Year Above) joins in on guitar. Simon Milner (Is Tropical, Ysing) recorded and produced the track at his 4am Studios in London.

The album and film tell the story of a planet called ‘Snail’, inhabited by hybrids – primarily a mixture between scorpions, snails and humans – who lead a life according to the style of Pythagoras, devoted to music. There is also a cloud man named Agostos, a writer of musical operettas, who together with a talking smoke machine called Doctor Subtilis, begins to kill all hybrids, targeting in particular the hybrid musician Diodoros and his band, in an effort to steal the ark of melodies, an ancient ship that allows the whole planet to survive with music and joy.

The video for the single, created and animated by Ducci and Mandoleisi, delves further into the realm of planet ‘Snail’:

Says Ducci, “The ark of melodies, after various attempts, finally starts to work and fly in the planet Snail, while the shady Doc. Sub. and Agostos, with their platoon of soldiers made of foggy smoke, spy the miracle, planning to steal the ark for their evil and tyrannical purposes.”

About the track, Michele says, “I wrote this song for my love Letizia. Love seen from the mind is the sound we make. Sound is the love of matter.

We used a Technics synthesizer organ from a flea market. I tried to find a mood that was right for the song and I started using the bass of the pedal board together with the synth and the drums, and it was magical to hear the song reveal itself all coming from a single instrument. Leti was singing with me and we recorded everything live in one shot. Then we made Shane do the guitar flight, as if he came out of the window. The idea was to maintain disproportions, guitar thrust and synth drum thinness a la Haroumi Hosono, so as to create an estrangement, but naturally: it’s about how I listen, with close up something that captures me in its nuance as element of a larger orchestra somewhere. I’m glad we decided in the studio with Simon to use the layers of arrangement as the close-ups in the cinema; they look like strange enlargements that perch on parts of a mutated orchestra. I’m happy to come back with this love song at a time when everything seems to opt, even my labor in managing the flows of selfishness that have poured out on me while doing this album, for the sound of war. I’m here happy to be able to say that the sound of love always wins as did for me. Snail in the clouds is one of the most important works in my life and I am glad to start from pure love for this album that is my son.”

The album and full-length film will be released on the 5^th of June on Monotreme Records.

Michele and Letizia’s previous musical short film, ‘The Great Book of Nature’, is an official selection for the 2026 Venice Shorts Film Festival.