We Speak Music

Veronica D’Souza continues her journey from fashion pioneer to producer with powerful dancey summer hymn “Peaches In My Halo”, out now!

Published

2 years ago

September 6, 2024

Don Reed

“Masterfully melds sensations of impatience, passion, dread, and hope”- The Line Of Best Fit
“Her unique sound authentically reflects emotional depth, lush harmonies, and a courageous commitment to change.”– Wonderland

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 debut single “Just Because A Crush” caused a stir in May when it was picked up and praised by The Line Of Best Fit and Wonderland Magazine. Now Veronica returns with her second single “Peaches In My Halo”.

‘Peaches In My Halo’ is an unapologetic dancey alt-pop epic with a simple message – to say yes to all that you are and let your confined identities loose. The track’s syncopated rhythms and infectious chants shake the listener awake from their past versions of themselves as Veronica’s soaring fierce vocal and synth moods twist and turn from crystalline melancholy to life-affirming upliftment, creating a hymn-like power.

The track is a journey of rebellious, transformative social critique towards joyful liberation and comes from Veronica D’Souza’s upcoming debut album. The album was produced by Veronica herself and mixed by Jorge Elbrecht, who is known for his work with, among others, Sky Ferreira, Caroline Polachek and Weyes Blood. Veronica contacted Jorge Elbrecht a year ago, and he immediately fell in love with her sound and has since mixed the rest of the album.

Veronica D’Souza lives in Copenhagen, and she personifies fearless creativity and a genre-defining approach. In addition to her music, she is also recognized for her great work as an entrepreneur, activist, change agent and advocate for women’s rights, where her transformative influence resonates through her musical art. Veronica D’Souza’s music reflects her authentic voice of emotional depth, lush harmonies, and a courageous commitment and urge for change.

Veronica was 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 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.

On “Peaches In My Halo”, Veronica explains, “We all live under a carpet of external expectations and internalized limitations. This song says to defy the confined boundaries and societal norms, dare to dream, and allow yourself to live out all the different versions of you. It’s about rebelliousness, transformation, and social critique. Throw your head back, take space, be it all, live it all. What would happen if you did, just for a minute.”

For the single’s visual elements, Veronica D’Souza has worked with visual artist Ida Hermansen on a set of stunning photos that complement the track’s themes of breaking free from what others and the world expect of you, and embracing all you dream to be.

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.