Viji is the musical project of Vanilla Jenner, an Austrian-Brazilian songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who is now based in London. Today, she has revealed that she’s been signed by the excellent label Dirty Hit (The 1975, Rina Sawayama) and has shared her debut single “Cherry”. She says:
“Cherry is the first song I wrote for this project. It was when I started writing on guitar again. I got the hook in the chorus and the song unfolded around it. The lyrics are about a crush, when you like someone else more than they like you but don’t see it. It took a while to crunch the words because when I first played it to people they didn’t get what I was trying to say lol.“
On her debut single, Viji has presented a compelling brand of grotty indie-pop. On the one hand, “Cherry” is a driving and buoyant rock song, lifted by luminous synths that relay the feeling of her crushing on somebody. But, in her vocal, Viji gives us a less varnished view of herself and her emotions with a slightly sneering delivery as she observes herself in the mirror and wonders how to make herself more appealing. “Cherry” carries some disappointment, but by the end of its blustering few minutes, it feels as though Viji is leaving that negativity behind as bright melodies and wordless vocals push her to a place where she has more love and respect for herself.
“Cherry” also has a great where Viji is turned into a computer game character. She says:
“The video characters are based off the Wonderkins from the y2k style dollz pages. I don’t remember where I got the idea for the video, but I wanted to create a sims-esque world the song could live in. Someone of Fiverr did the animations and I put it together on my computer. The posters in the video are some of my fav albums.”
With more to come from Viji very soon, make sure you follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
