Louise Post of Veruca Salt Releases New Song 'What About'

One of Alternative rock’s most important trailblazers, Louise Post - of seminal band Veruca Salt - releases her latest song “What About” from her upcoming first solo album, entitled Sleepwalker, out June 2 on El Camino Media. The guitar hazy atmospheric track from the album, “What About” continues to showcase Post’s ability to weave intricate lyrical tapestries with undeniable, hook-heavy melodies that make up Sleepwalker. 

About the track Post said, “‘What About’ addresses loss. And navigating the world without someone you thought you would spend an eternity with. Trying to find your footing after the disappearance of someone you love. All of the questions that remain. All of the wonder, grief, speculation, and anger. Mostly, the regret of things left unsaid and things left undone.” 

For the past three decades, Louise Post has been the co-frontwoman of the celebrated act Veruca Salt, whose massive hit singles like “Seether” and “Volcano Girls” are still in regular rotation on rock radio. Although Veruca Salt has consistently released music with Post as the sole constant member, during the pandemic she started writing a collection of songs that felt more personal and less like the follow-up to Veruca Salt’s 2015 return-to-form, Ghost Notes. 

During these inspired solitary sessions, Post eventually wrote three albums worth of material and was able to edit it down to this collection of eleven songs with help from producer, engineer and multi-instrumentalist, Matt Drenik (Lions, Battleme). With the help of Robin Holden as the primary drummer/engineer, Louise and Matt traded off instruments and welcomed a larger cast of talented musicians to help fill out the sound. Collectively, they built the sonic textures that she felt the songs needed, which ultimately formed Sleepwalker.

“I have always identified as a sleepwalker,” Post says of the album’s title. “I slept-walked around my house routinely when I was a child, and even down the street. I believe in hindsight it was me trying to process what was going on in my home with my parents’ troubled marriage.”

From the mesmerizing and moody opener “Queen of the Pirates'' to the electronica-inflected pop of “All Messed Up” and the Pixies-esque guitar grandeur of “Guilty,” Sleepwalker is an album that showcases the various aspects of Post’s songwriting while still staying true to the distinctive niche she’s carved out for herself through her work in Veruca Salt. She also believes that the influence of her child exposing her to artists like Billie Eilish and Finneas, as well as her own admiration for Post Malone and Imagine Dragons, among others, impacted her songwriting.

Like all of Posts’s best songs, there’s a darkness beneath the surface on Sleepwalker that gives the album a haunting quality that is far from accidental. The sensitivity to her past, and attention to her inner child, is evident on this album, particularly when it comes to songs like the piano-driven “Hollywood Hills.”

Post insists that recording and releasing Sleepwalker wasn’t only a creative endeavor but that she also felt a responsibility to add her voice to the common collective and be loud regarding injustices, whether it came to relationships (“All Messed Up”), feminism (“Queen of the Pirates”) or politics (“Killer”).

In support of Sleepwalker, Post will embark on a bi-coastal headlining tour kicking off June 12th at Vancouver’s Wise Hall and concluding at the Red Flag in St. Louis, MO on July 22nd. Tickets and VIP packages are on-sale now. See below for the full tour routing.

Upcoming Louise Post Tour Dates

6/12 - Wise Hall - Vancouver, BC

6/13 - Sunset - Seattle, WA

6/14 - MS Studios - Portland, OR

6/15 - Treefort Music Hall - Boise, ID

6/17 - Globe Hall - Denver, CO

6/19 - Club Dada - Dallas, TX

6/20 - Parish - Austin, TX

6/23 - Echoplex - Los Angeles, CA

6/24 - Cafe du Nord - San Francisco, CA

6/25 - Casbah - San Diego, CA

7/10 - Aisle 5 - Atlanta, GA

7/11 - Pinhook - Raleigh, NC

7/13 - Foundry - Philadelphia, PA

7/14 - Union Stage - Washington, DC

7/15 - Bowery Ballroom - New York, NY

7/17 - Bar Le Ritz - Montreal, QC

7/18 - The Garrison - Toronto, ON

7/20 - Lincoln Hall - Chicago, IL

7/21 - Turf Club - Minneapolis, MN

7/22 - Red Flag - St. Louis, MO

Photo credit: Jim Louvau

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