For more than fifteen years, David Vertesi has worked with some of Canada’s most exciting indie-rock projects. First and foremost as a founding member of Juno-nominated west coast staple, Hey Ocean!, while also having played live with artists like Shad, Said The Whale, Dear Rouge, and Hannah Georgas. More recently you will find him producing for emerging favourites like Haley Blais, Noble Son, Riun Garner and more. As a songwriter and producer, Vertesi always brings a uniquely sensuous and brooding sensibility, an intricate sonic depth that multiplies the layers of a song.

In his solo work, these dramatic flairs ignite on full display. Across a spectrum of rough-and-tumble and tightly polished sounds, Vertesi emerges as a centre-stage, dusty spotlight balladeer, a close-to-the-chest storyteller as the narrative core of his songwriting revolves in stories of confusion, loneliness, instability, death, and existential ennui. Across 2010’s Cardiography, 2016’s Sad Dad Cruise Ship, and 2020’s Life Ghouls, Vertesi interrogates these somber questions with tender poetry and a sense of humour.

His latest LP Fictionalized is the clearest synthesis of his wide-ranging pop philosophy yet. Effectively a concept album on the collective spiraling of the pandemic years through an intensely personal lens, Vertesi crafts the most potent and memorable melodies of his career. With featured performances from a lineup of some of Vancouver’s brightest talents: Jordan Klassen, Haley Blais, Jill Barber, and Sam Lynch, plus co-production from the likes of Jonathan Anderson (Andy Shauf, Aidan Knight), Klassen (Dear Rouge, Jillian Lake) and Daniel Klenner (Peach Pit, Babe Corner), Fictionalized marks a new and defined landscape for Vertesi. As powerful and personal as he’s ever been, as cathartic and kind as he’s ever appeared.