Culture Cabinet

Life is a complex thing. It’s made all the more complex by the complexity of humanity, and all it entails. Insular desires. Societal pressures. Multilayered feelings. 

On Erotica Veronica, Miya Folick explores all of the above. 

Erotica Veronica (out now) marks the third studio album for Folick, and it takes the listener on a variegated journey of self-discovery. It explores the depth of one’s own understanding of oneself, and, as is often the case with moments of epiphany, the duality of blissful cognizance of one’s desires, and the guilt that can come on the other side of the coin. 

“This album is about being queer within a heteronormative relationship structure and within a heteronormative society,” Folick says in a press release. “But it’s also just about desire and eroticism in general. I don’t think we give each other enough room to explore freely and figure out our own right paths.” 

For Folick, this album feels representative of her own artistic journey thus far. 

“I started writing music when I was about 20 years old,” she says in an interview with Culture Cabinet. “At first, I did it really just as a hobby, as a way to keep myself company. I think I didn’t realize that at the time, but it was a way for me to organize my thoughts. I think since I was a child, I’ve always been attracted to anything where I can piece things together, like a puzzle, until it feels right. I feel like that’s what writing music feels like for me. It’s very soothing. I mean, the process can be excruciatingly frustrating, but once something falls into place, in an exciting way, there’s no better feeling.” 

She further illustrates this point by giving me a metaphor of a children’s toy where one has to put shapes in corresponding slots, and a child who keeps trying to put the square through the circle, before they finally get it right. And through this, I’m able to see a brief glimpse of an artist’s mind at work, even when she’s not necessarily “working.” 

Folick’s artistry is on full display on every facet of Erotica Veronica. From the poetic lyrics, to the album art, which features Folick contorted in a mud pit in Angles National Forest, almost looking like she’s emerged from under the ground. It’s symbolic of the breakthrough of both the literal Miya Folick and the more abstract version of herself presented on the album that is running headfirst to a journey of sexual exploration, but not without its introspective reflection. 

The album features eleven tracks, with each one written or co-written and produced by Folick and a number of collaborators, which include Meg Duffy (Hand Habits, Perfume Genius), Waylon Rector (Dominic Fike, Charli XCX), Greg Uhlmann (Perfume Genius, SML), and Pat Kelly (Perfume Genius, Levi Turner). 

The process for creating Erotica Veronica came at a time where Folick was feeling an artistic lull. 

“I put out Roach, and I went on tour, and then in November of 2023, I came home and was really burnt out, and I desperately wanted to make something new,” she says. 

That ‘something new’ grew into a breakneck pace of writing new music. In just a month and a half, the beginnings of Erotica Veronica were born. Folick returned to the studio with a new sense of direction, wanting to focus more on a raw, unfiltered sound, which she achieved by recording the songs in singular takes in lieu of splicing pieces together. 

The end result is what is arguably Folick’s strongest entry in her musical catalog to date. The album somehow manages to perfectly balance a dichotomy of rough and soft, ethereal and tangible, dreamy and real. 

Though, if it feels that way, it’s because it’s made to be so. 

“I think we’re fed rules about what an appropriate fantasy looks like,” Folick explains in a press release. “Especially when you’re coupled. Our culture is so puritanical in that way. But I think it’s important for me to retain my autonomy of thought, and truthfully sharing my fantasies is an act of tenderness and intimacy.” 

You can stream Erotica Veronica below.