“This interview is dedicated to my dad, who has let me dream bigger than I could ever imagine myself”

-Tommy Versailles

It’s traumatic being in a toxic relationship. A prison where the heart breaks slowly, steadily, with every fragment of trust lost as the cracks worsen. Pains of hardship form a trend of progression, isolating you from the person you once were, the love you once felt, and the hope you once housed. But, sometimes, one can formulate an escape plan from the painstaking prisons of melancholy, trudge through the tarnished and tattered trenches, and come out on the other side boundless, anew.

Or, in Tommy Versailles’ case, a stronger and more complex artist.

Tomasin Matilda-Marie Valvassori, better known as Tommy Versailles, wants her voice to be heard and her experiences to be felt—and that voice, in particular, has been molded by her lived experience and the tumultuous relationships, both platonic and intimate, she’s endured along the way. But as she has freed herself from these past experiences, Tommy Versailles is now determined to free herself from new expectations—she’s aiming to be more than your typical “break-up artist.” “People ask me about whether I wanna be the next Adele and shit like that. But I hate that,” Tommy said to me via phone call.” I don’t wanna be a break-up song artist. I have been writing more love music lately, and this previous album comes from a place of me being self-destructive. There was a dark energy there due to a very, very tumultuous relationship.”

That album in question was 2020’s The Broken Palace Deluxe EP, which dropped on February 29th of that year. BPD was an album recorded over three years and was primarily driven by Versailles herself while simultaneously going through the motions in her own tragic love story. During the creation of the project, Versailles was dealing with shotty business practices, an unmotivated recording band, and, as she stated, “a very, very tumultuous relationship.”

Tommy Versailles | “Tommy’s Ruff” music video courtesy of Charles Reynoso.

The 26-year-old spoke to me live from her old NYC apartment, littered with U-haul boxes and packaged trinkets, thrilled to embark on an adventure en route to her new living quarters. Tommy’s move from one crowded arrangement to another apartment, full of light and hope, is a driving factor in her shift in worldview. As we chatted on the phone, I’m hypnotized by her buoyancy and the carefulness in her words; she speaks with gentle precision, a passion embroiled in the pits of lived experience—the art of wisdom.

It’s this newfound wisdom on life, music, and relationships that birthed her perspective on her art and the music business, especially in the wake of The Broken Palace Deluxe EP. “Just like many relationships in my life, the good, the bad, toxic, passion, I kind of took that same approach to learning the music business as well,” Versailles states wisely. “It’s kind of different, but a similar approach was needed for both: I needed to know who I was and wanted to be. I learned [music and relationships] through trial and error, but I wanted to make myself an individual with both. So, that’s how my love of self became what it is, and that’s how I became Tommy Versailles when I showcase my art to the masses.”

I first met the wonderfully soulful and idiosyncratic spirit of Tommy Versailles through a creative mutual aptly named DJ KNTHRD, who is wildly talented in his own right. Through this relationship, I got to know who Versailles was and her foundations as an artist: someone refusing to be defined and shackled by past experiences and future expectations. Versailles naturally grew up in the church choir and had dreams of singing on Broadway as she attended Talent Unlimited and majored in musical theater in school. “That raw emotion that you get from doing something you love—whether that be loving on somebody, yourself, a craft, whatever—that’s the type of passion that drives me whenever I perform. Even when I was a kid and I sang in the church, that passion was there, I didn’t know how to place it, but that is what I was feeling,” she says, explaining the connection between her and singing.

“I love theater and Broadway music, acting, all of it, and so, when I decided that I would take this music thing seriously, I wanted to incorporate that same drive into my work. So when you listen to my music, you get a feel for what I was feeling when I wrote those songs. Heartbreak and pain sure (she laughs), but you get love, euphoria, wonder, sense of self-discovery, all these things that I was feeling. That passion allows for me to get lost in my performance, and I hope that’s what others feel when listening.”

And she’s absolutely right. As you listen to the Broken Palace Deluxe, you can hear the raw, unfiltered emotions of a woman on the verge of self-discovery. You feel the strength of a voice forged through formal teachings of the church and theater, battle-tested through the endless hours of recording take after take and performing night after night. The art of BPD is a testament to the artistry of Versailles as she masterfully blends the study of self with the study of music juxtaposed with relationship love and individual love; a journey through the mind of a survivor. But does singer Tommy Versailles have a method for the madness that is songwriting? And how does she come up with these wonderfully crafted song themes?

“It’s all about the sounds that I hear. If the music moves me, then I’ll write. I’m usually not writing when I go through things. I rarely do that, honestly. A couple of months ago, I realized that I’m a musician, so all of this is technical for me. And that comes from my training with theater; that’s what moves me. So when I hear that live instrumentation, a band playing, the sounds of a Broadway singer and their range, those are things that motivate and drive me. I hear those things, and I go, wow, I want to create something that sonically sounds like this!” Tommy exclaims admirably.

“But to the question of songwriting, it’s usually the melody, and then the lyrics of the song come second. Whether or not I’m trying to tell a story matters not…but once I hear the sonics… that’s when it all comes together for me. Every note I hear inspires me. Sound is energy, and I adapt to that energy. Let [the energy] carry me to where I need to be. Then, wherever the sound takes me, I draw from my past experiences—relationships of all kinds, feelings of all varying degrees,” She says before coming to a complete stop, laughing, and then continuing. “My writing can be random at times, though. I wrote “Can’t Be Friends” on the toilet; if I start singing something in my head, Zaire (DJ KNTHRD) would be like, ‘What are you singing?’ And at that moment, I would know I have something special, and then I would rush to go record that. But, usually, the sonic inspires me.”

In the aforementioned “Can’t Be Friends,” Versailles sings over a slick acoustic guitar riff pondering on a past lover from a toxic relationship, confessing, “You make me wanna/smoke a cigarette and put it inside of my chest/ until my lungs bleed/ you make me wanna/drink down a beer/ put a glass inside of my mouth until my throat screams/ but even though you hurt me/ I don’t wanna hurt myself so I gotta/smoke weed/ and I just put the green inside the blunt roll it up/so I can finally make my mind free.”

Even though this song was written in the most mundane settings, Versailles sticks to the thematic element of toxic relationships that feverishly drive the BPD narrative, and it’s in these particular moments that we get to experience her hurt. Each line riddled with pain mimicking a reality, a heartbreakingly oppressive reality that she dwelled in not too long ago. But even as this album saw Tommy Versailles taking ownership of her past experiences and demanding to be in control of her narrative, she wants to put this album and this period of her life behind her. Doubling down on her stance that she will not be musically and characteristically boxed in, Versailles is ready for the next stage of her artistry and explains that she has been hard at work on a new album.

“This album took so long to record, and I haven’t released anything else since then. But people associate that album with my artistry, who I am, and what I’m capable of, and honestly, I hate it. Zaire was trying to show me love during this period, and I couldn’t see that because of what happened before him and the person I was during that time,” Versailles says in an urgent tone that demands my attention. “This album is me telling a story through the sequencing and themes of each song. I wrote pretty much all of these songs when I wasn’t the best person because of the somebody that this album was based on, me and his relationship. This album was me freeing myself from that traumatic experience in the best way that I can, which is to sing about it. That guy did some crazy things to me, and I needed to make [The Broken Palace Deluxe] to let it go, for good. I’ve been writing since the pandemic started, and I just can’t wait to put this project behind me,” Tommy says with a smile painted on her words. “But the next project I’m super excited for! I don’t want to categorize [the next project], so I’ll just say that it’s me in a much brighter light and a clearer path.”

If it sounds like Tommy Versailles has fully come into her own, I would have to say you’re probably right. As we situate the conversation to bring our informative interview to a close, Tommy begins going into detail on what listeners and potential fans can expect from her next project and, most importantly, her.

“So in a complete departure from Broken Palace Deluxe, the song that I just finished writing is actually about capitalism, and I have another song about Zaire. This next album honestly feels more confident. Not just in my musical abilities either, but with who I am as a person and where I’m headed next in my life. BPD was a different person; it felt like I recorded that album and went through those experiences twenty years ago,” Versailles says as she unabashedly laughs a hearty laugh full of joy and freedom. “I love the love that I’m feeling, and that’s actually because of Zaire. I sat on these beats for a long time as I didn’t know what I wanted to write to this kind of production. But Teddy, my producer, believes in me, and he’s great at what he does, so I trust his ear. Actually talking about Teddy real quick, I met him when we both worked at Apple, and we recorded some of my first official singles in “Indica City Lights” and “Work It Out.” He didn’t work with me on BPD, and maybe that’s why it turned into such a beast of an undertaking, but yeah, so Teddy is working on this upcoming project with me.”

Tommy is just getting started but sees no limit to where her talents could take her. As stated before, Versailles doesn’t want to be boxed in, labeled, and put away, so she is mindful of the music she crafts and the sonics that she settles on. Versailles reiterates just how much a difference her upcoming project will be from BPD in a lengthy addition to her call to action for her upcoming project.

“When I say, I know who I am now, I mean it. I’m comfortable with stepping outside of my comfort zone and experimenting now, so there’s even an Afrobeat type song on there, and I didn’t want to do what’s hot, but I do want to honor Teddy’s vision as well. He’s really excited about it; I’m excited about it, so it’s progressing nicely. But the whole point of me saying this is I am definitely in the middle of rebranding. I’m so serious about moving on from that dark period in my life, and this next project signals my growth. I want to work with more women, specifically Black women. Women producers, and even beyond the next album, I would love to collab with women, again specifically Black women” She laughs as she leans harder into her pro-black stance.

“But, I don’t want to be that socialite or tabloid celebrity. I want to create music because I love doing it, not because I want to be famous. I always thought about myself as separate from my trauma and my singing career but through therapy and creating BPD; I realized that I don’t have to separate myself. I want to give people more of me. The last project wasn’t, but this new album? This is who I am. I’ve grown so much since [Broken Palace Deluxe], and I know who I am now. I’m free.”

“I’m free.” It is a statement powerful enough to evoke tears to the eyes of the person who spoke it and the ears of the audience who digests it. “I’m free” encapsulates so much going right for the young artist in Tommy Versailles as she begins to navigate the music industry with a brand new outlook on life, her passions, and the loving relationships around her. I have no reason to believe that Versailles won’t manifest a brilliant sophomore project kitted out with majestic songwriting and timeless bops; it’ll be a wonderous day, for sure. But until then, let’s revel in the successes of a young Black woman who beat the odds and rose from that dark, troubled relationship plaguing her mind and clouding her path. A queen who used singing to free herself, finally, free herself from that broken palace.

You can follow Tommy Versailles on Twitter and Instagram

While you wait for her sophomore project, be sure to stream Tommy Versailles’ latest project HERE.

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