CREDIT: JORDAN BROADBENT
David Vertesi's solo projects incorporate personal experiences, which fans connect to.

The lights come on, the band takes the stage and the first notes of Sad Dad Cruise Ship music fill Rum Runners. David Vertesi, guitar in hand, begins with songs from his 2010 album Cardiography, playing with a passion and personal touch that shines through every song.

Known more for his work with Hey Ocean!, he has nothing but good things to say about his experience with the band.

“I’ve learned so much with Hey Ocean!,” he said in an interview before the show on May 5. “As a performer and a business person and as all the aspects about it, I’ve been lucky to have that experience.”

Vertesi’s songs, both old and new, tend to have a personal feel, but some come from a more intimate place.

“They all really are very personal,” he said. “There’s no song on [Cardiography] that isn’t personal to me and my experiences. ‘Learn to Run’ is the most crazy for me … I thought it was too cheesy, like people might not dig it because it’s just so emotional … and in the end it’s actually been one of the songs that connects with people the most.”

It takes a remarkable amount of courage to write a song about a vulnerable time and expose oneself in that way, but the payoff can be amazing, as anyone who listens to Vertesi’s songs will quickly learn.

“There’s a certain universality of experience, and so I feel the more honest you’re being, the more brutally honest you’re being, the more people connect with you because I think in the end the truth is we all go through the same shit,” Vertesi said about why fans feel so connected with his music. “It’s a kind of crazy weird cosmic connection that everybody has.”

That connection can also be felt in his new song “Waterways,” a song that’s a bit louder and more aggressive, while remaining simple. Vertesi’s new album promises to be full of new surprises as he becomes more ambitious with his art.

“This record is much more of a grab bag,” he said. “What really ties it together is the ambition. I’m looking at these songs whether they’re old or new and [thinking], ‘How do I really take my music to where I want it to go and make the music that I want to make?’”

“Whether I’m completely reimagining a song I wrote 10 years ago or I have a brand new song that I’m working on now, I want it all to be representative of me now.”

The bane of every writer and artist’s existence is writer’s block; the moment when a blank white page almost seems to mock you with its emptiness. Vertesi, however, tries not to let it bother him, “I just do other things. I have so much going on that I don’t really feel that I need to push myself … Sometimes I’m in the zone. Sometimes I’m like, ‘I’m writing so many songs!’ and sometimes I can’t write a song to save my life.”

Luckily, even in those lulls Vertesi is blessed by being surrounded by people who match him in dedication to the craft. “I need to know the people I’m working with are going to be my spiritual warriors, that we will together be spiritual warriors,” a term from Jodorowsky’s Dune, referring to people who become dedicated to and fully invested in a project.

Launching into a cover of the Spice Girls’ “Say You’ll be There,” commenting on the beauty of the song’s lyrics with a hint of irony, Vertesi gives weight to his words.

“I also want to surprise people. I think that’s a really big thing for me. I want people to hear my songs and maybe they weren’t expecting it.”