Aurora Ave. is Sending AIRMAIL! - Talking with the "indie DIY" Band about their Upcoming EP
Written by: Camila Lupa
Meet Aurora Ave.! Not the street in Seattle, but the 8-member indie band comprised of Koh, Samara, Michael, Gabi, Neizer, Henry, Peyton and Sam (who was not able to join this interview, unfortunately). By beautifully mixing jazz, pop, R&B, rock, and more, Aurora Ave. has basically created their own genre. They stand out among other artists because of their unique sound, which they describe as "indie DIY" at its core. This could be because of their many musical inspirations, but it is also rooted in the group's balance between the diversity of each member and their musical unity.
The story of this unity will be told through their upcoming project, AIRMAIL. I am a huge fan of Aurora Ave., so I was super excited to have the amazing opportunity to speak with them on their band's growth and their EP, as I anticpated its release on November 6th.
Street GRRRL: First of all, just making sure I'm saying the band name right, do you call it "Aurora Avenue" or "Aurora Ave."?
Peyton: It's "Aurora Ave." It was originally avenue, but something felt a little off about it. It's pretty interchangeable obviously, but Aurora Ave. is proper English.
SG: As an introduction, how would you describe the sound of your music to someone who's new to the world of Aurora Ave.?
Gabi: I think we've changed a lot as the years have gone on, but right now I'd say its a really cool blend of indie pop and rock with R&B and jazz elements thrown in on top. But I think because everyone in the band pulls in a diverse couple of genres, you're gonna hear some elements of J-rock, shoegaze, you're gonna hear a bunch of different stuff, but I think at its core is the indie DIY sort of sound. That kind of thing is really at the center of it.
SG: How do you think your band being formed during the pandemic affected your music?
Gabi: It did a really good job of preparing us for how people have lives, go to college and get jobs, so you can't all be together. There was a long period where we were basically doing this divided across the entire country, and having that experience of not being able to see each other in person that often anyways. It wasn't easy, it was still challenging, but it made us equipped to do that. Also, it made us really cherish the music and made it really special, because you didn't get to go outside and see people during that time. That was a really important outlet for us, and I don't think the music would have meant as much to me if it wasn't during that really special time, even though it was difficult.
SG: Just thinking about that, I read that sun/rise/down was written when you were all spread out, is that connected to that?
Koh: Yeah, that was one of the first projects we did post-high school graduation, and we're all unc now, but it was the first time we were really separated and scattered across the country, doing school and picking up a full-time load of things to do separately. So that was the first real test of what we were able to accomplish when we were all separated like that.
SG: What do you think past Aurora Ave. from when the band first formed during the pandemic would think about your progress and where you guys are now?
Neizer: I think we'd be really proud of ourselves. First of all, at least me personally, I didn't think it was gonna end, I had a really pessimistic worldview at the time. Like Gabi said, being in this band was kind of the only time of the week that I'd get to interact with people in-person outside of my direct family. And obviously we practiced social distancing and everything, we weren't anti-maskers. But I'd say we'd be really proud. And adding onto that, for sun/rise/down, we finished the project while parts of the band were in different parts of the country, so I think that's a feat of its own.
Michael: And to add onto what Neizer was saying, bands don't normally last for this long. We started in 2020, and its been six years, starting to go on seven now, so I think it's a testament to our relationship together. We all came into it as friends, and seeing this grow alongside our own personal relationships, I think ourselves from back then would be proud that we're still making this work. Sometimes we get sent videos from our old performances, like from our first show we did at a barbecue in local West Seattle, and its like night and day. I think like Neizer said, they'd be really proud of what we're doing so far.
Gabi: From my experience, not only looking at the whole band's progress is incredible, but my musicianship is inextricably linked to the band. All the growth I've gone through as a player and practicing has been from learning these new songs, writing, doing serious gigs, like my first actual big-time festival gigs through this band. I can't even picture what my plan would be like now if I hadn't had this always being there to keep me writing, praciticing and inspired.
Michael: And to that point too, because this has been such a central point for the band, a lot of us have fit our lives around making sure the band keeps on going. For instance, I went to school as an environmental health major, I am not doing that anymore. I'm doing something that's more adjacent to what the band's doing and making sure I have availability to do stuff. Koh went to a music school specifically to learn how to engineer for the band, Gabi as well, Neizer retrofits his schedule to fit the band, like everyone does their part to make sure that it is still something we can keep on doing together.
SG: I love that, and it kind of ties into AIRMAIL actually. I saw in a video that you mentioned that the project will tell your story as a band up until now. What was it like writing that story together?
Michael: AIRMAIL was actually the first body of work we've written together all in the same room since the first album we dropped five years ago. Because we've had to work asynchronously, the creative process was collaborative of course, but it was more difficult to make sure everyone's ideas work on songs in real time. I feel like this time around we all had the ideas and stuff. For instance, SWEET TREAT was part of Koh's idea initially, BACKSEAT was Sam's idea, WAWA came from one of my old band's old songs, Neizer with MI SED. All the songs came individually from people, but this is the first time in a while where we just sat down and wanted to make something really cohesive. I feel like it was the most involved we've gotten Samara in the writing process because thats something we've wanted to do for a while, and I think this is just a reflection of what's to come in terms of our potential as a group. This is us starting to move away from us being separated to now taking advantage of being together. Koh's back in town, Henry comes back every now and then, and Gabi's gonna graduate next year, so we're starting to find our stride right now and grow more as time goes on.
SG: Samara, what was that like for you to be more involved with the writing process?
Samara: I was actually very excited. I grew up in theater, so I was taught when I sing songs to tell stories through my voice and movement and stuff like that. However, sometimes, the songs that you are given, you don't relate to them becuase you weren't a part of that process. Now being a part of AIRMAIL, I can finally relate and draw from something instead of creating a storyline in my mind on how to sing the song and touch other people while I'm singing.
Michael: For this EP specifically, I think we finally found a good balance between making sure the ideas we're creating as band fits what Samara wants or what she can add to the record. I would say the EP itself is very diverse and versatile in the different genres we're hitting, but I feel like you can hear the chemistry from top to bottom of the record. It naturally became cohesive because we just worked through and found the balance together over time. So we're all really proud of it, and Samara also killed it.
Gabi: We're playing to everybody's strengths and we're all in our comfort zone, because before, if Samara is singing on a track, and she wasn't there when it was first written, she might be having to stretch out of her comfort zone to sing it. But since we're all there together, we were able to make sure that everybody's able to do something. Even though its fresh and new, we're still playing to their strengths, which had everybody operating on their best level.
SG: Speaking about the diversity that you mentioned in AIRMAIL, I wanted to know a little bit about "multilingual ave." that you guys mentioned a bit, (I saw Koh's comment on Instagram!) And I was wondering where the inspiration for that came from?
Koh: It started with a jam right?
Neizer: Yeah, that song started with a jam. I've always wanted to write a song in Spanish, and that jam led to the lyrics and the lyrics led to the song. That was really exciting for me and the band as well, and I'm really proud of Samara, for even attempting it. Most people would shoot down the idea like "I don't wanna learn a whole language."
Samara: You have to be very ambitious to do something like that.
Neizer: Yeah, and she is. I'm so very proud of how it turned out and the effort she put into that.
Koh: My favorite on the EP.
Michael: I think that's easily the most ambitious song that we've ever made together. Not saying its a crazy genre for us to hit, but we haven't really done something like that before, and Neizer literally had to teach Samara how to pronounce everything and write out everything phoenetically.
Samara: A few things, a few things.
Neizer: Yeah, she knew some words before the song.
Koh: I've got footage from that entire session, so there's a lot of gold in there.
Michael: To add a bit more, that jam session along with the writing of this entire EP, was spread over two cabin trips that we took to a mutual friends house out in Hood Canal, in Western Washington. That's how a lot of this came together, it all started with jams or ideas that people brought in and we worked through them from there.
SG: To talk more about your writing or recording process, what would you say is the same from when you first started and what has evolved in the growth of your band?
Koh: I think overall the process, at least to me, I like to streamline the process to "what's the best way to create a record from scratch?" Like we said before, a lot of the stuff was premeditated, we jammed out on stuff, then we curated it to fit into a song and we wrote lyrics and all that. That mostly was the same process, but it was different because we did it all within those two trips and spent all of that quality time together to make it as collaborative as possible. Another difference, from my perspective, since I'm doing a lot of the overseeing on the production, usually in the past, I'm the one starting the ideas and driving them along. And I found this time, my time at school really taught me how to collaborate with all different types of people. Writing-wise, production-wise, performance-wise, I was able to take a backseat on this one and help curate more, make sure everybody was more involved and be the last touch instead of the first idea. I think that was a really fun process since its important to make sure everyone's involved and this time around it was really fun to invite people in on the writing sessions. We had the most collaboration on this project than any project we've ever done, and you'll hear that on the record.
Gabi: I think I had more to pitch for production ideas than I've had for any other project. Me and Koh had a couple sit-down real nerdy guitar hour-long sessions, just dialing in everything. That was really fun having more input. But also what is the same is that I was in Boston, recording my guitar onto my computer and uploading a file to Google drive, which is basically what I was doing in high school during COVID. Like I said, that skill has kind of transferred, so even though things are different, its still the same in that way.
SG: For Henry, how did you come up with the concept and direction for the BACKSEAT music video?
Henry: BACKSEAT was one of those concepts that wrote itself based on the song. A lot of my visual direction comes from my imagination where I listen to a song, and I can visualize this grungy backseat story of someone being invisible to the people around them. I wanted to create this feeling of memories and moments within a friend group, so that was the story I was trying to tell. Physically, I tried to manifest the visuals with a 360 camera which went through a lot of technical processes to figure out how to pull it off. We ended up mounting a traditional camera on a 360 gimble, and having it spin continuously which achieved the effect, then we did all of the seamless transitions in post. Same thing with the SWEET TREAT video, they were just such a joy to make and to come up with conceptually. I've been doing all of the visual direction for this project, and like everyone's mentioned, this has been a huge amount of commitment in comparison to the other projects. We're really trying to tell a story visually and sonically, so that's how BACKSEAT came to life. And the actual day of shooting, we must have gone down that hill, just under 70 takes at the end of the shoot. And thank you Peyton for driving the entire way.
Gabi: And on one hour of sleep I think?
Henry: Yeah, we had a gig the night before too, but that was super memorable. Funny enough we shot the BACKSEAT video towards the end of the main production of AIRMAIL. We had finished all the songs, just put out SWEET TREAT, most of the visuals were being added in and we were mastering all the songs, so it was a nice way to cap off on the summer and I'm really happy with all of it. We still have more media coming to tell the story.
SG: Peyton, do you have any favorite memories from the music videos, especially since you were driving a lot?
Peyton: From the music videos, BACKSEAT specifically, I was hella tired. I had just gotten off a shift, I'm a firefighter so I work 24 hour shifts. I had gotten off shift that day and got right into business with all that stuff, so I was very caffeinated. But these guys know best that when I'm tired, I just get ridiculous, I become an antagonist and I start messing with everybody. Speaking of driving, its a similar thing with tour, thats one of my favorite memories, touring. I drove the whole way, at least for my car, and being awake for all that, its just like hanging out with your best friends for two weeks straight.
SG: I love that, does anyone else have any favorite memories to share?
Koh: Our last show at Barbosa was the most electric feeling show I think we've ever played. From the moment we walked out and grabbed our instruments, to the very last second of the set, it was the crowd giving us the most amazing energy we've ever felt. Hearing songs sung back to us that were just recently out, people getting along with all the covers, it was just a great time.
Michael: I'd say Capitol Hill Block Party, its a local festival here in Seattle, so it was a big accomplishment for us to do that.
Neizer: My favorite memory is on tour, we did a stop in San Francisco and we absolutely bombed. Like, no turnout because it was the 4th of July, except for my family who came from Mexico to come see us. That was my favorite show of tour I'll be honest, my family got a private concert basically.
SG: As we reach the last question, could you describe a bit of the songs and stories you'll be telling through AIRMAIL, or give some teasers?
Koh: I think we're hitting the most emotional depth we've ever hit in our music. Y'all can blame me, I wrote a lot of love songs when we first started out, but this time around, it is a lot more nuanced feelings. BACKSEAT, like Henry said, was about being in a situation or group where you felt invisible. One of the most gorgeous songs we've ever worked on, WAWA, is about self-worth and perserverance. MI SED is about being thirsty, kind of, not really.
Neizer: Read between the lines.
Koh: But seriously, I think its not the same regurgitated stuff we've done in the past. There's a lot of new experiences being presented.
Henry: I'd probably add that we have this world with a production company that is mentioned in a couple of our posts, and we're kind of beginning that process right now with some cool
videos and maybe some stuff to buy.
Koh: Some world-building.
As I wrapped up the interview, I was able to reflect on a few things I learned about my favorite band. Aurora Ave. is not only an extremely talented team of musicians, but also a tight-knit group of friends filled with heart, ambition, and passion. Their focus on their relationships with both each other and their music was extremely inspiring, and I feel so blessed to have gotten the opportunity to speak with this amazing band. To experience more of Aurora Ave.'s visual and sonic stories, click on the links I've included below, you'll be in for a sweet treat!
Watch the music video for BACKSEAT here: https://youtu.be/V4-6JNPpZnk?si=RVeW067rR_aDx_W3
Watch the music video for SWEET TREAT here: https://youtu.be/yGyFuWkCWS8?si=qtUdqY5IBHlYMfPV
And click this link to pre-save AIRMAIL!! https://too.fm/bqbkdjn
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