Posted by The nomadic soul that is Au/Ra seem to pick up friends wherever she travels.
Born on a genuine tropical island, she became used to her own space, very much a talent in isolation. She’s perfectly equipped, then, for these lockdown times, communicating via Zoom, WhatsApp, and sundry other tech-savvy ways.
Recently linking with Kina, the two produced the wonderful future pop bouncer ‘Feel Again’, with its rippling energy set against that undercurrent of melancholy.
Clash invited the two to sit down for a chat…
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Kina: What is your dream collaboration?
Au/Ra: If it’s truly the ‘dream’ collab… I would have to say it’s between Tame Impala and The Neighbourhood. I really look up to Jesse and Kevin, they are incredible.
Kina: What sparked the idea for your lyrics in ‘Feel Again’?
Au/Ra: It’s really important to me that anything I sing is reflective of who I am. I’ve always disliked the idea of needing someone else to be ‘whole’ and I wanted to make sure I explained that heartbreak is real but it doesn’t make or break you.
Kina: What have you been doing during quarantine?
Au/Ra: I’ve been trying to stay as creative as possible and keep myself busy that way. Although it’s been a hard adjustment, of course, as it’s been for everyone – making music has really been keeping me somewhat sane, as always haha!
Kina: Where do you find the inspiration for your music?
Au/Ra: Whatever I’m going through, naturally I think writing has always been my outlet. But I tend to get inspired by any media I’m consuming, from TV shows, movies, anime, books, it doesn’t have to be real life stuff, it’s often fictional too. Which is also convenient because if anyone ever assumes I’ve written a song about them, I can just refer to the trump card ‘it’s actually about this anime couple…’
Kina: If you had to choose only one instrument to play for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Au/Ra: That is such a hard question, I love piano but I find there’s more diversity within the types of sounds you can get from guitars – with acoustic and electric etc.
Kina: Where will your music go next?
Au/Ra: I tend to just make whatever I’m feeling, so I’m not really being too careful about that. Whatever happens happens! More sad chilled songs is the majority of what I listen to anyways hehe!
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Au/Ra: There’s a beautiful sadness to your music which really drew me in – what inspires you to create?
Kina: What’s really important to me when it comes to making music is everything I’ve experienced in life and through travelling. I like to see new things, to live new moments. It inspires me so much to create new music!
Au/Ra: Have you always known you wanted to do something in music?
Kina: I always liked music, I started producing at eight years old, from there I understood that it was all that I wanted to do in my life.
Au/Ra: I sometimes find it hard to balance my personal and work life – how have you found it?
Kina: Me too, but now I really like to organise my days, I believe that to have good music you have to have good human relationships, and for this reason especially I divide my day into two parts: most of the day I listen to music and I produce, and as soon as I finish I go out with my friends.
Au/Ra: What have you been listening to during quarantine?
Kina: In this quarantine I discovered many great artists like brakence and Anson Seabra, and during the night I really like to chill with R&B music (dvsn, Drake, Bryson Tiller)…
Au/Ra: How do you feel about the new EP being out?
Kina: I feel so so happy about releasing ‘Things I Wanted To Tell You’. It represents so many emotions I felt during the period when I was producing it, and I’m very proud of it.
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