Describe your sound in 3 words
fierce, melancholic, honest
Tell us a few things about your new song “Unbroken”. What is the main idea behind it?
Unbroken is about this person who is broken, but not broken enough to give up yet. It talks a lot about acceptance but it also comes from a place of strength. The chorus basically says it all. Don’t fix me. Just hold me till I’m unbroken.
Which is your most personal and honest lyric?
I wear my heart on my sleeve all the damn time. So you’ll find a lot of very personal and honest lyrics in my songs – since I always say I’m a writer first. If I didn’t write, I wouldn’t sing. But if I had to outline once specific line, I consider to be dramatic and honest, it’s probably this one: “There was a time I used to dance with death but I got over that and now I write instead”. I never actively talked about that specific time in my life before so that’s as personal and honest as it gets.
Artists and people who have influenced and inspired you?
Well musically I am heavily inspired by bands like Porcupine Tree, Katatonia or Riverside. It doesn’t really get any more melancholic than that 😂 Vocally it is mainly females like Grace Potter or Taylor Momsen who make me sing on top of my lungs all the damn time and lyrically I look up to people like Julia Michaels or Michelle Branch. Quite a mix there haha but I think it sums it up pretty well. Generally spoken I am drawn to individuals who unapologetically make things happen.
What would you change in the music industry?
To be clear, I am still pretty new in this crazy thing called music industry. I’ve only been active for two years now and covid slowed down the process pretty hard, so my experiences are still quite limited, I’d say. But what I can do is talk about the point of view being a new (female) artist. When I first started to send out demos, I got answers and feedback pretty quickly. The most common comments I heard weren’t about my music. It was about my looks and the market potential they saw in me. I was considered a “full-package”. Beautiful, Creative, Wild. It almost felt like a tick-box situation. I seemed to tick off most of those boxes they wanted to see and so I found support pretty damn quick. The fact that their interest in me wasn’t because of my music in the first place didn’t bother me that much – I was just very eager on getting started and finally making music outside of my living room. I jumped on the first opportunity that opened up for me. Which ended in a complete disaster to say the least 😊 Taking my money, changing my songs to something that wasn’t me, telling me I wasn’t good enough and I needed to “buy” songs from someone else, confusing release dates…
Looking back now I can put it pretty damn simple…
If your intuition tells you to run, you fucking should!
You don’t have to settle for anything. Be bold and loud. Stand up for yourself. Listen, but don’t blindly accept everything just because someone tells you to do so.
In this industry, people hide a lot behind other people’s successes or even take credit for other peoples accomplishments. That’s something I would change, if I could.
What is the best advice you’ve been given?
Heard that one very recently and it means a lot to me:
“Don’t be so worried you’re gonna fuck it up that you forget to enjoy it”
What is the most trouble you’ve ever gotten into?
hahaha okay so… It wasn’t exactly “trouble” and I would do it all over again 😊
A few years ago, my former team and I were invited to a Google event in Dublin for the weekend. It was a business trip. The night before we were supposed to fly back home, my team mate left to visit a friend so I decided to go checkout Grafton Street – on my own. Grafton Street was like a tornado of emotions for me. Music literally everywhere.
Long story short…
I met someone, that led to beer, endless music talks, more beer, underground pubs in hidden cellars of Dublin and me picking up a call the next morning being completely wasted with absolutely zero memory. All I heard was my team mate going:
Aura, we’re in the plane – guess you won’t make it?
Thank you!
Follow Aura Davis
Instagram
HipHop Paranoia 