Spindle Home Session: Au/Ra Covers ‘Strawberry Shortcake’
Rising alt-pop sensation Au/Ra is a talent who’s music provides a safe space for misfits around the world. The Ibiza-born, Antigua raised songstress has had a culturally rich childhood– which has exposed her to different languages and people from all over the world. With her diverse upbringing and desire to make inclusive music, Au/Ra has been able to create her own lane in the alt-pop world.
Since her debut in 2016, Au/Ra has released a steady stream of music – which has earned her millions of streams – and contributed to the Hideo Kojima video game ‘Death Stranding’. With her latest single ‘Ideas’ making the rounds and plans to release more new music in the coming months, Au/Ra is continuing her journey to music stardom.
Au/Ra was able to record a sweet cover of Melanie Martinez track ‘Strawberry Shortcake‘ for our Spindle Home Session series. We were also able to chat with the songstress about everything from her single ‘Ideas’, her self-isolation schedule, and more. Check out her full performance on our IGTV and interview below…
Absolutely in love with your latest track, ‘Ideas’. Can you take us through the meaning of the track?
Thank you, I appreciate that! In a nutshell, ‘Ideas’ is about trying to protect yourself from getting hurt. When you build up expectations of how things might be – whether it’s in a relationship, or in life in general – it can often end in disappointment, and that’s a hard thing to go through. So this song is a warning to myself that disappointment is kind of inevitable sometimes.
The uptempo electro-pop sound is one of the reasons why this track is so fantastic! When you were in the studio, did you have this type of sound in mind?
Yes, totally. We knew what we wanted from the beginning. We actually had the bass drop first and we built everything else around it, which is why I feel like it all kind of builds up and keeps the pace progressing in an interesting way.
We hear that you’re enlisting your fans to help create the music video due to COVID-19. How has that process been going? Can you give us a sneak peek into what fans can expect? (MC note: since the video is already out, she’s answering why she enlisted fans and what that process was like)
Since we knew that we weren’t going to be able to make the video we had originally planned on giving the fans, I thought instead of being empty handed, it would be really cool to involve them and make something together. It made me really happy to see how enthusiastic and supportive everybody was about it.
Speaking of quarantine, What does your daily self-isolation schedule look like?
To be honest, it changes every day. The only thing that stays the same is that every morning I drink a lot of coffee and read a little before I start going on social media. I’m really lucky to be quarantining at home in Antigua with my family. My dad’s a producer and has a studio in our home so I’m fortunate to still be able to work all the time. Every other day I do exercise classes with my friends over Zoom, and have surprisingly been getting into yoga. (Never thought that would happen!)
Do you find it challenging to stay creative during this time?
Weirdly, no. I think songwriting-wise I’ve been feeling very inspired to finish a lot of things that were works in progress. I’ve also been teaching myself a bit of piano and it’s been really refreshing to write that way when I usually write songs on guitar or to track.
Which artist do you wish you could quarantine and make music with?
Wow that’s a big question because to quarantine AND make music with…whoa. I love so many artists but I don’t know who I would be compatible to quarantine with. Maybe Doja Cat? She seems really fun.
What words of advice would you give to fans that are finding the quarantine hard?
I think all of us are finding this hard and that’s absolutely okay. It’s such a weird time! On social media we see highlight reels of what everybody’s doing, but all of us are also just binge watching a thousand shows, and eating Lays on the couch, you know?
When can fans expect another project from Au/Ra?
Maybe possibly soon 🙂
