Au/Ra
Au/Ra is a 19-year-old pop musical artist, who just released her new single: plz don’t waste my youth. She has 7.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify, two UK chart hits and Radio 1 playlist singles.
If you’re on Tik Tok, you probably already know her song Panic Room, which went viral and reached over 250 million streams on the app.
We had the wonderful opportunity to chat with Au/Ra about her new music and her career on our show, SheSources: New Voices, New Views on W!ZARD Radio. Excerpts of it aired on Saturday, March 19th, and we’re happy to share with you the full interview below. Au/Ra is genuinely kind and passionate about her work, and we’re grateful to have gotten the chance to converse with her.
How do you self-identify as a creative? When people ask you “what do you do?” what do you tell them?
I definitely say, I'm an artist. I feel like. . . every area of expressing myself to do with music, all very intertwined with art and with music video creation, and I just enjoy all of that so much. I love the creative side of working on creating the world around the songs, that really is what gives me the thrill in the studio.
Why do you like what you do?
I mean, at the very basic form, it is just such an open way of expressing your emotions. I have so much fun writing because I really try and create stories and create little worlds around the songs. And that for me is like, that's what I really love. I mean, it's it's writing the music, but also having that story and having the music video in mind. . . most of my music videos, I've already had the concept while I'm writing. Very often that happens. Like Assassin and Panic Room and Emoji, all these videos, they kind of happened while I was writing. So yeah, I love the whole process really.
Listen to the audio clip below to hear Au/Ra discuss her thoughts on how social media has impacted her career and her life:
Have you ever experienced disrespect in your field, and how did you cope with it? Looking back on it now do you wish you coped with it differently at all? I ask this because of all the people who are entering the music industry now who might benefit from hearing from you on how you dealt with things like disrespect.
You know, it's really funny, because I think my perspective on what disrespect looks like probably has changed quite a lot too. Because I feel like when I was younger, and a lot of the situations were like . . . and now I might have been like: that wasn't very cool. And I think I coped with it, by kind of just ignoring it, pretending it wasn't happening, because that was kind of thing to do. Yeah. I mean, I feel like a lot of people do that. If it's not right out just disrespectful— I've never had somebody that I care about, or that I'm working with just straight up insult me. It's not really that. It's more like, you know when you can tell people aren't really listening to you how they would maybe if you were a bit older. Or because they think that you're not a professional because you're young. That happens to me quite a lot. And I mean, I'm still quite young. I’m 19, but I've been working in the music industry for five years. So, I do feel like I kind of know my stuff. I feel like now I can own that. I'm like: yeah, I am a professional actually.
Listen to the rest of Au/Ra’s answer to this question below:
Thank you for sharing your experience and your response to that. On a different note— I am in love with plz don’t waste my youth. That is one of my top bops right now. It came out January 21st, super recent. What was your process writing that? Did you picture the video as you wrote it, and have the visuals in mind already?
Actually, so for plz don’t waste my youth I knew from the beginning like this was going to be late at night in a city, a group of my friends like, just candid, like, I really felt it needed to be that. So we literally ended up doing exactly what I had envisioned, which is very sick. It was in London. Yeah, it was really, really fun to film. And I think the song kind of is a little bit about what we just spoke about before. Me realizing that there's— throughout my work in the industry, and all of that I kind of just felt like I did miss out on a couple those moments, those youthful moments. And while I'm writing it out, I’m really just trying to reclaim it, and just say: you know, it doesn't have to be one or the other. You should just still be able to be at any age and enjoy your life. And at the same time, obviously, I feel like a lot of people felt this way, especially people who are graduating, or were supposed to go to prom during COVID lockdowns and missed out on a lot of opportunities to have those typical kind of youthful experiences. It definitely also ended up fitting into that perspective. I think it's a good message to put out there right now, because people are experiencing this.
I love that. . . I promise you I will listen to this song as I’m getting ready for my two-year-late graduation this Spring. In general, I do think that message resonates with a lot of people. . . and the song is so joyous which is also what I love about it.
Yeah! It’s supposed to still be positive and yet the lyrics are quite introspective and dark. It’s a little mix in there.
So you’re starting a new chapter of your music. What are you most looking forward to and what are you hoping to focus on the most?
I am definitely focusing a lot more on the bigger picture of the storylines that have been happening in some of the music videos and creating an actual story around that. Like, present in a way I can't talk about yet. . . but yeah, I basically got into songwriting through creative writing. So I really want to get back to that and share a bit more of a story around the music as well. I'm building up towards that. . . And then also just have a lot of stuff coming out. I think I'm pretty much releasing something almost every month, whether it's a collaboration or a single so it's gonna be a lot.
Wow that’s amazing.
Yeah yeah, I’m super excited. I’m ready to put a bunch of stuff out now, especially songs that I've had for a while that some listeners know about from hearing it at shows and stuff.
That is so exciting. I love that you’re talking about maybe some connecting storylines. It gives me Marvel universe vibes, get ready for the Au/Ra universe.
Oh yeah there’s some stuff to uncover.
I think that’s so fun, especially when musicians leave a trail between different works of art.
And especially the easter eggs. I’ve definitely been leaving easter eggs everywhere for months. . . I love playing those kinds of games with my listeners.
. . . so where should your listeners be looking for these easter eggs if they don’t know already?
I've left quite a lot in . . . I don't want to say like everywhere, but I have left them in hashtags on certain platforms.
Okay, wink wink listeners. I also just want to ask for people who are aspiring songwriters, singer-songwriters— what would be your biggest piece of advice for them starting out in today's world?
Listen to Au/Ra’s response below:
My last question: if you could tell a younger version of yourself one thing, what would it be?
I think I would probably say: believe in yourself a little more, because you actually have pretty good instincts. And stop overthinking everything so much. I think that's, yeah, that's it.
I would probably I still say that to myself. Like, right now.
That’s a wrap on this interview! Special thanks to Au/Ra, who you can find on Spotify here.
Excerpts from this interview initially aired on W!ZARD Radio on Saturday, March 19th, on our weekly radio show produced in partnership with W!ZARD Radio Media, SheSources: New Voices, New Views.
