Siren Song: Interview with Avya Grace

The music industry is filled with so many voices, but there is only a handful that really stick with you. Avya Grace has one of those voices.

Tucked in a corner in K’Road’s Saint Kevin’s Arcade in Auckland, NZ, is Bestie Cafe - a rad space for teas, coffees and treats. That’s where I’m meeting an emerging young artist called Avya Grace. She’s currently studying at the Media and Audio Institute of New Zealand (MAINZ), and regularly performs at Everybody’s - a stunning restaurant and bar found just above Imperial Lane.

Born into a musical family, Avya has been playing for audiences since the age of 11, when she began busking on the streets. She’s an intelligent, natural beauty, a self-confessed coffee addict and describes her street style as a “grungy Audrey Hepburn”. Before we get into the artists that inspire her and how she creates music that resonates with people, we break the ice with a round of Would You Rather…

Would you rather have feet for hands or hands for feet?

[Laughs] Oh, this one! I hate feet so much, so I would say hands for feet.

Would you rather lose all your money and valuables or all the pictures you’ve ever taken?

Ooooooh, this is a hard one. I would like to say all my money and valuables.

Would you rather live your life in a virtual reality where all your wishes are granted or in the real world?

In the real world, yeah.

In the future, apparently there are going to be contact lenses where you can almost live in a virtual reality.

That kinda scares me. I feel like we’re gonna lose people. Like, have you seen Inception?

Yes!

It’s gonna be like that. We’re gonna be like “Is this the real world? I dunno.” So it’s quite scary. 

Although Avya is a true kiwi, one scroll through her Instagram and it’s clear to see she has a distinctive sense of style fit for the streets of Camden Town, London. 

So, is there an artist you draw fashion inspiration from?

Kind of, like, I love fashion, and I love clothes. I’m just super into thrift shopping. I swear everything I wear is just like [from a] thrift shop. Maybe like Banks and Cara Delevingne. A bit of everything, really. I kind of aspire to be like a grungy Audrey Hepburn, because she’s so feminine, and I want to add a bit of grit to that, I guess.

On your Instagram, you’ve posted about Amy Winehouse a few times. Is she your favourite artist?

Yeah, she’s become my biggest influence over the past few years. And I’m just really taken by her whole story and everything. How she was always just so real. She was like “This is me, take it or leave it. I’m just gonna sing these songs about what’s happening to me; I’m not gonna sugarcoat anything.” And a lot of it was really sad, but it was just so honest and raw. And I just want to take that honesty and put it into everything that I do. 

I feel like she kind of created her own style, which has become iconic. I’ll hear a song, and I’ll be like “Oh, that’s got some Amy Winehouse influence in it.” I just think she’s iconic, really. I really want to live in London. I want to, in the next couple of years, do a video series in Camden Town, and go to all the places where she performed, and do a short vlog series. 

When you’re writing music, is there anything that you envision your audience doing? Or is there an emotion you want them to feel?

I really just want to write music that resonates with people. Quite a lot of the stuff I write is quite sad; not happy, beachy, summery songs. I’ve done a couple of shows where people come up to me crying, “That song really hit me.” That’s like wow, I’m sorry I made you sad, but that’s exactly what I want to do with my music. I’m fully expressing myself and if it’s in a way that other people can relate to it, then that’s my goal. 

How would you describe your sound?

Recently, my sound has changed quite a lot - from classic songstress to RnB - now I’m kind of trying to settle on what my sound is. It’s more soulful-slash-RnB-slash-jazz. If you take Banks and Amy Winehouse and Brooke Fraser - and all these different artists and put them together - if they had a baby, I’d like it to be me. It’s more jazzy at the moment, and a bit grungier. 

You play a lot of weddings - is there a song you play that you wish was your own?

Yes, actually. ‘Redbone’ by Childish Gambino. It’s really good. It’s really funky and really like soulful, and everything I want in a song. It’s my favourite cover to play, and every time I play it I’m like “Dang, I wish I wrote this. It’s so good!”

You’ve released a few snippets of your song ‘Wondering’ on Instagram, and it’s really stuck in my head.

No way. I actually wrote that four days ago. Thank you!

Is there a song you’ve heard recently that’s really stuck with you?

Actually, in the last couple of weeks, I found this artist on Instagram called Ren, and on Instagram he’s called @renmakesmusic. He lives in London and he’s a street performer. I’ve actually started watching his stuff and I absolutely love it. He’s the male artist of the kind of music I want to be making. He’s really soulful and grungy. He’ll just pull up on the street with his amp and his electric [guitar] and just start jamming, and a huge crowd will build around him, and he’s so humble. Every night for two hours I just watch his videos, and he’s inspired me to pick up my electric again. 

Do you have any gigs coming up?

I kind of have a residency at Everybody’s. I play there about twice a month, and I’m playing there again this Friday (17th August 2017).

By the end of the year, Avya plans to release a new EP. In the meantime, you can catch her at Everybody’s one Friday every month, and you can also follow her on Instagram (@avyagrace) to hear samples of what’s to come. 

(This is a retrospective interview which took place in 2018).