‘The whole world is in front of your feet’, AURORA and the power of feeling

FINALLY, WE INTERVIEWED AURORA AND HAD A PLEASANT TALK ABOUT LIFE, PROJECTS AND WAKE UP ALARMS. WE’RE AMAZED BY HER HUMBLENESS, PRESENCE AND, ABOVE ALL, HER INFINITE LOVE.

 

If you think about it, it’s beautiful and amazing when a person like AURORA becomes this important in music. We mean it, IMPORTANT. After the huge attention she’s receiving due to the launch of her Oasis’ cover: Half The World Away, the world is getting ready to make her the artist of 2016, wait and see. We’ve never met someone this unique: she talks as if she’s holding the weight of all the world’s feelings on her shoulders. She moves like a river, constant and natural. She’s the kind of person you’ll only find once in a lifetime. That’s the reason why we felt so special after talking with her. Her project is genuine and her voice is quite a thing to highlight. Discover the Norwegian singer AURORA through our talk about her project and turn into one of her Weirdo Warrior with us 🙂 Oh! Don’t forget to check the playlist she made specially for her fans!

 

 

• In most of your songs, it feels like you’re telling us fairytales, small stories packed with small fantastic elements. One of our very favourites is the one you sing in ‘Little Boy In The Grass’. Where do these stories come from? Are they all a product of your imagination, inspired by experiences, nightmares, or maybe stories you were told from other people…?

I kind of think about my songs as stories as well. It’s quite strange because most of my songs aren’t actually from my own experiences. I really like to observe people and I’m very sensitive, so it doesn’t really matter if it’s my own emotion or another person’s emotion, I will still think about it and will keep me awake at night. I am used to write my songs to get all the thoughts and memories off the head so I can move on. Many of my songs are inspired by other people and happenings I see around the world. I can’t really watch the news, it would make me very sad.

 

• Helping the people through your music; an ambitious purpose reachable only by a few, a motivation (as we read) driven by your mum since you were a kid. We really sense your music is full of a certain therapeutic nature. How do you feel when your fans tell you about the help you’re giving them through your work to solve their personal problems? 

It’s one of the most important things, I think. You know, if you feel alone and you don’t have anyone to talk to…  you often need some help to move on in life if something bad happen. You have to talk about it to feel. And I see that people are alone and if they’re not so comfortable about talking about their emotions with other people, movies and music… specially music, helps in so many things. And that’s the only thing I want to do with my music.

 

• Has anyone talked to you about you helped them through your music?

I usually get messages of people who has lost someone or have problems. That stories really move me and make me sad sometimes, but it also moves my heart that they can talk with me about that problems. And I really like talking to people, I’m happy they trust me that way. It really gives me strength to keep doing the work I do, it’s very nice.

 

 

• We want to know more about the story behind your friend uploading the first song over the norwegian streaming site, we find it fascinating! What was the relationship with this boy or girl then and now?

It is a girl actually. She wasn’t a close friend really, she was just a girl from school. When I did my first performance I was 15-16 and my teacher told me I had a good voice and I should definitely record that song. I did as a Christmas present to my parents and I didn’t want anyone else than them to hear it. That girl asked me if she could get that song and just put it online and, don’t know, I thought that was really scary and a bit embarrassing as well! (cute laugh) but then many people seemed to like it and right then my management found me.

 

• Your way of performing on stage or in video clips is very characteristic. A dramatic and vivid interpretation of the songs reminiscent of artists like Florence Welch and Björk. Is it something you do since you were a kid or  did it start when you abandoned the piano and started performing hands free?

It’s like, when you sing and you remember why you wrote it, makes you really emotional. I don’t know any other way to perform a song than to sing it with my whole body. I have a heart and feet and eyes and a face, and everything needs to be there when I sing about memories. I just feel the sound in my whole body I can’t stand still. Even at the studio performing songs I still move a lot, it makes it easier to sing. It’s all about feelings. Its like a river that flows and moves and you can’t even control it. It just happens.

 

 

• You’ve dedicated your entire life to music from a very early age, although initially you played the piano in your gigs. Currently you are exposed directly to the audience, you cannot hide behind the piano anymore, haha, do you miss that? Perhaps some of the new songs that we expect early next year with your debut album will allow you to play the piano again?

Yeah absolutely! I love to sing and play the piano at the same time because you have so much freedom, you can improvise and do whatever you want to. So in the future I will do more of that as well for sure.

 

• ‘Runaway’ is one of your most famous songs. We’re invaded by a nostalgic feeling every time we give it a listen, the urge to escape, return to your place. Given your current professional situation, how do you feel about being so far from home so often? Do you sometimes feel homesick? 

Thank you for asking, I do actually a lot. It was hard at the beginning, I’ve been travelling every day since January this year, so I’ve been away very much. And it’s very strange because I like to be home as I used to be every day. It was normal to have my parents every day, meet my family, have dinner and sleep in my own bed. But you get really used to travelling, and I think now missing people or missing being surrounded by trees becomes strangely familiar. It’s weird but it’s fun somehow.

 

 

• Do you play video games? Tell us about it!

I absolutely love video games! I played a lot of Skyrim, Warcraft, Diablo and Star Wars… So yeah, I love it!

 

• What kind of music would AURORA choose to brighten up a Friday night dinner with her friends at home?

It’s kind of strange because I almost only listen to Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan, and a bit of heavy metal sometimes.. But I wouldn’t choose heavy metal for that (haha) so maybe Leonard Cohen because I love his music and it makes me so calmed. I need to be calmed inside my body when I’m with people and friends.

 

• And to wake up next day and shake the sleepy mood off?

Have you seen the ‘Spiderman’ movie? I have a melody from there, you know the moment he’s hanging upside down and he kisses Mary Jane? The song from that scene it’s actually my alarm!

 

 

• Do you follow any playlist on Spotify?

Not really sorry, I just buy albums and listen to them.

 

• You refer to your followers as Weirdos and Warriors. What is the reason for these nicknames?

At first it was kind of strange to think about my fans as ‘Auroros’ or ‘Aurorians’,  so I thought about what would I like to call myself and I think it’s nice to be able to call yourself a Warrior, isn’t it? It’s very strong and I think everyone is a warrior. Not in the battlefield, if you experienced hard stuff and you survived, then I think you are a Warrior and I want my music to be for people that had to fight in life. ‘Warrior’ is strong, nice and talks about that.

And Weirdos… why being different  should be embarrassing?  It’s strange how people, especially kids, can bully other kids for being strange. It’s kind of tough, so I want that to be a good word. You know being a Weirdo sometimes comes with being a Warrior. I’ve been strange or different to other people  so I know how it feels: you have to fight a lot to be accepted.

 

• Well, it seems Weirdos like us eventually are happier than everyone else at the end, right?

Yeah I think so too! It’s just that you don’t realize until you’re more grown up, you should also know that when you’re a kid.

 

• What would you say to people that is just starting in music to encourage them to keep working?

Once, a boy came over to me and said ‘Oh, you have the whole world in front of your feet! You’re so lucky!’. I thought then: Everyone has the world in front of their feet and there’s literally nothing that you can’t do. You could do everything you want as long as you work hard enough, because that’s really the key. You have to work every day because things doesn’t just happen. I would just tell them that; you can do absolutely everything you want to do and you’re just as special as everyone else, the whole world is in front of your feet and it’s yours if you work hard enough!

 

We can only say we’re so grateful and happy about this small talk. Check AURORA’s work and follow her around twitter and send her love! Don’t forget checking the playlist she made specially for her fans: ‘Weirdo’s Fairytale’.