In Conversation With #130 - Aeora
Melbourne electronic pop artist Aeora has just released her new EP ‘Emotions’ - which is an intimate collection of songs filled with powerful heart-felt vocals with deep R&B undertones. She took a moment to talk to us in more depth about the EP.
Hey there Aeora, so your EP is out now - how does it feel to have it out there in the world?
Yeyyyy it feels nice! So nice to be able to share what I’ve been working on for a while! :) So nice to show my friends and family as well to be like: THIS is what I’ve been doing when I quit my day job last year haha.
It is titled ‘Emotion’ - does it have a deeper meaning behind it?
Not really haha. I felt like it really tied these 3 songs together. I see ‘WDYK’ as like explaining a really deep emotion of being hurt by someone. The title track ‘Emotion’ is about my experience with emotions in general, and how I understand them now. And ‘WCBH’ is like a transformation of an emotion of disappointment & sadness to being grateful for such a learning experience (a relationship that had ended).
Where was the EP recorded? Any behind the scenes stories from the creative process?
I made most of it in my home studio during last years lockdowns in Melbourne and the final vocals & piano were recorded in a studio I’ve been working out of occasionally (Rollingstock Studio’s in Collingwood).
Recording this EP (and all my upcoming releases) has actually been a really meditative & healing process for me. Usually I work with other engineers or producers but these songs were some of the first I made by myself. It was such a different experience but I think I just knew that my next step was to focus on my own production and really focus on finessing my own sound.
What are the key themes and influences on the EP?
I really tried to keep things a lot more natural and pure in terms of my expression as well as my sounds and lyrics. I’ve had the tendency in the past to alter the original demos and idea’s so much in the final mix (by myself or with other producers) to something that eventually feels like to me that it’s lost some of the messages or expressions I was trying to get across in the first place. I really tried to just keep the essence of the original idea for all these songs - and actually I discovered my sound to be a lot more stripped back than I thought!
Do you have a favorite lyric on the EP? If so, which one and why? What is the meaning behind it?
Hmm yes! In ‘Emotion’: “Sometimes it feels so steady, sometimes it feels so heavy, making me feel insane. Sometimes it’s overreacted, sometimes it’s understated, but really nothings changed” - I think these lyrics really say exactly what I was learning about my emotions, and I really resonate them. It’s taken me so long to realise emotions work the same if you let them (without rejecting them or without letting ego get in the way). For so, so long I was rejecting them (suppressing, repressing them and even fearing them) because I learned to do so and it really got in the way actually experiencing or feeling the emotions. And they only feel ‘steady’ or ‘heavy’ or make me feel ‘insane’ because of how I REACT to the emotions. Really I was learning that emotions aren’t the enemy and they’re actually quite beautiful ! :)
Now the EP is out there - what next for you?
I’ve got another single & EP coming out in a few months :) and that’s all I’ll say! Hehe. I had a massive year of writing music last year.