The Music of Avery Jane
Avery Jane writes songs about You. Sometimes they're written to herself in the second person, lately a lot are speaking to her boyfriend and current musical partner, while others are written to an anonymous figure. But that You ties them together. It frames her lyrics as confessions, secrets, heightening the intimacy of her songs.
How long has she been at it? "Always," she tells me with a laugh, and I know it's true. Her first EP Honey Lemon Ginger ends with a track called The Backpack Song, recorded in 2003 when she was just four years old. The album is raw and beautiful, just her smoky voice and acoustic guitar, nothing more. It juxtaposes the small, high voice singing about her backpack, but even at four you can hear her experimenting with her range, discovering her calling. "I've been writing songs and singing by myself since I was super young."
Honey Lemon Ginger was an intentional capsule of that history. "I wanted to release my last album because I knew it was going to be my last solo thing. It's my first and only solo thing I put out where it's just myself and my guitar, and I wanted to memorialize the process in which I write songs. I didn't want to have just fully produced music out. I didn't know when I was going to be releasing fully produced stuff, and I didn't think it was going to move so quickly. It's worked out very well because that was last year."
Avery's upcoming EP Hey You is the departure she predicted. The songs are fleshed out, slickly produced by her boyfriend, Koyo Sur La Prod. It's a pairing that happened naturally. "It kind of started at his grandparents house, actually. I'd written the first song, Butter, about him and I played it for him, and he was like, 'Oh my God, I want to produce this'. We tried it out. We spent three days doing just that, and then we both knew this was good. Like, we're good, we should do more, and we ended up recording five songs, and we said 'great, we have an EP'."
As to how her new album fits in with her last, it's both a fresh start and a cohesive part. "I wanted to change the vibes and see where I could take it. My songs start the same way, bones wise, it's myself and my guitar and that's it. They all have a cohesive energy, so it wasn't super hard for us to feel like they could all fit together. And after a while I realized that all the songs sort of seemed like I could be writing them about him. Most of them were, and some of them weren't. Whether I'm talking to myself in the second person or him in the second person or somebody else, they all have this term 'you'." Indeed, the personal lyrics continue in this album, as does the feeling that these songs are best listened to in the throes of love, or loss. She sings about being too excited to sleep, the pleasures of a happy relationship, and the persistent lies our inner dialogue can feed us. I can't say enough about her lyricism. It demonstrates years of dedicated practice, and a self awareness beyond her years. If she chose to give it all up and become a writer, I would line up for every word. Melodic and poignant, Hey You will also have you bopping your head in time.
Listening to Avery Jane it's obvious that aside from the professional singing and theatre she did as a child, somewhere in her history was a fantastic record collection. She admits that her influences range wildly. "I used to be a lot more into folk and indie rock, and then over time it became a lot more jazz and soul. Now it's very much an eclectic mix of hip hop, and a lot of UK artists. Right now a lot of R&B from the UK is very much my vibe." As for Montreal artists she loves, she doesn't hesitate. "Yzabo and Cinzia & The Eclipse -- who isn’t living here anymore but she’s from here!"
The inspirations seep into her music gracefully. At no point does she sound like anyone other than herself. Her voice is smooth and confident, her lyrics refreshingly honest -- I think back to how revolutionary it felt to first hear Ani DiFranco or Sarah McLachlan and this gives me the same fresh hope. There's something timeless in her sound, and I can picture her torch singing in a dimly lit bar, or owning every inch of a stadium stage.
Voted most likely to receive a Grammy in high school, I wouldn't at all be surprised if she did. "I'm going to start small, I suppose," she laughs. "But I really do have a lot more confidence in myself, especially with my partner because he's my primary music partner, business partner, partner in life. I believe in him a lot. He really believes in me. It's really nice to have that confidence and have a vision of where I would like to be."
Hey You drops on October 20! Mark your calendars, and check back here for details on the release party.
For more on Avery Jane’s music and upcoming performances, visit HERE.
