Please introduce yourself, what you do, why you do it, and what you want people to know about you.
My name is Aura Davis.
I’m a pop/rock singer/songwriter currently based in Zurich Switzerland.
I’ve been a writer most of my life. Writing always helped me cope with things and as cheesy as that may sound, it actually really saved my life. I’ve been dealing with depression for as long as I can remember and writing down my thoughts and feelings always helped me in terms of not feeling completely alone.
I started to put music out two years ago. Before that it was basically just me playing my songs in my own comfort zone. But you and I know nothing ever grows there 🙂
Most of my music starts out on just a simple guitar. That can be either acoustic or electric. Depends on the mood. Or the lyrics. When I think I have something worth exploring, I play it for my producer and writing partner and the rest basically «just happens». We add layers, take them away, we hate it, we love it. Until it’s finally what we want it to be. That’s something that fascinates me about songwriting. There is no «right or wrong» or a simple rule to apply. There is just space for literally all or nothing. For me as a perfectionist, that sometimes comes with hard lessons too because at some point you just got to let it go you know.
So yeah, why do I do what I do?
Because I love it.
Because music has helped me cope.
And I write because it saved my life when I couldn’t speak.
What qualities make you different and unique from everyone else in the industry?
I think it would be absolutely foolish to say «I’m the only one having this» or «No one but me ever did that». Because that would simply be a lie.
What I know for sure and what I think maybe is something I do on a nerdier level than many others is the unmeasurable amount of how much I care. I really do wanna know about all the little details and the fine nuances in a song. I’m the person you’ll find analyzing lyrics over and over again until I’m able to hopefully understand it all. The written and the unwritten meaning behind a piece of work. Even if that means I’ll spend 1292 hours decoding interviews on YouTube or go on to the Artists Instagram to ready every single comment in order to get – well – anything, really.
Yes. I’m weird.
I know.
See? Maybe that does make me different…
Describe THAT moment when you realized you wanted to do what you do now. Who did you tell first? What has it been like since that moment?
In have to split this into two different moments.
I knew I wanted to be a musician, when I was 4 and sang along to Roxette with my mom for the first time. I «knew» that in the way a 4-year-old is able to «know» things.
Of course, my parents needed me to focus on something «more serious».
And so, the dream, stayed right where it was born. In my imagination.
I gave the artist in me a second chance, because it almost killed me ignoring it, three years ago.
I said fuck it and did a 180 turn. Left my long-term boyfriend, changed my daytime job and well, now we’re here.
What has been the biggest challenge you’ve had to face and how did you overcome it?
Well basically everything I just mentioned above.
See, I had to «burry» the artist in me for a very long time and finding my way back to it loud and bold, wasn’t and still is not always «easy». A life change always costs you. You leave good people behind, focus a lot on your own stuff and it’s not always easy for family and friends to understand that weird tunnel mode you’re in then. But that’s the price you pay, I guess. Nothing comes for free. You’ve got to work really hard and sometimes, after you have worked as hard as you thought you could, you got to keep on working even harder.
Something else that I found incredibly difficult in this industry is the number of opinions floating around. As an indie artist it’s really hard sometimes to determine who you should listen to. I mostly go with my given intuition and at the end of the day – just like with everything else – experience is the key.
If you had to pick the TOP 3 people, you’d want to meet that could take your career (or business) to the next level…who would those 3 people be?
- Steven Wilson (not because I would want him to «develop» my career but because he is a genius and I would simply like to have a cup of tea with him and talk about whatever).
- Grace Potter (I want to sing with her 😊)
- Taylor Swift (so she could teach me how to rule the industry and let me cuddle her cats)
List the direct links/URL to your social media profiles so people can follow you:
- Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thisisauradavis/
- Facebook https://www.facebook.com/thisisauradavis/
- Twitter https://twitter.com/thisisauradavis
- Spotify https://open.spotify.com/artist/7phDlcL0THknSVzXipd3Vf?si=mTTlQQt2RDmG037AdNrvDQ
- Apple Music https://music.apple.com/ch/artist/aura-davis/1510911009
- YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaw8kVJuZbOLnUrMPbBZIQg
- Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/thisisauradavis