Bringing together an impressive team of talents, Aura Avenue hit the scene with heartfelt ferocity, as their brand new single Full Time President continues to make waves.
We caught up with the newly-formed creative outfit to find out more about the song, their audio and conceptual intentions as a band, and their plans for the future. Here’s the conversation in full.
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Hi guys – thanks so much for your time, loving the new single! To introduce things, who’s in the band, and what prompted you to start making music together?
Our band members are Alex Sherwood, Bella Bilello, Cody Sherwood and Madi Hanline. Cody and Alex have been making music together for 4+ years, and even longer before starting to collaborate together.
What prompted us to start making music together was the extreme anger that we mutually felt about the hateful and discriminatory policies that are bleeding into the law and legislation in the United States. We wanted, needed, to share how we felt, what we believed and express how deeply the human and women’s rights abuses that are taking place in America affect us.
We have so many thoughts, feelings, emotions and reactions to things that we have to share. Regardless of genre or style of music, we will continue to create, without made up boundaries or borders of music that don’t actually exist
Let’s talk about Full Time President – raw punk energy and indie-rock united with a clear conceptual overtone and additional edge of personality. How did the track come to be, and is this fairly typical in representing your style and future releases?
The track Full Time President came about for numerous reasons, concerning the political scene in America right now – expressing our views on different types of corruptions.
We look forward to doing multiple different types of music other than what the feeling of Full Time President brings. The band wants to express how we feel and not limit ourselves to just one genre.
What does Aura Avenue bring out in your music that solo work never did?
What Aura Avenue brings out in us that working independently doesn’t, is the energy and creativeness that happens when all of us get together. It’s like a spark of fire, it’s like we don’t even think, we just are able to create with each other. There’s so much motivation, inspiration and happiness in the room when we are all together, the ability to basically merge our minds into one and put that into a song, far exceeds anything we are able to do by ourselves.
“The art and music we make together is immeasurable in comparison to our solo work – when we work together, we do not just collaborate, we become one, we become one mind, one person, one band, and the song we are making.”
What’s the scene like in Maryland for this kind of music, and how often do you get to perform?
The scene in Maryland for this type of music is small, we aren’t really familiar with anyone in the scene here. Bands like Brickyard Folly exist around here, but that’s the extent of our knowledge. We’re just happy to be creating, and happy to bring a new sound to somewhere who’s never heard anything like it before.
We haven’t got to perform yet, we are planning to book some things for next year, there’s a lot coming, with us performing, music, and so much more. We can’t wait to perform and show what our music looks like visually.
Is there a longer project on the way, and if so, what can you tell us about that?
There’s a project, it’s working, it’s being made, we’re still in the early stages of it, we have some songs done for it. We haven’t decided on a name or anything yet, we plan for a lot of things between now and the album, it’s there, parts of it exist, it’s just still being built. There’s just a lot to do before its release.
What are the main values you want to bring to modern music as a band?
The main value we want to bring to modern music is that everyone should be allowed to express themselves freely. Voice how they are feeling of the sorts and find some ground of relatability with an audience of their own for any other artists/musicians out there. We look to spread both positive messages and share our views on many different things, standing out as our own thing.
Given your various creative backgrounds – do you ever disagree artistically, and if so, how do you overcome that?
Between all of the members of the band there is always communication amongst each other so we can come to an agreement of sorts. If there is a disagreement based on artistic visions & variations of our projects we find a way to meet in the middle to see what is the best for everyone in our group, as everyone should do when supporting their fellow friends, loved ones, family, and everything that matters to you.
Who’s your target audience, and what’s your greatest ambition right now?
Our target audience is probably young adults, assuming the ages between 18-30. People who believe in equality, who are tired of their rights being taken away, people who love to create, who love to love, who express themselves, and hopefully our music can help someone find a way to express themselves.
Our greatest ambition is just to create, to inspire, and to express our emotions and put ourselves out there as much as possible. We want to show the world who Aura Avenue is, and what we’re about. We would love to show everyone what we have to say and what we create.
What would you change about the current music industry if you could?
If we could change one thing about the current music industry it would be how corruption has bled into it, the money hungry types of individuals involved, the soulless-ness of the managements & labels and how so many have been taken advantage of for just the idea of money, fame, or other malicious things to leech off of someone else.
What’s something about Aura Avenue that would surprise fans?
Bella has played the violin for 16 years and is classically trained, Madi has been in multiple musicals and plays and they’ve both performed for their entire lives, both singing and acting and we’ve been working so hard on our music and we are are so excited to share it with everyone. We are all so proud of what we’ve made so far and can’t wait to see what we make in the future.
What’s your plan of action for 2024?
Our plans for 2024 are a lot, like a lot. We made a year long in depth detailed plan, there’s so much in it & there’s so much we’re going to do. Hopefully everyone will love the projects we have planned and that come out in the future. We have so many ideas, so many plans, so many things to do, and we are so excited to do it. Next year is going to be packed full of Aura Avenue.
Besides just Aura Avenue projects, Alex, who’s solo artist name is Papa Jake & Cody, who’s solo artist name is Cry 4 Chaos have a collaborative EP project called I Saw A Ghost In Louisiana in the works following up the releases of Aura Avenue’s. Bella, a member of the band is going to be releasing individual/solo projects, and go by her real name, Bella Bilello as her stage name too along these times as well. Our other member, Madi Hanline, is in art school; pursuing their dream of being an artist while also being a fundamental key member of our band.
Is there anything else we need to know?
Things that we, Aura Avenue, as a band would like for everyone out there in the world to know, is to look forward to our next projects, our social medias, the things that we post and stay tuned for anything in the future. We want to spread our messages across the world freely, as people should be able to be human beings.
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Find Aura Avenue on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok & YouTube.
