“It’s Part Of What Makes Us Human!” Aurora Interviewed

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Aurora’s discography is not merely music. Over the years her releases have developed with intricate depth, resonating with millions through lyrical brilliance and empathy towards human emotion. What makes us human in a world we too often neglect is at the core of Aurora’s artistry. Our feet are touching an Earth that is so rich in life – past and present, natural and human – yet we don’t often allow ourselves the opportunity to acknowledge and appreciate it all. We are distracted by unattainable perfection and beauty – God’s we can’t touch. Clash were fortunate enough to discuss this release and the many aspects of the album which make it one, tangible whole.

“We removed God from everything here around us and we put it up somewhere far away up in the clouds. And I wonder what that did to the way we think, would we respect Mother Earth more if we believe that if we worshipped the Earth more than we did this invisible person up in the clouds?”  

Through the Norwegian singer’s approach to songwriting and production, we are offered freedom from restricted perspectives. ‘The Gods We Can Touch’ pushes lyrical boundaries as Aurora explores a rage of references, imbuing the album with a consciousness regarding the world it has been released into. Not only is it Aurora’s third studio album, but also her first ever UK Top 10 – a deserved achievement for the emotionally potent release. A release also rich with enchanting percussion and experimental sounds and perspective.

Produced during Aurora’s stay at the charming ‘Baroniet Rosendale’ in Norway, where “the only thing you hear constantly all day is the sound of the waterfall falling from the mountains”, the albums natural influences are evident. It is no wonder that Aurora’s writing process runs “just like a river” – there are endless possibilities to creativity when you allow yourself to be influenced by nature. It’s for this reason that angelic and charming instrumentals are paired with hard-hitting harmonies – they are representational of nature, which presents us with just as much pain and turmoil as it does tranquility and beauty.

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Is your creativity often influenced by nature?

Yes it is. I’m very inspired by the whole essence and vibration of nature, the way she behaves. Like the violence and wrongness and ugliness and beauty. You can think of hundreds of metaphors to say things, just by looking at the way nature behaves. It contains everything and that’s the most beautiful thing. You can say anything you want in any way, it’s kind of endless.

I feel like I’m constantly trying to say things that haven’t been said or I’m trying to explain things you can’t really explain with words. And, It’s annoying because language kind of holds you back – we don’t have enough. I think if aliens visited Earth, they would be like “Oh, your language is so primal” because we don’t have enough words to speak about the things we want to speak about, which is frustrating.

Do you think ‘The God’s We Can Touch’ would have been different had you not recorded it in ‘Baroniet Rosendal’? Would it have changed if you’d recorded it in an inner-city recording studio?

I think it would have been a very different, you’re completely right. We get so affected by our surroundings and it’s weird because I feel like we often carry these things inside of us – good or bad emotions, and we forget to ever think “what if I removed myself from this situation or this place? Maybe I will feel better”. It’s a huge challenge for a lot of people, to remind themselves of how affected we are by a place we’re currently in. I think the album would have been much harder, much less less soft, not filled with divine feminine energy. It is a very feminine album, and very complex. I feel like I had room to make something that sounds big and large, but also small at the same time. It definitely would have sounded very different if I made it anywhere else.

What was special about the castle ‘Baroniet Rosendale’ to record the album?

I most liked the history of the place. Quite close to the castle, one of the oldest, small churches in Norway exists. I’m just thinking about all the women, witches burned and killed just for being you clever, or good with medicine, or beautiful. Whatever talent or whatever trait they had. It’s just impossible to imagine the world we live in and how it’s been and how it is now and how it’s changed. And in many ways, it’s still the same.

Just the whole sentiment and history of just that place , it’s a good reminder of all the all the battles we’ve been through to come to where we are today – and all the battles we still have yet to win. Also, the silence of the place. It’s very small, very few people, and the only thing you hear constantly all day is the sound of the waterfall falling from the mountains. It’s just a magic place for the soul.

On the topic of past battles and battles that we still have to face – in the past couple of years with a pandemic, did any of this time like leave you struggling creatively? Or did it give you more time to focus on the album?

I’m constantly focused on writing albums. I feel like that’s what my life revolves around. The biggest part of my existence is to think, or make, or plan, or finish an album. It’s the only thing I live for, I love it so much and I’ve already started my next one. It’s weird how the virus has also given us real time to reflect on the world, you know, outside of the normal things we reflect on. I’m really grateful for that, because it’s changed me… the way I fight, the way I speak about the world.

Things I thought were good enough, I realised aren’t good enough and that’s good – because now I’m one more person, one more resource who will keep fighting for the things we still have to. I’m really grateful for the space this this time has really given me to realise the world we are living in.

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The album is extremely genre-bending. As you say the world around you is really influencing the sounds that come into your album, but were there any musical influences?

I was a bit inspired by Ennio Morricone… it’s very cinematic. I’ve been really inspired by Western music for some reason, but also spiritual music – ‘A Little Place Called The Moon’ is very spiritual to me and very cinematic. I wanted the album to feel very cinematic, to be the bleeding lady of your own movie, which is a wonderful feeling to have in this life. Music that sounded very divine and large but also kind of sensual and pure… Playfulness is a good word, I’ve just been very playful. And I just I’ve done what feels silly, and what feels beautiful and ugly and I’ve kept it all on the album. Just to realise that I can do whatever I want – and isn’t that an amazing thing? We can all do what we want.

‘Heathens’ ties together angelic, celestial music with more Western elements, so I can see where this influence comes in! The lyrics accept the flaws of human kind and bad qualities we have adopted. Did you find it hard to accept the bad qualities in people, in order to make the authentic lyrics in this song?

I quite early in my life discovered that even the best people can be horrible and even the people you look up to can disappoint you, and the people you thought you despised suddenly show very lovable, beautiful qualities. I’ve accepted very early in my life that I don’t need anyone to be perfect – not even my parents, not myself. I’ve become very good at really accepting people for just what they are and accept myself for just what I am. It’s okay to be disappointed and to be confused by the people you love. It’s a part of what makes us human and what gives us a learning curve. It gives us an opportunity to actually learn as we go and improve, which is an inspiring way to live your life.

I’m very in touch with that side of us and I’m trying my best to emphasise that in my lyrics and embrace it, and challenge it, and ask questions about it. But I’m very intrigued by the things I believe are good qualities that religion or conservatism told us are bad throughout history and also in the now – that’s the biggest thing that ticks me off!

Everything you’ve just said also ties in with the Greek mythology and Biblical references throughout the album. Do you think that Greek mythology has something to teach us about the Earth and our treatment of each other?

I think so. They have a lot of thesis about pleasure and about embracing the wonderful things and the wonderful joys we have right here in the now – without making us feel ashamed for it. For being curious, for being sexual, for being pure, for being thirsty and hungry, and for being flawed. All of these things that are perfectly normal but somehow we are made to feel a bit ashamed about. We don’t talk about it and it makes me so sad, because it’s so pointless to make something that could be beautiful into something bad.

Humankind is still just at its starting point. We’re so young compared to the Earth, compared to the mountains. We haven’t even existed for a second. And it is weird that we think about our current people as much more complex and much better, and much more evolved and smart than people who lived many, many, many years ago. I think we are quite mistaken in that.

That’s the thing with Greek mythology – that back then, all the way back then, it was okay to be gay. It was okay to be free in your own skin and body. It was okay to be a woman. It was okay to be trans. They were more open minded. We became with time how we are now, isn’t that crazy? That we can even forget.

We do forget our progress and sometimes we relapse and we we lose the progress we thought we had secured, the process is to just always keep keep fighting for our rights.

How did you convert these references to Mythology and their freedom in comparison to ours into music and into sound?

I wanted the music to hit the heart and body. I’m very into the instrumental elements of all my songs when I produce. I love percussion. I love complicated rhythms and free rhythms. I love a lot of the electronic elements of producing because the possibilities are endless… you can make whatever sound you like and it runs out of nothing and it’s just magical. – I love organic percussion. It hits my body first. I love music that hits my soul first and then it hits my my mind and brain. I think that’s my most important approach to try to convey all of this, is that I want to make music for the soul primarily and then the rest of you.

God is very a large thing and all the topics of the album are very large. That’s why I do a lot of the vocal stacking and harmonies, to make it sound like millions of angels shouting at you – like a wall of music just hitting you in the face. I guess that’s kind of my biggest approach, but then make it suddenly very small again – like the intro of ‘Exhale, Inhale’. To make it really close, so that you will understand how large what you just heard was. You need perspective. You need to hear both the small and the large.

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‘Exhale, Inhale’ also holds a powerful line from the album “if you could fly and be the bird then you can see the forest burn”. In terms of awareness of the climate change discussion within the song – how did you combat such unpleasant aspects of the world into such beautiful music?

It’s impossible, isn’t it?

The climate emergency discussion is so complicated. I fear that people are too scared to involve themselves in it, because it’s so complicated. All the phrasings and the words, like “CO 2 emissions” – people don’t know what that means! It’s way too complicated. It doesn’t speak. We forget to speak about it in a way that hits all of us. That’s the beauty about music, that it can make such a political thing emotional. That’s my biggest approach when I write… to make it purely emotional so people will connect to it, in a way that the politicians really can’t do. Many people don’t, sadly, trust their own politicians and leaders. I think it has a lot to do with the language they’re using.

Aurora explains that ‘Exhale Inhale’ contains “environmental anxiety” – “being anxious about the people around you and being anxious about the environment… being ashamed for your own role in it, that you feel like you are not doing enough”.

If you’re not as perfect and as foregoing as Greta Thunberg, then why even try? I will never be like her anyway. You know? I feel like people are being too hard on themselves, so they’re afraid to get involved in doing their part, and they forget how important they are.

It’s incredible to hear how that all filters into your music. To care about the Earth and the climate and then to listen to that care being brought to life through the power of an album. It’s similar to the life given to Greek mythology throughout ‘The God’s We Can Touch’. Bringing the conversation back to mythology and literature is my final question. Like a blurb informs its readers of the story they’re about to read, what would you like listeners to know about your album before listening to it?

I’ve never been asked this before, this is intriguing. I think I would tell them that I am very fascinated by the divine and the human and I don’t understand why they can’t be the same thing. So, I looked back in the history of humankind and religion and mythology and beliefs, and I discovered that the longer back I got, the more we worshipped ourselves, each other, the Earth we walked on, the water we drank, the sun shining on our skin and the trees and everything here that we could touch – what is right here around us.

The more you get to our current time, the more we removed God from everything here around us and we put it up somewhere far away up in the clouds. And I wonder, what that did to the way we think, would we respect Mother Earth more if we worshipped the Earth more than we did this invisible person up in the clouds?

Would we be kinder to each other and ourselves if we didn’t have to think that we had to be as perfect as this All-knowing and Almighty God? We could rather worship something that we could see ourselves in. I don’t know, I think that kind of world sounds pretty amazing and so, I decided to make an album about it.

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‘The Gods We Can Touch’ is out now.

Words: Amelia Kelly

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