From her home in Sydney to the mean streets of Los Angeles, indie artist AViVA is taking her voice to the world.
In August AViVA will release her next single ‘HUSHH’, but don’t let the title fool you. “The new song is kind of like my 'I won’t be silenced' song,” AViVA explains.
“There are a couple of different ways that it means something to me and to people who can listen to it can guess that the big thing is this idea of having people shut your ideas down or try and silence you against being who you are if you're different.
“That's not okay and people get that at school, in the workplace and in the music industry a lot, so there are two personas in the song: the one that's leading and the one that’s being led. There are both sides of it; it means both those things to me but may mean something completely different to people who listen to it.”
‘HUSHH’ follows AViVA’s two previous singles ‘GRRRLS’ and ‘BRN’, with all three carrying strong messages about inclusion and the pitfalls of singling out the differences in others.
AViVA teased the new single with a creepy video that also premiered her newly cultivated ‘horror nurse’ image. “That horror vibe is where I’m headed in some ways. I like the idea of it being not gross and gory, I’m not into that, but keeping people on their toes,” she says.
“I like things to be a little bit creepy and a little bit freaky because I’m a little bit weird and that's cool; it’s okay to be weird and that's my whole thing - making people realise that if I’m going to be weird it’s okay for them to be weird,” she laughs.
AViVA will be showing off her new music and look at this year’s inaugural Halloween Hysteria festival in Brisbane alongside bands like King Parrot, Drown This City, Press Club, Voiid and more. “I’m really excited especially considering it's the debut year. It's always exciting to be on the first of something because everyone's super fresh and keen,” she says.
“The line-up is awesome and there are some real solid acts from the heavier world, which is cool because I’ve been listening to that stuff. So I’m really excited to be up there next to those people rocking out as the case may be.”
As well as her music, AViVA is also a passionate writer and later this year will be releasing the first novel in her new young adult series, ‘SELF/LESS’. “SELF/LESS is all about a young woman, woohoo, who discovers the world that she lives in and grew up in and the world that she thought was real was actually not the utopia she thought it was,” AViVA says.
“In this world she grew up in, creative expression and self-expression are illegal and if you’re caught making art, music, reading, drawing or practising any kind of religion or anything that expresses the self in any way, you're 'sanitised' and you can guess what that might be.
"It’s this hyper-controlling, neo-fascist society that everyone is taking as normal and then she realises it’s not the real way we should be.”
