Digital Cover: Audrey Nuna
Photographer: Tone Woolfe
Styling: Marissa Pelly
Hair + Makeup: Sareen Bhojwani
Interview + Creative Direction: Chris Walsh
In the dynamic world of contemporary music, few artists encapsulate the essence of versatility and innovation like Audrey Nuna.
Audrey Nuna’s music is a vibrant sonic landscape of R&B, hip-hop, pop, and electronic influences. Her ability to seamlessly blend these genres sets her apart in an oversaturated industry of genre-benders. Crafting a sonic feast on her debut, a liquid breakfast, the album serves as the perfect introduction to the beautiful twisted fantasy of Audrey Nuna. Beyond her eclectic musical style, Nuna exudes a magnetic presence that resonates sonically and visually. Her ability to marry infectious beats with thought-provoking storytelling sets her apart, inviting listeners into a world where vulnerability meets strength and authenticity reigns supreme
Venturing into this new era, Nuna sheds layers of pastself as she explores different genres and experiments visually within her captivating videos. “Cellulite” is one of the addictive and mesmerizing singles the rising star released this past year, that combines harsh and sharp sounds with a melodic, intoxicating auto-tuned fueled chorus for a genre she self-titled, “rage n B.” The Teezo Touchdown assisted “Starving” explores universal themes of desire and deficiency, Nuna’s breezy and effortless vocals with the confident delivery of Teezo’s clever bars perfectly complement the song’s sleek production. “Jokes On Me” sees her steady in her commitment to genre transcendence and versatility on a personality-filled track rife with heavy autotune, breezy vocals, and a trappy, electronic triple drum beat. For the visuals for “Jokes On Me”, Nuna is out of this world - a lone explorer in her own interstellar universe, dressed in all-white, futuristic space suit and roaming the surfaces of faraway planets.
Audrey Nuna continues to push boundaries with her innovative sound and captivating visuals, positioning herself as a trailblazer amongst her peers. Over an intimate dinner at a Thai restaurant in Brooklyn, Nuna and LISTEN catch up with a casual chat about her new era.
LISTEN: How are you today?
AUDREY: I'm pretty good today. I'm chillin,' a little tired, but I'm great.
LISTEN: What did we do today?
AUDREY: I had another interview before this. I saw my friend and makeup artist and went thrifting. I had some Japanese brunch and that’s pretty much it.
LISTEN: Do you have any specific spots you come to when you're in the city?
AUDREY: In the city? There's a spot called TOKUYAMATCHA in Alphabet City. My favorite Chinese spot is Shanghai 21 in Chinatown. The thrift place I went to today is amazing. It's called David Owens Vintage. It's run by this really nice old man in LES. Everyone should go check it out. The selection was so good. You gotta check it out!
LISTEN: When you thrift, is there anything you specifically look for? I feel like I'm always looking for a jacket or pants.
AUDREY: I love button-ups. Like specifically, I just like some nice slightly worn button-ups, and these days I'm just more into skirts. I love finding pre-professional wear, like vintage pre-professional stuff. I love it when I can find a good pair of shoes like loafers or something.
LISTEN: Do you miss living on the East Coast?
AUDREY: Yes. 100%. I think I'm just gonna be back and forth a lot. I get a lot of energy from the city, specifically. I always leave feeling open and inspired. Even if I'm not recording the entire time I'm here or something, I just feel like I get to live life. Not that I don't get that in L.A. I just think that you're more prone to doing that here naturally, I would say, than in L.A.
LISTEN: I feel that.
AUDREY: There's just so much more shared space in New York. This is a Korean saying it's like "when your bodies are further apart your hearts also get further apart" and I feel like in New York, everyone just being in the same physical space just creates a lot more communal energy.
LISTEN: When it comes to making music, do you feel like L.A has influenced your sound at all?
AUDREY: Yeah. I don't know if I can genuinely say the place itself has sonically influenced me. I think thematically it's influenced me. Experiencing that city for the first time as a 22-year-old, 23-year-old. It's such a specific story that kind of built itself out for this next project. I would say more than sonically, definitely from a concept perspective, yes.
LISTEN: Do you like to record in different places like LA or New York? I remember you took a trip to Joshua Tree once to record some music. Does being in different environments affect the way the music comes out?
AUDREY: I love experiencing new places and making music and reacting to new places. Honestly, that's like my, one of my favorite ways to make music. My second favorite is having a very consistent spot. And locking in for months. So it's like one or the other.
LISTEN: When it came to making this project, do you feel like the creative energy and the way you approached it was different than a liquid breakfast?
AUDREY: For sure. This time was a lot harder, it pushed me in the same way though. It pushed me to grow a lot, finding the peace and quiet of what a liquid breakfast came from; being able to shut away from the world and make music, I had to really create that for myself for this next one and it just helped me a lot to grow.
LISTEN: What were some of the challenges that you faced? What made it harder?
AUDREY: For me, the challenge was finding a place where I felt comfortable. Because, it took time for me, to feel very at home while recording. Then carving out that space in a new city was a challenge. I think expanding my team and figuring out the people around me, who I want to bring this music to life with. And figuring that out was not a challenge, which is a journey and a lot of different layers. I'm just protecting my energy.
LISTEN: Was there a specific song that challenged you the most during this recording process?
AUDREY: I wouldn’t say a challenge, just more of an evolution. Maybe "Me and My Baby," a song on the next project that just went through a lot of different versions. It sat there for three months, didn't touch it for a bit, came back to it and rewrote it. I love that because I feel like that's really staple in my process of just like, letting things kind of work themselves out and not feeling rushed.
LISTEN: From the sample I was listening to, sonically, this feels like your most diverse project yet. From “Dance Dance Dance” to “Starving,” there's such a different contrast between the two, you know? What inspired you to venture out on this project rather than keeping the songs within the same sonic palette?
AUDREY: I think it just came from a place of exploration. I feel like with a liquid breakfast there was a sound that we carved out. It felt like we carved out a sound for this project too. I think I wanted to know I wanted to go somewhere else like I never did even in the beginning stages. It felt like ‘a liquid breakfast part two.’
LISTEN: Yeah.
AUDREY: And just me and the people working on it, we just felt bored by it. We were like, oh we want to see what else is there. We want to grow and expand. So I think all the diversity was just us trying a lot of different things.
LISTEN: Are there any genres you want to delve into? I feel like “Dance Dance Dance” is one of those examples.
AUDREY: At this moment, I would love to study more people like Carol King and Joni Mitchell and also have this like hyper-focus on almost songwriting and song structure. I think that would be a cool next exploration for me. For this project I went experimental and did a lot of different things. I'm curious with that in mind - if I really focus on just melodies in a way, where would that take me? I'm curious. So I think that would be a really cool thing to explore.
LISTEN: That'd be a cool step. You started with R&B ventured in to hip-hop and a little bit of pop too.
AUDREY: Yeah, but always fuck it up.
LISTEN: When it came to this project visually it's almost, like a liquid breakfast part two. I feel like the two worlds are like parallel to one another. What was your approach to this creative world? Is it like an expansion of the first album from a liquid breakfast or is it a world of its own?
AUDREY: I think it was a world of its own, but in a way it was like a lot of a liquid breakfast, the energy around it was me still exploring and feeling like I was stepping into something unfamiliar. But in a way that felt very romantic, innocent, and optimistic.
I think for this project it was the same exact thing except it wasn't as romantic, it wasn't as pretty, and it wasn't as innocent. I would say just the things that I've kind of gone through in my life and I think through the visual and the music side, a lot of that showed but kind of had a similar energy. So it's cool to hear you say that it looks like two sides of the same coin.
LISTEN: They're very similar, but more so just like a continuation. You use the word romantic, what makes it feel like these visuals have a sense of romance in them?
AUDREY: I think it's a sense of, surrealism. More romantic in the sense that anything can happen and seeing this ideal version of the world or growing up in this ideal version of the world. And then I think for this one, the romance was sucked out of it a bit in the sense that there were a lot of unexpected, harsh, you know, abrupt endings transitions. Kind of a lot of rude awakenings.
LISTEN: A piece of symbolism that's throughout all the visuals for this era are the horns. What do they represent?
AUDREY: I wanted to explore what It means to be a villain and how villains come about. Going through certain unfamiliar realms and seeing how it affected myself and the people around me. So I thought that the horns would be a cool visual representation of that.
LISTEN: Interesting. They're kind of giving me fallen angel type of vibes, you know what I mean?
AUDREY: Yeah, I kind of really love that though because this idea that villains in a way just hurt humans and kind of like feeling more empathy towards the process of becoming a villain and approaching it with more curiosity than just like, they're a villain. And I think that the horns were like a cool, almost soft way to represent that.
LISTEN: Do you feel like you'll dig deeper into that theme, either in this project or the next one?
AUDREY: I think for this project, for sure, in terms of the visuals and everything, I definitely want to continue to flesh that out. And then for the next one, I have no idea. We'll see.
LISTEN: is there any song from this album that resonates with you the most?
AUDREY: I would say “Baby O.G.” I love that song.
LISTEN: Why?
AUDREY: Because Anwar, my producer, sampled a song I wrote when I was 19 and the song that we sampled or that beat had a very similar sentiment, again, like two different sides of the same coin. But it was like the same feeling of trying to draw inner strength. So the connection of my past self and my current self just feels full circle for that one.
LISTEN: Is this where you saw yourself from 2019?
AUDREY: I don't think so. I don't think I ever know what's about to happen. I have goals and places I want to go, but I think I'm starting to just try to be more present and realize that I just have no idea what the next day is gonna bring.
LISTEN: I like that. I do feel like we emphasize too much on what's next, you know what I mean? And it's hard to relish in an accomplishment, or even you're day to day, you know?
AUDREY: 100%,
LISTEN: Before the interview we were talking about next week already. So I think it's cool to just take it all in and take it in day by day.
AUDREY: I totally agree. It's definitely a learning process to learn how to do that.
LISTEN: We're halfway through the year. Is there anything fans can expect later in the year? Or are there any personal goals you feel you've met or want to meet?
AUDREY: I would love to travel and start some new ideas in a new city.
LISTEN: Any city in particular?
AUDREY: I think London would be cool.
LISTEN: I've always dreamed of living in London.
AUDREY: Really? I think everyone does low-key have a dream to live in London at some point.
LISTEN: And my last question is, who are you currently listening to?
AUDREY: I'm revisiting Joni Mitchell’s Blue and listening to Hudson Mohawk.