Underground LA artist Avalon displays on intergenerational reminiscence, East LA tradition, and full-circle moments in her new EP ‘everlasting californian.’
Stream: ‘everlasting californian’ – Avalon
Turning the ignition key, Avalon revs her Chevrolet Impala, driving forth into the ambiance round her as she paints a sonic narrative of Los Angeles.
Driving up the Interstate 5 freeway from Orange County, a night glow shines by means of the home windows because the lights illuminate a neon “Psychic” log out the freeway – a heat nightfall fading as gentle shimmers above the horizon line. The city panorama is infused with movie mud as she exists “residing on video,” foreshadowing the audio-visual persona behind her creative curation for everlasting californian. With an underground edge saturated with indie, post-punk, and digital roots, she is influenced by the music that impressed her. Avalon smiles, “I discover myself getting misplaced previously and current to outline what I feel is timeless,” she shares with Atwood Journal, expressing the medium she intends to make use of for her upcoming soundscapes.
everlasting californian, out July 18th on KRO Data, is a five-track EP that invitations listeners to lose themselves in time. “More durable to achieve than god” kicks off the joyride with soothing synths that later lead right into a seamless feel-good drum sample, layered with melodic undertones for a clean listening expertise. The monitor is written by Avalon and co-produced with Grammy-nominated star Chris Greatti, recognized for his work with artists comparable to Aurora, Yeule, Yves Tumor, and Willow, amongst others. Fading into “ceaselessly,” the runner-up units the temper with an digital drum pad, creating grooves with a nostalgic but futuristic really feel. Avalon smiles, “I hold discovering myself going again to actions comparable to vaporwave, which was a really large factor once I was a teen, and serious about the way it was futuristic to me to listen to one snippet of a tune,” she explains, describing her quest to mix genres right into a single narrative.
I want you one way or the other
Don’t suppose you’ll decelerate
I would like you proper now
You all the time give me the runaround
The runaround
The runaround
The runaround
Without end and ever and ever and ever
Without end and ever and ever and ever
Without end and ever and ever and ever
Without end and ever and ever and ever
Constructing on the power, “so good” affords heavy guitar distortion, an alternating tempo, and filtered vocals that resonate with a gritty, infectious angle. Uplifting the temper, “Scream” introduces layered acoustic guitar and an ethereal mixture of vocals that create an ethereal ambiance. Closing out the EP is the title monitor, “dedication hour,” which she visually directed and edited in its entirety. This timeless standout units the scene and frame of mind for a everlasting californian universe.
However she don’t wish to fuck with you no extra
‘Trigger you don’t know a factor about hardcore
She will get in my automotive, turns the radio on to Artwork Laboe
She don’t wanna fuck with you no extra
‘Trigger you don’t know a factor about hardcore
She will get in my automotive and the radio goes
Ooh, dedication hour
Ooh, dedication hour…
Avalon mentioned her dedication hour EP universe with Atwood Journal and the way full-circle moments have formed a major a part of her story. She shares that her music movies might be processed equally to movie – ever-changing and overlaid with messages. Supporting her imaginative and prescient, Estevan Oriol drives alongside her together with his representational imaginative and prescient of documenting Chicano historical past in pictures on the streets of East LA. “Dedication Hour” refers to Artwork Laboe’s present, a radio host who revolutionized dedication songs on the air, cementing his cultural relevance.
Learn on as Avalon shares her journey in creating her newest work.
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A CONVERSATION WITH AVALON
Atwood Journal: Hello Avalon! Thanks a lot for taking the time to speak! All through your profession, you will have persistently demonstrated unwavering dedication to your craft, embarking in your solo journey in 2014 at Seaside Goth, the place you DJed with solely an APC and a laptop computer. You’ve gotten curated a neighborhood, igniting a fireplace within the youthful technology by means of your DJ units and pushing the scene ahead together with your edge within the underground. I first got here throughout your work once I noticed your identify taking the stage at Seaside Goth in Santa Ana on the Observatory in 2016. May you share extra about your story of how your music journey started and the way your work ethic has contributed to your success?
Avalon: Being a fan of music is the place my journey started, and the place I’ll proceed to drive my craft. I’ve been actually privileged to have skilled so many unimaginable stay exhibits and totally different subcultures by means of these exhibits. That’s all the time contributed to the sensation that I needed music to be my life’s work. I’m attempting to make music for enjoyable and bear in mind what it was like once I first began making music, experimenting, and vibe-questing. That’s the work ethic. Being a fan of music is what comes at first, and I feel that’s all the time going to drive.
As a multi-faceted artist with roots within the underground and DJ scene, you will have damaged the mould of conformity early on in your performances. Your genre-blending strategy has intrigued many. Is there any expertise specifically that has formed you ahead?
Avalon: That could be a seminal expertise for me, experiencing music by means of tradition, not essentially by means of an algorithm. No shade to the algorithms. Quite a few issues are occurring on the similar time. Cultural nuance can get misplaced over time, however whenever you’re immersed in it and experiencing it, it’s much more nuanced than a label can ever convey. So, I make what I wish to hear.
You latterly launched everlasting californian, an EP and a love letter to Los Angeles that paints a vivid cityscape by means of your distinctive perspective and character. May you share extra about your aesthetic strategy to the movie noir artwork course of and the sound you aimed to convey in your newest work?
Avalon: What I’m a fan of influences me. I can by no means say, Oh, this factor influenced me, or I had this reference. I attempt to avoid that, as a result of then it stifles creativity. I suppose I wouldn’t say I aimed for a sound or an aesthetic for everlasting californian. I feel extra necessary to me was a story and a by means of line of a vibe, or ethos. I wish to paint the image in as some ways as I might presumably paint it. It was my fundamental concern. That, in flip, bleeds into the visuals, that are, to me, simply as necessary because the music. I make music, however I additionally really feel prefer it’s simply one other means of your complete mission; I’m drawing from a variety of totally different references to color that image in a variety of totally different mediums, and I’m simply very concerned in it. I paint an image of my expertise, my life, or these moods as I’m attempting to seize these emotions. I simply don’t need them to go away, and I wish to have one thing to look again on.
“Anti-music, music” is a unbelievable description of the punk aesthetic. How has your futuristic sound reduce by means of the obstacles of what you suppose are societal norms, and the way do you want to proceed to outline your sound as you develop as an artist?
Avalon: The definition of futuristic is de facto attention-grabbing. How can we actually outline what that’s? I’m very involved in post-modernism, particularly the idea of cultural flattening, which ties into what I used to be discussing beforehand, and analyzing issues by means of the lens of TikTok. Develop into more and more homogenized and lose their traits as they’re absorbed right into a conglomerate, consumer-driven machine. I hold discovering myself going again to love actions comparable to, like vapor wave, which was a really large factor once I was a teen, and serious about the way it was futuristic to me to listen to like one snippet of a tune that simply utterly was forgotten about from the 80s, and to be repeated over and again and again on this cathartic means, and the way it was virtually a Warholian expression. All of this actually fascinates me, like time. I discover myself getting misplaced previously and current to outline what I feel is timeless. That’s the place I discover my inspiration: attempting to do what I feel is correct. To some, it’d really feel retro, or it’d really feel futuristic, however to me, it’s simply defining what I might look again on and consider as timeless, or seize that power.
These days, you will have been sharing some unimaginable cinematic work paired together with your soundscapes. The “Scream” music video is a black-and-white visible directed by Andrea Riba, regarding the wrestle of balancing the duality of fame. Do you are feeling like you will have totally different personas that you just carry whereas experiencing life as an artist? If that’s the case, how?
Avalon: “Scream” was particularly much less about fame and extra about referencing, type of not referencing, but it surely was extra about innocence and joie de vivre, and the particular person behind the persona. I realized quite a bit about myself by means of writing the tune, as a result of it did begin as an analogy for the way I felt in a relationship that I used to be in on the time. So it virtually felt like I used to be holding somebody captive. However then it advanced right into a deeper inner query of “what’s expertise?” It advanced right into a deeper query about identification. So in that tune, I’m actually simply reflecting on identification basically, and the way ephemeral I really feel identification is, and the way additionally you set your identification into different folks whenever you’re so near them. Identification within the time period, in regard to a persona as effectively. So I simply don’t really feel like there’s any separation between myself and any personas. In order that’s form of possibly why it’s arduous for me to come back out of my shell. Most of the time, as an artist, I’ve been involved about presenting a caricaturized model of myself, simply as I stated, to color a extra vivid image. You’ve gotten many personas that you just carry all through life. You’re a sure kind of particular person with your loved ones, then you definately’re a sure kind of particular person together with your boyfriend, otherwise you’re a sure kind of particular person with your folks on stage.
The “Dedication Hour” music video is a timeless and retro look into the poetic edge that you just narrate as a personality. The town additionally units the scene as a backdrop by means of overlay with a grainy movie, rock glam, and indie saturation, all of that are outlined by means of the visuals and the which means behind the standout monitor. Because you had been additionally the Director and Editor of the video, how did your visible curation by means of the enhancing course of form the identification or affect you needed to painting on this music video?
Avalon: I conceptualized, edited, and shot a lot of the video. That was the primary time I ever did something like that. All of the folks whom I thank for the extra taking pictures are simply my pals. I couldn’t shoot on my own. The video captures what my life genuinely appears like, or the features of my life and environment which can be actually particular, and a extremely particular temper, which I wish to hold and bottle up. For that video, I took a lot of the footage in my home and my neighborhood. I all the time simply wish to really feel like my life. I fixate on the little magnificence issues in my environment. Directing that video actually opened my eyes to much less. I additionally realized the way to edit that week. However from engaged on music, I understood the enhancing software program on this actually intuitive means. It actually opened my eyes to the probabilities of video. I’m engaged on extra movies, which I’m very enthusiastic about for the subsequent new releases.
It’s important to grasp your roots and be influenced by the tradition you embody, whereas coming to phrases with the artists who’ve paved the way in which earlier than us. Your work has a robust prominence of sharing your roots as a persistent, daring, impartial feminine Chicana artist, carving your path to outline your sound and adapting by means of the modifications, just like the shift of Lalo Guerrero, the daddy of Chicano music, recognized for bridging cross-genre kinds to the airwaves and streets of East Los Angeles. How have you ever tailored to your present occasions, creating music, whereas concurrently shaping your sound by means of this course of?
Avalon: Staying present with new music is extraordinarily useful. Most of my contemporaries and the musicians that I hang around with aren’t making the identical style, however they’re operating in the identical crowd. And for those who hearken to my DJ units, you’ll additionally discover them extraordinarily eccentric; I now play arduous tech. I performed rap for years. I nonetheless play rap to today. I’m into a variety of several types of music, so I additionally always keep up on what’s cool, what’s not, and what’s occurring, particularly with the youth. I feel it’s humorous as a result of there’s this TikTok propaganda that the children are attempting to push the place they’re like, “oh, you’re too outdated,” not me personally, however for those who’re like, over the age of 21, then you definately shouldn’t be going to underground exhibits listening to underground artists. However I simply suppose that’s ridiculous. I additionally grew up within the punk scene. There have been all the time outdated punks who attended the identical exhibits as the children. They simply weren’t within the pit. So I assume you already know that that’s how I keep present.
May you present extra info on the influence of Laboe and the importance of his passing, which occurred when you had been working with Estavan Oriol on the identical day for the duvet artwork?
Avalon: So Artwork Laboe is a extremely iconic determine, and Estevan Oriol. They’re each actually iconic to Chicano tradition. Artwork Laboe had a radio present known as Dedication Hour, which is the place the tune will get its identify. The connection has actually been extra of these issues that I really feel actually blessed, and it’s stunning that you could join with folks inter-generationally. I can’t overstate the significance of dedication hour, particularly in introducing so many generations of individuals to oldies. These are two goats, as the children say. And you already know, I had all the time needed to work with Estevan, and I met him at a gap. And simply bear in mind, he moved water so we might shoot collectively. He received me a job. He needed to shoot. I used to be actually excited that this legend, whom I had admired for his work rising up, needed to shoot. From the second we met, it took us most likely six months to really plan a shoot earlier than everlasting californian.
However the day we received collectively, I bear in mind my dad got here with me too, as a result of he’s a giant fan of Estevan and needed to come back and assist, give me a experience, because it was in Venice Seaside, and it was far. We had been all on the set collectively, and we obtained the information that Artwork Laboe had handed away. It’s arduous to elucidate how a lot that one actually hit within the intestine. Artwork Laboe is sort of a Mister Rogers for the Chicano neighborhood. We got here round to planning the album cowl. I needed to proceed the imaginative and prescient and construct upon it. And I assumed, who higher to ask than Estevan? He was out there to shoot. I wasn’t even going to place ‘dedication hour’ on the document. After which I needed to embrace that, as a result of it actually tells a narrative. It was a full-circle second.
How did the occasion form the general temper of taking pictures for the duvet artwork?
Avalon: It was extra like a coincidence and a common feeling. I simply knew no matter Estevan was going to take was going to be iconic, as a result of he’s so superb. Then I received this imaginative and prescient in my head. I used to be remembering driving from OC to LA. I might all the time drive with my dad from OC to LA. Earlier than Google Maps, you bought there by the landmark. This “Psychic” was proper off the freeway, it’s the place I shot the duvet, but it surely’s this little constructing, and you may see it on the freeway. Once you drove at evening, there have been these large neon indicators that learn, “Psychic,” and it was similar to a tiny little freeway exit, actually harmful too. I simply had a imaginative and prescient of myself taking pictures there, as a result of it was all the time necessary to me once I was rising up. It could additionally present up in my desires. In order that was the inspiration.
Has this connection formed your perspective on how we view our present time within the progress of music and the significance of documenting tradition for musicians in Los Angeles?
Avalon: The connection has actually been extra of these issues that make me really feel actually blessed and exquisite, the place you’ll be able to join with folks throughout generations. What’s occurring with the youth, and likewise what’s being created by older folks and folks of all ages? Nonetheless, a lot of my artwork is nearly documenting on this bizarre means. That’s what drives me. Documenting and capturing power. I’m the kind of one that likes to take photos and movies. I all the time have my digital camera; I actually have it proper right here. I used to be taking pictures in the present day.
How would you want to discover, carry, and push your illustration that you have already got in music, and the way do you wish to develop your concepts sooner or later?
Avalon: Getting as deep in my vibe and a vibe as doable, vibe questing, as I prefer to say, simply going as far into my pursuits and residing into my fantasy as doable. Then, attempting to be prolific about popping out of it with work and documentation. That’s how I’m going to proceed. I’m simply involved with pushing myself so far as I can go and seeing it. I’ve the mini DV cam. So what’s subsequent? 18 millimeter?
What can we anticipate within the upcoming yr? Is there an album within the works? What are you most enthusiastic about transferring ahead together with your artwork?
Avalon: I haven’t introduced it but, however I’m releasing a Deluxe model of everlasting californian. I felt like I needed to maintain releasing music. Nonetheless, I’m additionally engaged on the album, which I do have, which will probably be a bit bit extra of a departure within the temper of everlasting californian, that basically painted the image and likewise form of accomplished the considered everlasting Californian that I didn’t wish to depart and never be capable of return to. I needed so as to add them to the mission. I’m actually excited to place that out and develop the everlasting californian universe. I’m engaged on an album, which, as I discussed, will probably be a bit different-sounding, which individuals most likely do anticipate. I prefer to quote Korupt from Tha Dogg Pound, he stated, “It’s a lot warmth, it’s arduous for us to select the primary single, but it surely doesn’t matter, as a result of we’re underground. There’s no proper approach to transfer.”
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