If you like soft female vocals over beats and keyboards and a touch of early 90s downtempo electronica influence you’ll definitely enjoy Austeya.
The young (and pretty) artist is hailing straight from London Town with her debut EP containing four songs she wrote herself using a simple iPhone app and then produced in Golden Productions Studios with team ZY-ON. Her work sounds warm and cozy, yet urban. Listening to the EP I can picture in my head the artist in the underground with her headphones on creating music surrounded by the diverse London crowd and this makes me think how much I love to write in the NYC subway.
The EP opens with “Teach me”, combining pop vocals and melodies with tender keyboards and exotic sounds of birds singing:
Second comes “For the place” with more subdued and low vocals and the chorus “In a big world, that’s all that we are fighting for a place, in a big world, fighting for a better place…”
“For better place” is followed by my favorite song out of the EP “Birds” comprising vibrating beat, synths and addictive vocals:
Last in the EP, but not by significance is “Superman” – a really cute track that with potential to sound great mixed in a house/electronica set.
On her Facebook profile Auseya says in her songs she explores “humanity, love, success subjects and also reveals the observation of manic people’s behavior in the current urban society through various sounds and lyrics.” Here is what she told me about the ancient origin of her stage name, female singers she admires and mobile technology helping music making.
Austeya, that’s an interesting and unusual name. How did you chose it?
It wasn’t very hard to choose my stage name as my real name is Austeja (j is pronounced as y). This name is derived from the name of an ancient bee goddess. Previously I had ideas for different stage names, but with time realized that I feel most comfortable using my real name, plus I like the meaning of it!
You posses this dreamy and tender female voice… Which female singers inspired you growing up and what kind of music do you listen to now?
When I was really young I used to love listening to singers like Tracy Chapman, Enya, Sinead O’Connor, Kate Bush. Later I was really into Norah Jones, Carla Bruni. Now I listen to all types of music: electronica, dance, trance, rock, acoustic, pop. My current favorite band is Elektrik People.
How did you decide to do music and how did you start the project?
I was always into music hence been attending all sorts of singing classes. Also I was in one of the kids’ bands when I was young. By the time I was 14 I was playing guitar and writing songs so decided to start my own band. Those times were really good because we used to make so much money just busking in various places. People loved our stuff. Later we started having proper gigs and played on the radio. But things changed when I got into university and came to London. I completely cut music out of my life apart from occasional jamming sessions and random projects with questionable producers and musicians. I was too confused and scared to be able to write good material, a thought of ever making it in music just completely abandoned me. It was more like a survival phase than creative experience.
I’m not sure what happened exactly but after a while I just felt like writing, writing, writing, like I needed to catch up for a lost time. I found this app for my iPhone that was really good for sketching the songs on the go. I was producing music on the train to my day job, walking on the street, in the coffee shop, everywhere. I used to record vocals really late at night with headset microphone. I made quite a few songs like that and later published them on my Soundcloud.
One time I went to a gig to see ex Amy Winehouse’s guitarist play in Kennington where I met my current manager and producer. He really liked my ideas and took me under his wing for my development and music production. We’ve been working together for almost a year now and I have a big team of people around me. I have 4 people in my band besides me, it’s all so much fun, really. I still write using the app sometimes and later we transform it into bigger sound and produce and record it in the studio. Except now I have upgraded to iPad instead iPhone ha-ha.
In your free time what kind of shows do you like to go to? What’s the most enjoyable concert you went to recently?
I like to go and see female singers perform because I can observe them and get some ideas for stage presence, make up, clothing. I tend to go to quite a few gigs of up and coming indie bands. It’s very normal to end up in one of these gigs in London, there are so many bands playing everywhere. London is packed with talented people. One of the most impressive shows I have seen a while ago was Chrysta Bell. She’s magical to me.
Best music venues in London by your opinion?
I love Hootananny Brixton, Cargo in Shoreditch they both have character and good bands playing often. I also enjoyed playing in a Buffalo Bar in Highbury and Isllington.
Who writes the music for your songs? What about the lyrics?
I write and produce the draft myself and then we bring the idea into life in the studio with various keyboards, live instruments – this is where my producer, keyboard player and other musicians come in. I also always write lyrics myself.
Should we expect LP sometime soon?
We definitely have enough of material written and recorded for LP, but I guess we are just waiting for the right label to get involved.
If you have to choose one singer to make a duet with, dead or alive, who it would be?
Lana Del Rey
Future gigs? Where we could hear you performing?
We have a gig on the 31st of October at 229 THE VENUE – 229 Great Portland Street, London, W1W 5PN, doors open at 7:30 PM.
