Au/Ra has announced the release of her brand new single Ideas, which is available to stream and buy now on RCA Records/Sony Music.
Already debuted to fans as part of her live shows, Ideas is an irresistible track that opens with coolly powerful vocals before building into an edgy electro pop chorus, showcasing Au/Ra’s unique expressive storytelling. Written about managing her own idealistic expectations, she says;
“Ideas is about trying to protect yourself from false expectations. I very often build up these fantasies of how I’d like things to happen – and inevitably end up being disappointed when things don’t turn out that way. So really, this song is a warning to myself, haha! I’m really looking forward to seeing and hearing how listeners interpret the song.”
With a video shoot no longer able to happen due to current events, Au/Ra is inviting fans to help her create the video for Ideas instead, allowing them to submit footage or artwork to be part of the official video. There is also a lyric video for the track, available to watch now.
Ibiza-born and Antigua-raised songwriter Au/Ra explores the challenges of being a modern-day teenager, writing music that touches on the issues today’s younger generation face on a daily basis, such as anxiety, communicating in an always online world and having to always show off your best self. She most recently released her single with Alan Walker Ghost, which was part of the Death Standing soundtrack and has been streamed over 20 million times on Spotify alone, which followed her platinum selling hit Panic Room, which was remixed by Camelphat and stayed in the Top 40 for 9 weeks alongside being streamed 122 million times on Spotify.
An undercurrent of most of Au/Ra’s deeply visual and evocative lyrics is a sense of escapism, influenced by her fandom of anime and fantasy. Growing up devouring Studio Ghibli films, she’s always loved to disappear into the soft-edged, uncanny world of Miyazaki animations, and uses similar designs to flesh out the visual world of her music.
With her lovingly made outsider-pop, Au/Ra is providing a similar kind of space in her song writing: one where misfits feel at home and where the listener gets to peer for a minute through the lens of an artist who has simultaneously grown up outside the system, but who speaks with the zeitgeist of her generation.
