INTERVIEW: Ayla releases first new music in 18 months 'Go Slow': "This song is about hearing difficult things and whether to hide from them."

Despite being only 24 years old, Australian singer songwriter Ayla has been releasing music for over six years, first coming to attention back in 2014 with her debut single ‘Wish I Was’. The popularity of the song was such that it wound up being the 15th most played song on triple j in 2014 - and 4th most played song by a female artist - as well as attracting Ayla attention across Europe which resulted in an Italian distribution deal and live performances in London and The Netherlands amongst others. Two EPs and numerous singles followed, before Ayla chose to take a break from her solo career and shift focus to numerous other creative projects.

Today she returns with her first new music in 18 months with the single ‘Go Slow’. Co-written and produced with Peking Duk’s Reuben Styles, the song is a marked change in direction for Ayla’s sound, switching from indie guitar pop to encompass a more experimental electronic sonic landscape. Starting off with a traditional structure, by the midway mark the track dissolves into a gorgeous mélange of clashing beats, distorted and at times ethereal vocals and swirling electronic melodies. It is a remarkable track made all the more brilliant by the successful and utterly authentic way Ayla inhabits a total different musical style - not as easy as it may sound - leaving you with a compulsive desire to press repeat. Ayla says the change in musical direction is “definitely the first taste of a new era…this track felt like the right first step to make in that it is a fairly bold step away from my previous releases.”

We recently spoke to Ayla to find out all about her new musical era.

Hey Ayla! Great to chat with you!  How have you been surviving life in lockdown?
I’m lucky enough to live near the beach, so I bought a wetsuit and have been continuing summer’s pursuit of learning how to surf. I’m still a beginner, but it’s a lot of fun! I’ve also been having a bit of a hit of table tennis with my aunty who lives close by.   

Congratulations on the release of your new single ‘Go Slow’ it is brilliant! Can you talk us through a little bit of the inspiration behind this track?
Thank you very much! The song started with an instrumental track from Reuben, which I then sang over and we worked on from there.  The lyrics for this track came about when a friend of mine was sick – she was bruising everywhere and we were really worried about her, but she didn’t want to go to the doctor and find out what was wrong. It turned out she had a blood disease, but she’s doing really well now. So I guess this song is about facing those difficult decisions, hearing difficult things and whether to hide from them and how to deal with them. 

You collaborated with Peking Duk’s Reuben Styles on this track, how did that come about?
I was lucky enough that the band contacted me after a show they played up on the Sunshine Coast, where I’m from, and said they liked my stuff and wanted to try to work on something together. I was ridiculously excited to get that email! In the end it was just Reuben and I who ended up writing together, and I really love what came out. It was a really cool experience, starting with an instrumental idea that he sent through, writing over that and then the track evolving from there.

How is the creative process different for you in collaboration as opposed to working solo?
I’ve done a bit of collaborating lately, particularly with different producers. That process has been basically the opposite of what I had done before. With my previous tracks, I’d usually start the recording process by coming in with a finished acoustic track, and we’d build the instrumentation behind it from there. With these collaborations, the producers will either have an instrumental track idea started, or be building it as we go, and I will write the lyrics and melody to that – usually going in without any at all to begin with. It’s been great to mix it up a bit, and really wonderful to work with some really talented producers like Reuben.  

The track has such a different sound to your previous music, was it a conscious decision to go down this path or was it more organic?
We definitely just made the track as it was, giving it what it needed and not being conscious of how that would ‘fit in’ with my sound or anything like that. I think it’s a good way to go about things; to just make the track as its own thing, and then if it ends up fitting in or being something you can work with, that’s great! If not, you’ve still made something that is true to itself.  

It has been 18 months since we last heard new music from you, what have you been up to in the interim?
Well, I’ve had to up my surfing game. I’ve also been mixing things up a bit, I started singing in another project, and playing bass and doing backing vocals in another. It’s been really fun to try some different things and have a bit of a break. It also made me really excited to come back and work on my own music again as well. I’ve been really enjoying the collaborations and co-writes and have been lucky to be working with a few different people in that regard – so it’s been really fun working on a bunch of new tracks with people and seeing where they go!

What part did music play in your life when you were growing up?
My dad is a huge music lover and owns just about every Neil Young CD. He would sing to me when I was a baby and would play Joni Mitchell, John Denver, of course Neil Young, and all of his favourite music in the evenings. When I was five, we got our first TV and Dad decided on the first movie we would have. It was The Sound of Music, and for a while there that was the only movie we had, so I would literally watch it on repeat. I would sing along and I just kept singing – around the house, and then busking and eventually playing gigs.

What other singers have inspired your creative journey, both before you starting recording and today?
With Dad being such a big Neil Young fan, I was definitely exposed to a little bit of wisdom from his music. His lyrics are beautiful, and sometimes they don’t make a lot of sense, and sometimes you make your own sense of them. Dad has told me that Neil thinks the listener should interpret the song in whichever way it means something to them, and Neil also apparently says that you can’t change the lyrics when they come to you, because they’re coming through you and they’re not yours to change. I don’t necessarily adhere to that, but I think it’s an interesting concept. I also love John Mayer for his songwriting, voice and that he’s also such a great guitarist. In the past couple of years I’ve listened to a fair bit of The Strokes, and lately a band called Easy Life. Lyrics are really important to me, so I just love listening to music that I think has clever lyricism.

The last couple of years has produced a debate on gender equality in the entertainment industry in the wake of #metoo. What are your thoughts on sexism and how women are perceived in the music industry?
This morning I got a message to my Facebook page saying, ‘hey sexy’, and I just feel like a lot of men probably don’t have that problem… Those experiences, and especially those in real life, are particularly intimidating if you feel like you’re not as physically able as the person saying/doing the problematic thing, which can be how women feel and is definitely how I’ve felt before. I think the awareness around the issue is fantastic and that hopefully things can improve, but I think there is still a problem in what some people feel they can say to others. Having said that, it is truly fantastic to see more females on line-ups, more female producers and more females being recognised for their work in the music industry over the past couple of years.

What else is on the cards for Ayla in 2020?
More surfing, and more music! There are a few tracks being worked on at the moment, and I’m looking forward to releasing some more this year. We're all hoping venues and shows will open/start up again, and hopefully they will. It’s obviously been such a tricky time for the music industry as a while this year so far. I feel very lucky to still be able to make and release music and am really looking forward to playing again when we can!

‘Go Slow’ is out across all platforms now. To listen click here

To keep up with all things Ayla follow her on Instagram and Facebook.