Aubrey Haddard Bio

 

In 2022, Aubrey Haddard’s vision is guided by a framework of mythology. On the New York-based singer-songwriter’s second full length release, Awake And Talking, Haddard’s concept takes shape from the album’s opening bars, the explosive, avant-pop catharsis of “Just A Wall'' sung from the longing perspective of the Greek prophet Orpheus, a legendary musician and poet. “Now that you’ve gone and shattered the glass,” she sings within a bassy pulse, before boldly asking: “Whose arms do you run to?” 

 

It’s a statement that contains multitudes, but more singularly, one that carries the weight and struggle of disillusionment, a common tone that permeates throughout Awake And Talking. Pandemic aside, Haddard has spent the 2020’s struggling with existential burdens, deciphering her relationship to music, life and love as the world explodes around her. On her newest release, her complex relationship with her art is ever-present and on full display; the dense, electric krautrock of “Future Boxes” and the scorching, plodding rock of “Processing Power” show a more aggressive approach to songwriting; the ‘90s brit-pop rock ballad “Someone’s Daughter” and the indie pop effervescence of “Green As Ever” show a softer, more intimate process. The throughline, however, is an unmistakable reverence to melody and self-examination. 

 

Awake And Talking is a far cry from Haddard’s soulful and knotty debut, 2018’s Blue Part. And while everything in life now feels like a far cry from 2018, Haddard’s trajectory is truly that. Since relocating from Boston to New York in 2019, six months before the world turned, everything about her approach and artistry took a left turn. She began turning to the great European songwriters of the 1990s and 2000s for inspiration, their arty conceptualism and unabashed harmonic approaches serving as both comfort and gospel. Stereolab’s Dots and Loops, Björk’s Post, Oasis’s Definitely Maybe, and Cocteau Twins’ Heaven or Las Vegas were on constant rotation during the writing and production of Awake And Talking. “Bittersweet Symphony” was an unironic anthem through it all. 

 

Haddard and her trio—made up of writing partner and multi-instrumentalist Charley Ruddell and drummer Josh Strmic—methodically and meticulously fleshed this group of songs for over a year before tracking them over a week span in the Summer of 2021. The intent was perfection: To truly capture a sound that was created in the likeness of their heroes; to make every choice feel like it was consequential; to regain control in a chasm. What resulted was an album that constantly smacks and pulses, each song standing alone as its own body of work, the collection as sturdy as a greek pillar.