There is nothing subtle about Audrey Nuna, her music is in-your-face in the best way. It’s bold and biting, her lyrics are sharp and colorful. We caught her before her dynamic SXSW set and were just in awe of the power she holds on stage. We talked to her about how to stop being a people pleaser and her collaboration process.
How did you get started in music?
Audrey Nuna: Honestly, just singing in church and family. It's always just been part of my life, and it has randomly evolved more and more.
When was the turning point for you?
Audrey Nuna: When I turned twenty, and I was signed to a label but before that it was all fun and I still try to see it that way. It's fun, and that's the only way it's going to work.
Does that keep you going? How do you avoid getting burned out?
Audrey Nuna: I ask myself that all the time, too. I think you have to keep it about the craft and being a student more than anything else. That's what pushes me.
What inspires you besides music?
Audrey Nuna: Everything, film, grocery stores, other people's music, shows, plays, everything. Anything and everything.
Do you have a creative process?
Audrey Nuna: My process is to sit around literally. Me and whoever I'm making music with we tend to sit around and try shit then we sculpt it from there.
Tell me about how you collaborate and how important collaboration is to you.
Audrey Nuna: I think it's everything. I genuinely like to make music with people I fuck with and would spend time with, outside of making music with them, people I share a perspective with on life. I approach it like having people to have play dates with and play video games with them. I feel like the people you feel like you can play with when you were kids are the people you should be making music with.
Tell me about your vision for your videos.
Audrey Nuna: Whoever I'm working with, their directing style, we'll come up with ideas together, and I trust the director to execute the vision, but also, I love being a part of every step of the way with styling, the location, the way it's going to be shot. I want to make visuals with people who have a similar perspective but bring something fresh.
What do you want your fans to take away from your music?
Audrey Nuna: Honesty, it's a combination of honesty and character building. Honestly, I want them to take away whatever they want to take from it. I think my job is to be honest and everyone else I hope it brings you some kind of perspective, some kind of healing, some type of openness but I'm not in control of that.
Everyone says the best thing an artist can have is authenticity. Do you agree with that?
Audrey Nuna: I think that's always been the best way to be an artist; I think that's the only job of an artist. To just be you and if you exist within this time and you're open to everything going on in human civilization and you have something to say, that's all being an artist is. The goal is to provide some context to people who come in the future and wonder what the world was like at this time. I think art is the most human language.
Do you feel like you set your own trends?
Audrey Nuna: I've never been a super trendy person, but I think I just like what I like. I hope everyone just does what they want to do. Fuck the trends. The trends started with people doing what they wanted to do. Genuinely in history, all trends came from a group of weird kids doing and trying weird shit.
What has been one of the biggest challenges for you as a musician?
Audrey Nuna: I think setting my boundaries and learning how to be nice but not give into my people's pleasing instinct because I think I just naturally have that. I'm super empathetic, so I try to be a leader and maintain all of that.
How do you not be a people pleaser?
Audrey Nuna: I think you just say "no" when you need to say no. I think that's something I learned in the process of being in the music industry. If you don't say no, people will take it as a yes. It's a part of adolescence, too; you just learn how to say no. I think it's going to be a constant growing process forever, and there's no perfect you; there's just you trying to grow every single year.
What's your best piece of advice for women in music?
Audrey Nuna: I would say you know what the answer is, and you're probably right. So just do that shit and don't listen to other people who think they're smarter than you because, a lot of the time, they're not. Nobody knows what the fuck is going on anyway, so just do what you in your gut thinks is right.
Emily Treadgold
