There was a moment, as experimental alt-pop singer Au/Ra entered her mid-teens, when her imagination seemed to lose its autonomy. Songwriting no longer came naturally; it was as though she’d forgotten how her music had come about in the first place.
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“I was successful to a certain degree, and I understand why a lot of people really struggle mentally when they get to that level,” the German-Antiguan artist (born Jamie Lou Stenzel) explains, speaking to Billboard U.K. over video call. “Because you start to think that’s the only thing that people value you for. I really needed to go to therapy and realise that I’m making music because I love it, and not to feel like I need to fulfill something.”
Stuck in major label limbo – at age 16, the now-24-year-old was one of the youngest acts on RCA Records/Sony’s roster – she found her creative identity increasingly obscured when she became embroiled in a contractual dispute. Prior to this, multi-million streaming hits “Panic Room,” “Darkside” and “Emoji,” which echoed the brooding electro-pop of CHVRCHES and the nightmarish undercurrent that defined Grimes’ Art Angels era or early Billie Eilish, had articulated a pop vision that felt incontrovertibly hers. Au/Ra was writing about the world through digital anxiety and distortion, inviting the rest of us in.
