Audrey Nuna likes to have existential conversations. She sits in her Los Angeles studio and quips, “All interviews find yourself turning into like a remedy session. It’s so humorous.”
The 25-year-old Korean-American artist grew up in suburban New Jersey, and music helped her navigate the ups and downs of adolescence. She went to New York College’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music for her freshman yr. Then, she left her research to report her smash debut, A Liquid Breakfast, with Arista Information. The songs on that album oscillate between susceptible ballads, like “House,” and gravity-defying bangers with intricate wordplay, like “rattling Proper” and “Comedian Sans (feat. Jack Harlow).”
Her mind’s settings are in artistic mode by default—particularly when she’s within the midst of writing new songs. Over the previous few months, she’s launched two singles: “Jokes On Me” and “Ravenous (feat. Teezo Landing).” “Jokes On Me” was conjured throughout a prolonged desert journey along with her longtime producer Anwar Sawyer and collaborators Manny Mendez and Myles William, the place the group simply freestyled over beats to a gorgeous self-reflective anthem. The latter is about being on the wit’s finish of a relationship: Audrey’s accomplice desires to friendzone her, however she persists to avoid wasting the connection. “My buddies say I ought to simply give it up / They’re most likely proper, however I simply can’t get sufficient,” she sings within the first verse.
That dedication bleeds into her music as properly. As soon as Audrey begins on a challenge, it’s laborious for her to cease. “I’d relate the method of creating music to sculpting—you simply shave off a bit of piece of clay each single day,” she tells StyleCaster. “You simply maintain it, and then you definately simply maintain going till you are feeling prefer it displays some kind of reality that you simply’re going by means of.” Audrey says her artistic philosophy is all about being disciplined and constant. “It’s additionally about feeling such as you’re a child who’s bored and needs to make some shit,” she provides.
We caught up with Audrey earlier this yr to speak about her upbringing, what’s inspiring her these days, how performances make her really feel, and being surrounded by Korean tradition.
What are your fondest musical reminiscences?
Undoubtedly listening to CDs my mother made within the automobile after I was a child. Granted, my mother wasn’t that tapped into American music tradition. I feel she was to a sure diploma. She favored a variety of dance music, like Depeche Mode, as a result of she got here up within the Bronx within the ’80s or ’90s. She made mixtape CDs with Future’s Baby and previous Korean singers, like Lee Solar-hee. It was a really bizarre mixture of stuff. My mother could be very a lot an adventurous particular person, and he or she cherished to take us on drives.
I used to be additionally very concerned in choirs. I began in youngsters’s choir after I was 8 years previous. These had been my first experiences singing with different individuals and being a part of a musical ensemble, and it was tremendous rewarding at a younger age.
Additionally, karaoke is extraordinarily ingrained in Korean tradition. So my mother, dad, and their buddies cherished going, and naturally, they might take their youngsters. I simply bear in mind them being out late doing karaoke, and I’d mainly go to mattress listening to a bunch of adults singing songs.
What’s your favourite karaoke track?
“I All the time Miss You (나 항상 그대를).” It’s a track from this one Ok-drama Lovers in Paris. It got here up lots after I was rising up, and my sister and I at all times duet it collectively.
Once I was in Seoul for the style model MSCHF this previous December, they’d me using round in a van. There was karaoke inside, and I sang that track.
It’s that or Girl Gaga’s “Yoü and I.”
What’s been inspiring you latterly?
Going to see films has been inspiring these days. My buddy invited me to see the Bob Marley film on this surround-sound theater, so I used to be listening to the sound design. I additionally noticed Dune in IMAX, which was nuts. And I noticed the Hayao Miyazaki movie The Boy and the Heron in theaters. I’ve been actually immersed in movies and form of getting an expertise—not simply watching them on a streaming platform on my laptop computer or monitor.
The hassle to go to the theater and expertise these movies is the equal of going to a studio and listening to music. I’ve at all times felt actually related to films above all else. It’s the medium that basically sparks my creativeness to the purpose the place I keep immersed within the film for thus lengthy. It’s really form of annoying—I’m nonetheless in that world.
I noticed you carry out at Lollapalooza in 2022, and it was one of many sickest performances I noticed there. How does performing and touring with acts like Ashnikko affect the best way you write music and carry out on the whole?
I’ve solely been on two excursions. The second I did with Ashnikko was actually fireplace. I feel I grew lots, apparently sufficient, when it comes to album themes and ideas. It strengthened simulation concept for me, since you do the identical factor each day in a unique metropolis, and that may be a actually mentally wracking expertise. Ash has a track referred to as “Worms,” the place one of many traces is “Play my life like a online game.” Each single evening, I’d hear that line after doing the identical factor in a unique metropolis with the identical individuals. And I used to be like, “Wow, life is de facto like a online game.”
Observing her present was wonderful, and one thing I took away from her present was the concept of teamwork. She has an unbelievable workforce of individuals round her, and I can inform they love the music as properly. Having that vitality is so necessary, and surrounding your self with cool individuals is a robust instrument for manifesting, having an amazing present, and curating vitality in a room. I took notes on her professionalism and her expertise as a performer. She’s an vitality, and it was an enormous privilege.
So you will have your DJ onstage. How was it to carry out with your pals and your shut collaborators on stage?
It’s so enjoyable. The most effective half is connecting to an viewers and a gaggle of individuals. It’s a really sacred vitality trade for me, the place we’re all in our most susceptible and uncooked human state. What number of different locations can we collect to be that means these days? Every little thing is so edited, the place somebody is like, “That is what I wished you to see.”
There’s one thing about being current in reside performances I really like. On the Ashnikko tour, there can be occasions individuals felt like fainting as a result of the vitality was so overwhelming. That visceral facet of it’s animalistic, actually. I feel exercising that as individuals is necessary as a result of we’re animals on the finish of the day. All of us faucet into some larger vitality, and I feel that’s actually, actually lovely.
That’s such a good way of explaining efficiency. Particularly in a TikTok-laden world, being current is such a glorifying feeling.
Completely! It’s laborious to be current in a world the place previous, current, and future info is thrown at us continuously. The reward of simply being current is one thing I strive to not take without any consideration, particularly in the course of the exhibits, the place it’s all simply love.
You carried out at SXSW’s Jaded Stage that includes Asian artists, and also you’ve talked lots about your Korean heritage—it form of oozes out of your work it doesn’t matter what you do. What’s it like being immersed in these sorts of AAPI areas? You collaborated with So! YoON! from Se So Neon, who was there headlining.
I used to be so excited. Particularly in AAPI areas, you are feeling the love and devotion at one other stage, as a result of it’s a gaggle of people that share the identical story. There’s an additional stage of understanding and fewer obstacles to being current. I’m very grateful to be a part of that neighborhood, which clearly, I didn’t select to be in. I used to be simply born as an Asian American particular person.
I’m grateful to be on this time the place a lot of the suppression is sprouting into one thing very lovely and productive. Clearly, there are traumas and issues we now have to heal. However on the finish of the day, our hardships have made us stronger as a neighborhood.
And when it comes to So! YoON!, we did work on some stuff in Seoul. She’s an amazing particular person to work with. I really feel like we’re kindred spirits. She’s additionally on that sit-around wave, the place we’re simply hanging out and making music. We received a bunch of Korean snacks that day. I met her drummer and her producer. We simply talked about random shit and someway got here up with one thing actually cool. So excited to see how that every one comes alongside.
In a latest Instagram publish, you wrote, “it’s extra necessary than ever that we as collaborators & neighborhood uplift / champion each other.” How does collaboration gasoline your music and your individual artistic areas?
For me, collaborations are every thing, as a result of I couldn’t ever do that shit by myself. My finest concepts come from interacting with different individuals. It’s a steadiness, as a result of there’s an introverted facet of me, and my alone time is necessary and creatively fueling. However I really feel just like the moments the place shit actually goes down is with human vitality and different individuals.
I’m tremendous grateful for Anwar, who’s been a collaborator eternally on the music facet. I’m grateful for Myles and Manny, who’ve been integral to this upcoming challenge on the manufacturing facet. Every little thing for me is healthier after I bounce it off another person. Even when it’s only a soundboard to have individuals let you know one thing sucks or it’s a chunk of shit—that’s necessary too. Collaboration is every thing to me. I’d say that’s what makes creating enjoyable.
It’s at all times superior to see the ultimate product when everybody’s constructing towards a single purpose and dealing round one another. Neighborhood is at all times nice.
The entire level of making is to attach with different individuals. Despite the fact that it’s a bizarre double-entendre kind of factor. As a result of I do it for myself. I make choices primarily based on what I feel is nice. However on the finish of the day, my biggest hope for every thing I make is that it connects with individuals.
Across the similar time as Lollapalooza, Yeonjun from TOMORROW X TOGETHER instructed Rolling Stone that you simply had been his dream collaboration. What does it imply so that you can have individuals be followers of you in that regard, and would you collaborate with him?
It’s an honor. I really feel like I’ve gotten a lot love from the Ok-pop world. The music genres are fairly totally different, however the truth that there’s a connection there’s tremendous sick.
When it comes to the collab, I even have to take a look at their music to be fairly trustworthy. I’m not as tapped into Ok-pop as I was. My favourite Ok-pop bands are BIGBANG, 2NE1, and Younger Turks Membership. However I feel it’s actually flattering that Yeonjun stated that. I actually admire the love and assist there—and likewise from the Korean neighborhood on the whole.
Your music movies have such formidable and cool-looking ideas. How do all these visuals come collectively in your mind?
Daydreaming is a large a part of visuals. I feel a variety of the visuals are impressed by music, and a variety of the music is impressed by visuals too. Once more, collaboration is an enormous a part of that—combining flavors with totally different individuals and administrators, getting their views on issues, and being open to that. I’ve at all times been a doodler, and I grew up desirous to be an artist. My dad and grandpa had been in clothes manufacturing. Vogue, garments, and self-discipline in that craft has been part of my life for a really very long time.
I don’t even understand how all these visuals come collectively. I really feel prefer it’s similar to, you vomit and also you eat shit and then you definately let it digest. And then you definately undergo all this turbulence and the curler coaster of life, and also you get off that journey. And then you definately simply vomit all of it once more and that’s what goes on the canvas. That’s my finest analogy for the method—that’s no less than the way it feels to me.
How would you assist encourage individuals to search out their very own particular person type?
Take dangers. I feel deep down, everybody is aware of what they like and what they assume is cool. It’s about translating it into simply carrying it—you already know, going to the grocery retailer and simply being like, “Hey, that is what I made a decision to put on in the present day. “
I feel trend is said to the internal work of self-love. Simply take dangers, and take a look at shit. Don’t be scared. Simply put on regardless of the fuck you need.
Do you will have a favourite piece of yours proper now that you simply like to put on on a regular basis?
My buddy made these denims beneath the model Herman Winters which have been on a heavy rotation. Additionally, the model I did a present for in Korea, MSCHF—their garments are so comfy. Consolation is every thing for me in trend. Until it’s, like, a sick pair of footwear, as a result of I’d be right down to be uncomfortable for that.
I additionally similar to the place Korean trend goes. Manufacturers like Hyein Search engine optimisation, JUNTAE KIM, or Andersson Bell. I’m actually pleased with the visible lineage there.
This interview has been edited and condensed for readability.
