Now here’s a thing. A few weeks back, Clash found itself at the Great Escape during a heatwave, sat on a stony beach with Australia’s hottest pop property Azure Ryder – and she reveals that this is her first ever festival experience.
Like, ever?
“Well, not if you count VR festivals!”
It’s a sign not only of how crazy these past few years have been, but also the steep incline of her rise. Releasing a trilogy of exquisite EPs that channel everyone from MUNA and Phoebe Bridgers through to Stevie Nicks – “my ultimate inspiration!” – Azure Ryder emerges from lockdown not only with a slim but impressive catalogue, but a fully-formed fanbase, too.
“I’m grateful that I can do what I do from my bedroom,” she says. “But I’m happy to find a way to get out of that bedroom, and actually connect with people. I feel like lucky that in spite of the distance, I’ve been able to build that connection… and that’s the beauty of music. At the end of the day, it allows us all to feel part of something.”
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Brought up on the Gold Coast of Australia, a teenage trip across the United States finished with Azure enrolling at the esteemed Berklee College of Music, swapping rural idylls for the frenetic petris dish of the North American music industry.
“It was my first experience of being around like-minds,” she says. “Everyone was so passionate about music, and creating it. That fire was something that just felt so nice to be around.”
“Don’t get me wrong,” she points out, “I’m so lucky to grow up where I did. Nature was my best friend! But I’d always found it hard to connect to people on the same level.”
“I grew up in coastal towns,” she says. “I’ve always had an affinity to nature. It’s humanity’s greatest teacher, truly. Nature gave me so much growing up, that I feel like I now want to give something back via music.”
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That latter point is true, y’know: Azure Ryder’s lyrics grapple with the Big Topics – love and loss, connection and loneliness – via a myriad of references to the world around us: think the moon, the tide, the stars, the sunset. It’s classic stuff, but it’s done oh-so-well. Now located in London, she’s busy immersing herself in the city’s myriad music scenes, while also establishing and broadening her voice – she’s busy, in other words.
“With London, there’s an electricity here that I haven’t found anywhere else. Everyone wants to collaborate, and there’s so much diversity in the music scene, as well. It’s not like one type of sound, or one genre. It’s just such an exciting music scene here!”
Taking her music to a global audience, she’s come a long way from that shy nature-adoring girl in a tiny Australian town. Azure was first spotted by her now-manager on Instagram, a purely-by-chance pic taken of a lone free spirit at a festival.
See, she has been to festivals… well, maybe not as an artist. Much. Yet.
“I’m so proud of everything I’ve released so far,” she says. “And I’m working on some amazing stuff right now – I’m just so excited to release it all!”
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Indeed, the problem with Azure Ryder isn’t turning off the tap, it’s fully accepting the music that has bubbled to the surface. Grappling with her innermost feelings doesn’t come easy – if music is therapy, she’s having to be her own therapist. “I definitely am a perfectionist by nature,” she says. “Just because I get so passionate about these projects.”
“I want to give my full heart to the people listening. I often struggle with that – there’s a sense of self-judgement, and self-worth. But there will always be that other side, and just need to accept and surrender yourself to that. It’s something I’m getting back at doing, but it’s a constant cycle.”
It’s a cycle that is revolving in ever-impressive motions; each new song Azure Ryder places online screams its way to millions of streams in a matter of weeks, and she’s showing no signs of stopping. “It honestly still blows my mind,” she says. “The idea that one person will feel something, and consciously choose to put on one of my songs… it’s amazing. And it shows that something which is healing for you, can be healing for someone else. Music plays such an important part in our well-being. I honestly think it can save lives.”
A star coming into being, Azure Ryder taps into the most primal importance music can have in our lives – if we only dared to listen a little deeper.
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Words: Robin Murray
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