With our first Avenue Interviews segment of 2016 I wanted to highlight an artist who is still in the beginning stages of her career, but has an astonishing amount of talent that becomes apparent with one click of a Soundcloud play button. Alanna Aguiar is a young singer from Santa Clarita, California with a smooth and seductive voice who draws inspiration from Alternative Rock, R&B, Pop, Soul artists from the past and present. Listening to her sing feels like fine Japanese silk gently caressing your earlobe. We want you to get familiar with her now, before she becomes a super-star, headlines world-wide tours, sits on Ellen’s couch, does a lip-sync battle with Jimmy Fallon and does other cool shit like that. So learn a bit about Alanna and her influences, the moment she felt like pursuing music was a realistic option, who she’s listening to right now and more!
Follow her on IG, Soundcloud and read below!
https://www.instagram.com/p/_3jnCgvr7F/?taken-by=alannaaguiar
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Vic Stunts: Can you remember the moment you first discovered you had a serious singing voice? Or Was it something you just always did for fun growing up?
Alanna Aguiar: It kinda started when I was extremely young actually, I want to say when I was around the age four or five. I just remember being in the car and hearing “Complicated” by Avril Lavigne for the first time and then eventually my parents bought me the CD and I stopped wanting to go outside, I just wanted to blast it on repeat in my little princess room and sing along at the top of my lungs until one day I sang without the CD and realized it didn’t sound horrible hahaha. Once I was a little bit older, maybe six or seven, my parents put me in vocal lessons for a couple years which is where I found the real love for it.
Vic: That’s so dope your parents have provided that support from an early age when it was just a hobby. So Avril Lavigne inspired the 5 year old you, but who inspires you musically now?
Alanna: Yeah, I’ve been extremely lucky to have parents who support me musically. But this is an awesome question, so when I was younger I loved that whole alternative approach, I was listening to Paramore, No Doubt and shit like that but once I was like 13 or 14 I started listening to more jazzy music, and I realized my voice really wasn’t meant for the alternative screaming type stuff. I’d say my biggest influence EVER is Amy Winehouse, her music and even simply just her stage presence really changed me as a person and artist. But a lot of people inspire me right now, I like to lurk SoundCloud in my downtime and find new artists and I’m always surprised by how little recognition most of them receive. I love Telana, going to see her live next week, I think Lorde is a genius, love King Krule to death he’s definitely a big inspo. Just the depth & raw talent certain people have which makes them sound like they’re about to break down once they’re done recording is so fascinating to me. I love artists with a lot of emotion who don’t hit notes perfectly on every record.
Vic: I thought I heard some Amy Winehouse influence, that’s all so interesting how in tune you are with music culture and how far your palette of inspiration extends. Was there ever a conscious decision made to pursue music seriously, if so can you take us back to that moment? Or is this something you’ve been preparing for since you were a child?
Alanna: From the beginning of time this was all I wanted to do, but about a year or two ago I kinda hit this low point where I was like ok music is a hobby not a career I need to figure something else out, like I thought I was just setting myself up for failure. But then just this year I started taking my old acoustic heart felt shit and turning it into something else – that’s when things finally started to click, and I was surprised with the amount of people who dig my music so I guess that really opened my eyes and reminded me that this is the talent I was given and I can make it a career if I work for it.
Vic: I’ve heard you cover lot’s of artists songs and do a great job by adding your own spin on them, but you also write your own original songs too correct? Can you tell us what your songwriting process is like? Do you have to be in a certain place, mood, or in the studio?
Alanna: Yeah definitely, all of my songs were written by me (except for the covers of course). I can be anywhere and things will come to mind or I’ll start humming some kind of melody and I’ll just take out my phone and start writing little notes or verses. Sometimes I can write a whole song in like 10 minutes, it just depends on how inspired I am. I like this because when it comes down to a day that I plan to record, I have a lot of material written and ready to go.
Vic: Do you also play any instruments as well?
Alanna: I do! I play guitar, I have really really small hands though so it’s kinda hard but I try my best hahaha
Vic: What are some things you’re eager to accomplish in 2016?
Alanna: I’ve started working on an EP that I plan to release some time this year. I don’t want to rush it because I want it to be a really nice mixture of different sounds, and I hope to work with a couple different people on it. Other than that I plan to just get out more, couple little coffee shop gigs here & there, make myself more comfortable stage wise.
You can listen to the song that made me an instant supporter of hers, an original song she wrote titled “Contrast” but was remixed by producer .disfnk below!
