Interview: Aubrey Haddard Returns to Providence to Perform at Askew
Brooklyn singer-songwriter Aubrey Haddard is the type of musician who is very fluid with their artistic approach. One song can be a guitar-driven rocker while another can be a rhythmic pop banger. This range of versatility is refreshing and it’s one of the many reasons why Haddard has a burgeoning fanbase all over the Northeast and beyond. Fans around Providence will get to see her perform live when she takes the stage at Askew on 150 Chestnut Street on March 29. Boston alt-rock troubadour Will Dailey and Bethany Killian from the local harmonious folk act How’s About Charlie will be rounding out a stacked bill with it all starting at 9pm.
Haddard and I had a talk ahead of the show about a new song she has out, being a fan of being underwater, loving to perform in Providence and being purposely vague about the coming months.
Back on March 7th, you released a new single with “Off The Edges” and it has a lot going on with various electronic elements being incorporated. What was the initial vision you had for the song?
I started writing that song with the little bass hook that you hear at the top and I just kind of ran with it. I liked how cyclical it felt and I’ve been writing & arranging with my 404 for about a year now, so I felt like this song in particular really captured the essence of doing that. It has these samples that are on a loop and playing with each other. I really like how the song lets me hear the different samples in different places as if it's in a mix. I can kind of puzzle piece it together where I want to hear it, that’s what I was doing live, and I’ve been performing the song for about a year now too.
I wanted to capture the essence of it that way, so that’s what we did.
Very cool, I liked listening to it.
Thank you.
No problem. The visualizer for it has you swimming in a pool with a bouquet of roses, so where was the filming done for it and who had the idea for this particular setting for the video?
First off, I love swimming. Swimming is like my happiest place, and someone said to me a while ago that my music makes them feel like they’re underwater. That is the best compliment I could ever get from someone, and I was working out in The Hamptons, I was dog sitting out there.
Nice.
Yeah, they had this beautiful pool, and I spent a couple weeks out there. I was working on music; I was working on this song, and I figured I would buy a GoPro and have some fun. I just kind of went to town with it, I originally wanted to do a real arc with music video but in all honesty, that’s not really how the song works. Like I said, it’s just kind of like puzzle pieces and they come and go, fall into each other and fall back out. I just wanted to do that with the visualizer, so I found a cheap little red dress to use and a cool contrast with the roses.
I think it came out great. How were you able to get Steve Frieder to lend his talents on saxophone for the song towards the end of it?
Steve plays with a band called Art Thief who are good friends of mine. He’s got this infectious energy as a human, he’s just a very musical person, he’s always on and I really like that. He played with me back in November on a show up in Beacon, New York, I thought he smashed it, and he took my direction really well. I wanted to play with a lazy, meandering saxophone line which I thought would sound nice on the track while blowing it out with effects and stuff and he smashed it once again.
Very cool. You have this show coming up as part of a stacked bill at Askew tomorrow night and I know you’ve played Providence before, so what are your thoughts on coming back?
I love Providence. Some of my favorite people are in Providence and some of my favorite fans are in Providence. I lived in Boston for several years and I used to go tour down there with some other bands. There’s something unique about Providence and its music community. When you go to Boston, it’s very transient and people leave and when you go to New York people flake, they may not show up. The scene in Providence may be small, but it’s definitely mighty, it’s consistent and supportive so I’m excited to come back.
We have a great scene here and people come out. It’s not like people are fickle, they just go out to enjoy themselves and have a good time.
Yeah, exactly. I think the last time I played Providence was on a Monday or a Sunday, so I’m happy to be playing there on a Friday night.
It’s always better when you get to play on a Friday or a Saturday night. For this new single you have out, can we expect it to be part of an album or an EP of some sort? What are your plans going forward in terms of recordings?
I don’t want to give too much away because it hasn’t been announced yet.
Just be as vague as you can.
Ok, there will definitely be more music and you can expect it to all sound similar. There’s another song on the way, it’s in the pipeline.
In order to make Culture Beat’s content available to everyone, we decided to stop utilizing a paywall. With this being said, we are utilizing the crowdfunding service Buy Me A Coffee in order to have our readers support our endeavors, which they can do so right here.
