AUNCE makes a bold entrance with the debut single BEEP BEEP, built on a minimalist yet striking two-chord progression, hauntingly crafted vocals and a gripping, tense groove that seizes you by the throat and refuses to let go. A very important work thematically too—read our discussion below to learn more.
Describe your sound in 3 words
Odd, atmospheric, textured
How did your experiences with societal pressures around body image inspire the message of BEEP BEEP? What is the main idea behind it?
It was an observation of how the male gaze – a feminist theory from 1975 that explored that how women are presented in visual arts, film and literature from a heterosexual, masculine perspective – was being perpetuated on social media, but now under the dangerous guise of “body positivity and empowerment”. Instagram algorithms especially were picking up and circulating attractive images of people, especially women, and research found that these images, vids or ads were finding their way into people’s feeds or search pages who hadn’t engaged with similar content before…bikini pics, racy pics, influencer vids…presenting women as “sexy” or perpetuating narrow beauty standards, according to what heterosexual men like.
I then started to observe my favourite artists and contemporaries use this algo to promote their music. The sexier, or more beautifully posed pics get the most traction. And I think the pressure is there for everyone, regardless of gender. But I saw more examples of women feeling the need to do it. I tried it myself too, and observed how it made me feel. It worked to get attention, traction and I had more DMs from random guys than ever. But, it felt really disconnected from myself, my philosophies, my values, and it didn’t feel sexy at all. I love feeling sexy and in my body, but this felt like a performance outside of my body…I was in my head about what I thought other’s saw as “sexy”, and I realised I was feeding the algorithm that ultimately lined the pockets of the technologists who didn’t care about the mental health crisis their technology was causing…I also wondered what kind of role model I was being. I was lecturing at university at the time, and talked to my students about gender disparity in music production (also the subject of my PhD). If we go back to the start of music industry in the 50s, women were often “the vocalists” and their image was used to sell records, whilst the technical aspects and themes of the music were produced and controlled by men. And though this is changing and DIY technology has allowed more people to produce, the residue of this is still there in all kinds of ways…including an expectation or entitlement for people to view female artists through a visual appealing lens of sexiness or beauty.
What role do you think art and music can play in helping people confront or release deeply ingrained personal or cultural expectations?
I think there are so many different ways are can help this. Creating art generally allows us to explore, even abstractly, different worlds, ideas, parts of ourselves, humanity, etc…it can bring us into the present moment, where all of the noise and ingrained expectations fall away, and you have freedom to feel things quite clearly. And so, artists can bring things to light that people often are maybe unaware of, or not able to confront because life is busy, its easier to just get on with it – and present things in ways that can be playful, colourful, bold, subtle, meaningful…sort of like bringing things out of the shadows, offering new perspectives. And I think its important that there’s total diversity in the kinds of ways artists do this – from soothing and healing, to bold, powerful, political, and everything in between…
What practices or changes helped you to reconnect with your body, and how have they influenced your work?
There have been a mixture of things. I’ve always really loved movement – staying active, being in my body – but the internal narratives driving it weren’t always loving or kind. Before, I was treating my body like a humble servant to my mind, whipping it into shape, making it do things, and ultimately carrying around a lot of shame. I think we all consume subtle or obvious messages from all kinds of marketing “We’re not enough until we buy this, wear that, have this, own that, look like this”. So, I started to try to counter those very old learned narratives with more loving, supportive and curious ones. I wrote a lot, began to watch my thoughts through presence and stillness, and reconnected to the me who was there all along, underneath all of the toxic noise I’d consumed every day of my life without realising. I became grateful for the miraculous things our body does each day – adaptation, energy management, cycles, equilibrium etc. And, sometimes those old patterns slip back in, but I have more perspective to see them for what they are and to not identify with them. Once we’ve seen the ways we’ve been conditioned to behave in certain ways, you can’t unsee it.
So, all this helps with everything – including my work. Shame, negative self-talk, disconnection sat on my creativity and playfulness like a huge rock. It took a lot of energy to create, and then I felt ashamed of what I did make, and wished I could just make “what everyone else makes”…but, once I became more connected to who I was beyond the conditioning, noise and masks, I had more felt freedom and creativity to make whatever I wanted to make. It makes the process way more playful, flowy and energising.
Your most honest and personal lyric?
I think the most honest and personal lyrics for me come out when I’m improvising or doing some stream of consciousness writing. Last year, I was in France improvising with my lovely friend – amazing artist, pianist and musician – Taisen. I’d been in Brazil for 3 months learning some Portuguese, and then France for another 3 practising French, and so hadn’t been able to use English too much to express myself fully . I decided to improvise in English, and what came out was so flowy and close to the bone…at that time too, I was also mustering the courage to leave a relatively abusive relationship. With Taisen and his playing, I felt able to express freely which opened a whole new level of flow. When I re-listen to those improvisations, I’m like..woahhh, ouch…there were so many in those improvisations I can’t choose just one…
What challenges do you think artists face today in maintaining authenticity while navigating the pressures of social media?
I think the creator economy commodifies art to a degree that goes against the nature of art, and pits artists against artists, and impacts what artists choose to make, how they make it and how they present it…There’s such focus on stats and people deriving an artist’s (or person’s) value from stats, but really, some incredible art doesn’t appeal to mass audiences, and thus will never reach the stats needed for the industries to take them seriously…and so, everything about social media it feels at odds. If artists can use social media to find their audiences, that is ideal, and then maybe build and strengthen that relationship elsewhere like via newsletters or live (the 1000 true fan theory)..but to find those fans, I hope artists feel they can do it in ways that feel right in their bones…in ways that line up with the ideas in the music, in their values etc, so that it feels energising to share music, and not exploitative of their mental health.
Could you explain your approach to reimagining release mechanisms and how this approach reflects your values around community and creative recognition?
It’s kind of connected to what I’ve mentioned above…for a while I felt like sharing music in the current system was a turn off for me..it didn’t feel right, so I asked myself what ways of releasing would feel right and energising?! And I realised that gratitude and acknowledgment light me up and get me excited…like, thinking about those teachers who made a huge difference to you as a kid, or those moments in extremely beautiful places that inspired a song, or that album that totally changed your perception of sound, or that one thing your friend said that made a penny drop that impacted your practice, or your realisation of how much of today’s music is influenced by cultures who never see a penny from it…All of these things are embedded in my music, in all of our music, and so can I somehow embed this gratitude into my releases mechanically, to help counter the individualistic creator economy model? There aren’t currently many straight forward ways of doing this. It’s getting easier to split royalties amongst collaborators via distributors, or new platforms like meta label and Nina Protocol, but it would be great if artists had the choice via royalty collection agencies to do this, or if a whole new system enabled us to do this without the ticket being clipped by an intermediary, and more funds could flow where we want them to flow. And, the elephant in the room, so many artists aren’t receiving royalties in this streaming age…but, I’m confident new models will emerge, so I’m wanting to get the splits in place for when they do. For Beep Beep, I choose to give Earth Percent 20% of writing splits marking “The Earth” as my co-writer. Earth Percent have done a very cool job of making it easy to mark ‘The Earth’ as a co-writer, just as you would another artist or publisher, and automatically royalties flow to the charity, and from there, they fund initiatives working in conservation, climate justice, policy change, energy transition and greening the music industry. Music is nature, we are nature, we’re constantly inspired by it, and we literally couldn’t record and distribute our music without…so, I’d like to majorly thank it.
Artist and people that have influenced you?
There’s such a long list. I think the thread that ties them all together is – I’m really excited by artists and people who can imagine new ways of doing things…musically, philosophically, artistically, the way they choose to live their lives, how they see themselves in relation to others, those with humility and conscience…
In which state of mind do you imagine people might listen to your music?
It depends which track I guess, with Beep Beep, I think people would be wanting to experience another world for 3 minutes. It’s definitely an immersive track, and maybe doesn’t sound great in the background haha…and although some of the track is unsettling, the end allows for a sense of release and freedom…something I hope people can resonate with…
Thank you!
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