With ava, it's not just about the music; it's about the journey, the introspection, and the authenticity that they bring to their craft.

For those who have yet to discover ava's music, consider this an open invitation to uncharted territory. Since their inception in 2018, this unassuming duo, composed of Freddie Firth on keys and Drew Winter on drums, has quietly woven a musical narrative that remains untouched by the bright lights of mainstream recognition. Their forthcoming album, a blend of struggle and hope, is a testament to the enduring resilience of the human spirit. As Freddie Firth poetically expresses, it is an exploration of the shadowy corridors of emotion, encouraging us all to confront our inner darkness as we journey toward the light. This record doesn't offer closure but rather extends a poignant embrace of the ebb and flow of life's tides.

For those unfamiliar with your music, can you tell us who you are, where you’re from and about the music you make? 

Freddie: My name’s Freddie Firth, I’m from Sheffield but live in London. Drew Winter’s from Eastbourne. We’ve been playing music together with me on keys and Drew on drums since 2018, but really ava is music I write and play with my friends.

Your upcoming album Soaring Through A World That Is New, That Is Free explores themes of struggle and hope. Can you tell us more about the inspiration behind this album and its overall message?

F: Around the time I started writing the album, I came to this weird conclusion that when you’re in a bad place, it always makes sense to be hopeful and optimistic, because rationally it will always get better, even if it takes a long time or a lot of work. So I thought I’d write an album about that; I only wrote when I was feeling bad but trying to be hopeful. That’s what I thought the message would be, the one should always have hope in dark times. But what I realised through making this is that if you’re constantly trying to hold your chin up, you’re never going to move past the bad feelings. For me the album is trying to stay hopeful through dark times and failing, and the moral is that when you’re feeling sad or low, relax and let those dark feelings in so they can pass through. You can only feel better if you sit with the darkness for a bit.

The lead single ‘amount of things’ has a unique and repetitive lyrical style. What was the creative process like for this song, and how does it represent the album's emotional journey?

F: I was having, I don’t want to say a panic attack but I was sat in my room getting more and more worked up and panicked about something that had happened in my personal life, until I just leapt onto my bed face first and just repeated that phrase, “the amount of things i wish i could say, the amount of things i wish i could do”, and it made me feel better. If I stopped saying it the anxiety would start to come back so I just kept repeating it until I was completely calm. I immediately thought it could be a good piece of art as a song - it’s like a mantra, but instead of being chanted in a rhythm it would be out-of-time like a looping texture. I thought if there was a slow uneven chord sequence underneath it, and then we do that same chord sequence but really loud while the vocals just incessantly repeat that phrase, and then we do the same chord sequence one more time but really fast as a sort of release, that’d be cool. We arrived at the exact flow of the track through playing it in many rehearsals and gigs.

I don’t know if it entirely represents the album’s emotional journey, I think it captures the intensity and darkness and panic that catalysed the song into being. It’s also the first song I wrote on the album - the tracklist is largely the order I wrote the songs in, in order to represent the emotional journey I went through that whole year. But I suppose it is a journey from panic to calm, but it certainly doesn’t reach the closure or emotional security or gratitude that I sort-of calm to by the end of the album.

Could you elaborate on the decision to augment your live setup with additional musicians for this album? 

F: That started with “It Doesn’t Stop”, I thought that song needs 2 drummers. Once we’d added Pitt to that, that set the precedent - after that every song it was like “What else does this need other than keys and drums?” Drew would often say “You really love him” is better without drums. For that song my good friend Frankie just told me he’d love to try adding clarinet to the track, and then one day me and Wil were just hanging out at his and Wil just added the violin - I never would have expected that violin and clarinet on that track would work so well. So really it was just about being open to it. For “November” I wanted to write a song with Dan because his music is a lot more happy sounding than mine, and I wanted to make a song that sounded happy, so I asked him. 

I am very conscious of making sure there isn’t anything that doesn’t need to be there though - if a song is better off as just a piano and voice track, or even just a voice track, then we’ll leave it at that.

The press release mentions influences like Swans, Radiohead, Caroline, and Low. How do these influences manifest in your music, and how do you strive to create a distinct sound that sets you apart from contemporaries?

F: Well let’s see, Swans, Radiohead, and caroline all make music very texturally, where the texture of the track is almost as important as the notes themselves. Low too; seeing Low live were really important to me because they proved you can make a big sound without having to be super loud. All these guys also prove that music can be good just by repeating one good bit of music for a long time. caroline particularly prove how out-of-time textures can be really good, and I’d say Low’s last album has a very good flow. Alt-J as well with their first album, the way they used those little interludes to break the songs up and make the overall record flow better inspires me a lot.

Originality is very important to me though, not because it’s the most important thing in making good music, but just because if I hear a song that sounds just like another song or another band, it tends to put me off. So if a song I’m writing is inspired by something specific by another artist, I do try to change it as much as necessary to make sure it’s not just a worse version of that song, and that it’s good in its own right. And I try to make every song I ever write different to all the ones before; I’m less and less bothered about it the older I get, but almost to a fault, if I write something that to me seems just like just another one of my songs, I’ll just axe it or change it.

That all being said, most of the music I listen to isn’t on piano, so I do find that helps make our music sound different to its influences aha.

Recording at Abbey Road Studios and Slide Studios is a significant milestone. How did this experience impact your creative process and the sound quality of the album?

F: It’s less of a milestone than you might think - our friend Bassett was studying at the Abbey Road Institute so he got free access to a little studio they have there for the students. Slide Studios is his home-studio in Peckham. The real significance of it is that Bassett’s a wizard at making good sounding recordings, and he got the balance of making it sound roomy and like a live band and making it sound like a well-produced studio album exactly right.

The first album was basically a live album - I had the idea of adding vocal effects to make it more of a studio record, but we recorded it in 3 days to save money, and there are no overdubs other than vocals. This time we sought a studio recording experience of no deadline and taking our time on each track, adding whatever we thought the initial live takes needed. It’s a much more fun way of recording; it makes us feel more like a studio band.

“You really love him” was recorded entirely backwards to how they’re usually done - we started with piano, then added a pitch shift, then vocals, clarinet, and violin, and then drums, in order to get the right performance. Having the time to do that sort of thing was great.

Soaring Through A World That Is New, That Is Free follows your first studio album Moonlight 2. How do you see your music evolving from your debut to this sophomore release?

F: In terms of songwriting and composition, and even tones and timbres, it’s certainly an evolution from Moonlight 2. I’d say in some ways it’s gotten less “song-y” and more atmospheric and textural. Like most band’s second albums, this time instead of just being a collection of mostly live songs compiled together, this time we actually wrote an album, so it’s a lot more like there’s a running thread throughout the record this time.

In terms of arrangement, questioning everything that was status quo before, “Should this song have drums? Should it have vocals? What else should it have?”, that’s an evolution. And as for production, just taking our time and again, thinking about what each song wants to make it better.

What do you love right now?

F: I love my friends a lot, and music, and Japanese food.

Drew: Love.

What do you hate right now? 

F: Hate’s a strong word, I try not to hate.

D: Hate. 

Lastly, could you provide a sneak peek into your plans beyond the album release, such as upcoming tours, music videos, or future projects that fans can look forward to?

F: We’re planning an album launch playthrough show, on 4th December at The George Tavern.

Meanwhile, album 3 is currently being recorded. So far it sounds like it’s by a completely different band.