Speaker 1: I've always believed in one mantra, share your story or
someone will write it for you. And as we continue
to grow inside this podcast world, there's a lot of
stories we haven't dug into yet. Ero dot net A
R R O E dot net. Thank you so much
for supporting the vision as well as the path.
Speaker 2: Hey there, Shaman, we're talking about.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I get to see what you look like, Michael,
what are you doing?
Speaker 3: Hi?
Speaker 4: Hi?
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 2: This is this is the reason why, because this is
our conversation started based upon the love of this.
Speaker 1: Look at that. See that's the kind of stuff that
listeners do not get to experience. Man, we're because we're
also behind the scenes on everything, and that they don't
get to experience the journey itself.
Speaker 2: Right And this person right here, this is how we connected.
And she says, this is why she's a people's person
because of watching Peanuts, And so you're gonna be able
to have a full, great conversation with her like I
just had. She's all yours.
Speaker 1: I got to start it off. I ask you the
question with you being a Peanuts fan, I mean it
all begins with you know, during the lockdown when when
we had those massive stuff on. I felt like I
was part of Charlie Brown with with those masks on,
I couldn't understand a dang thing anybody was saying.
Speaker 3: Me and my mom, Okay, this sounds crazy. Me and
my mom would we would like when she would quickly
the story. She'd take me to lunch sometimes, like in
like when I was a senior, so whenever I had
like my off periods, so.
Speaker 5: She would take you to lunch and we would sit
outside and finish my lunch, and like we were near
the front, so all the kids would walk in and stuff,
and like usually it was like during like winter, so
like all the kids would walk in. Yeah, we would
play the Charlie Brown Christmas Christmas time and just laugh
because they all except like Charlie Brown walking and everything.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, it seems like me and sorry we
brought us so much joy for some reason. We're like
they're doing the Charlie Brown walks and now when I'm sad,
I do the Charlie Brown walk.
Speaker 1: Wow, if you've done the research behind the people who
made that Charlie Brown muse, the one thing that I
always found fascinating is the man that's playing the piano
just took a chance. I mean, it was just his job.
He was just a studio musician that happened to sit
in and look at the legacy that a man who
took a chance. My god, he's still with us today.
Speaker 3: Yeah, wow, that is that's crazy.
Speaker 1: So what is that like to be a musician knowing
that that one song that you think is going to
be the big song, it's not usually that one. It's
the one that's usually written in the last ten minutes
because you need a two and a half minute song
in order to complete the EP or the album.
Speaker 3: Well, like now that you say that for my EP,
A line like I had all this song, The first
one I wrote was literally in twenty twenty three. Well
i'd really seen in twenty twenty four. It was like
the beginning of twenty twenty three, and it had been
my first like official, like done song because I have
so many like notes on my apps and like voice
modes of me just mumbling. But it was finally the
first one that had to like clear, like this what
I want. And I brought it to my vocal coach, Natalie,
who's just wonderful and she helps me with She helps
me a lot with like the production because she has
logic pro x on her, like she has her little
at home studio, which in the beginning of the voice
episode of My intro, that was her studio. So I
go there to record covers. At first I did, and
then we moved on to doing MP stuff. But after
I had my first song we recorded, we had the
other ones, and then we're like, I want something just
like a wrap up. I didn't have the name for
myp I was like, this one feels like just emotional
and not. It didn't have normal song structure. It wasn't
like okay versus chorus bridge. It was just like verse
bridge outro. I was like, but I really like this
one and it kind of aligns with everything. And I
was like, align, everything's aligning. I'm at the part of
the song of like I'm a new age like it
was like the kind of the key part of the song,
and I just felt like, dang, like I am kind
of aligning as an artist. So that's why I named
it a line my Holy pee. And that was the
wrap up song, so yeah, you really don't. It was
a last minute edition even though I needed that one
more song, but I didn't even know the name my
p and I was like, it just happens naturally sometimes.
And I think that's beautiful about music is that it's planned,
like the best artists planned, but also music you just create.
Speaker 1: So what do you do in a situation like that
where somebody drops a guitar riff on you? Because I
mean I did that when I was putting my last
project together and it was Alan that sent me the
guitar riff and he says, I really want this to
be on your next work, and he says, figure it out,
figure out what the story is going to be about.
We can do everything around this guitar riff, but figure
it out and of all things, And that's what I
love about music, or and or writing in general. It's
not that it's hard. It's just that you have to
be open to receive it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you have to really if you overthink it almost Yeah,
well that's the kind of thing I'll I've been taken
to the voice, Like I was asking the legendary Joe
for advice and he said that was yeah, that was crazy.
I say that casually, but that was crazy. And he
was just like, how are you ready for that big performance?
He's like, just turn your brain off, really be in
the moment, because I have a lot going on in
my head all the time, and sometimes you really just
have to shut it off and be present. So I
think like that's the same thing with music. Like if
you're if you're trying a song rite and you're like,
what rhymes with the does with the that's not that's
not working for me. Like for me, it's like I
don't sit down. I'm like, okay, today I'm writing a song,
Like I'll get that feeling, I'll get that vibe. If
I want to get stuff done, I'll work on songs
I've wrote. But it's really just that ultimate inspiration I get.
And then usually I end up writing like pages of it,
just running, running thoughts, running thoughts, and then you edit
it down and edit it down. So when you have
that idea, even when she presents me an idea like
she presents on my last on my single, she presented
like right before the chorus, there's this little like piano.
China was like, leave is it? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I was like at first, I was like that sounds
a little like I don't know Christmas bells, I don't know.
And then she's like I was like, can we try
it like with this filter on instead, but keep the
original idea and we And that's the part that I
always end up like nodding my head to. So, yeah,
you get presented in something and you fit it in
to match your your vibe or your creativity kind of
changes into something that makes it your own as an artist.
So I think that's always interesting and that's why I
love collaborating too. Oh yeah, the best art comes from collaborations.
Speaker 1: So now what is that like for you to mess
around with the filters when you know that the people
that came long before, such as the Hank Williams and
even even the Beatles, because if it wasn't for George Martin,
I always wonder what the Beatles would have sounded like
because they were always playing with sounds and go out.
Speaker 4: And find a sound effect and we'll figure out how
to put it inside the music. Just go play, go play,
and it's and it's like it sounds like that's what
you're doing too. You're just playing I'm a child inside
a music store.
Speaker 3: Literally, like when it's like an inside a candy shop,
like for for me, I when I have the actual
like if I'm picking a sound like uh, I'll start
with like, if I want this song to have just
like a main piano, I'll start I'll make sure I
literally like Logic Pre especially has so many like I
feel like this is like a Logic Pro promo, but
it has so many I'll go through and literally I'll
have her play the chord for me while I click
it so I can hear it in all the different things.
And sometimes we'll just take that extra twenty minutes to
go through and I'm like, that's the right one, that's right.
Want to tweak a little bit at a filter here,
and then I'll also like here sounds like here I
want a symbol like I don't know, I'm lucky to
just hear that like, and I'm like, I feel like
here needs this like little synth, So we'll go back
and add that and these little sounds. So something in
my music I love is how layered it is, Like
I always love looking at after and it has like
all these tracks, yeah, layered and numbered. So it may
make editing more, mixing more difficult for the first in
a mix, but I just love adding all these sounds
because I feel like it just makes the atmosphere of
the song come to life and I have so much
fun playing.
Speaker 1: With So then what what do you do though, when
you've got that home studio and you're adding those layers.
Because my last project was created one hundred percent outside
Jim's studio, and when I took it to him, he goes, Okay,
we can make this work. And then when I take
it to go listen to it in the car, because
that's where you're supposed to listen to your mix of
music in the car, and it didn't have that layered sound.
I took it back and said, dude, you got to
you messed up. This is this is not what I feel. Well,
you know, you got to go with the flow. You
gotta go where it's at. And it's like, oh my god, Ava,
how do you deal with that?
Speaker 3: This is my vision? Okay? Honestly, like there's only been Natalie,
my book coach. She gets me so well. So I
feel like we spend a lot of time, like whenever
we're sending it to get mixed by an engineer, that
we make sure to reference a bunch of songs that
the vibe is. We make sure to literally we go
in at this point in the song, we want it
to sound like and we describe it in a bunch
of words. We say, from this point to this point,
we want it to be just pure like raw vocal
at this point. So we literally go in the email
and annoy the heck out of him with all the
with all the like notes, and then usually he'll send
back a mix, and then I'll listen to the mix,
but I'll make sure to listen with headphones, and then
I'll listen in the car because sometimes it really does
it makes a difference. Like for one of my songs,
like the bassline, you can't really hear when you're listening headphones.
Speaker 5: In the car. It's like yeah, around the South.
Speaker 3: So well, usually it takes a few mixes back and forth,
and then I'll be like, can he literally tweak one thing,
like I know it's a new, whole, new mix, but
I really just that one sound needs to be like
louder or softer, And she'll do it, and then when
you get the final one, you know that that's the vibe,
because I mean, you can't be perfectionist with art, Like
if you could, you'd have like a thousand mixes of
the song just when it feels perfect Yeah, when it
feels when it feels right enough and it makes you
feel something, that's when you know you're good. You don't
have to make sure everything is perfectly together.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, it's it's such a challenge and and
you know, it's almost like one of those things. Do
you really want the listener to see the wizard behind
the curtain? You know, because you want to show them
how it all came into being, But then you also
like the mystery of it all. You don't need to
see how I got that harmony. Well, maybe one day
on a late night radio show, I'll talk about it,
but not now.
Speaker 3: Not now.
Speaker 5: We'll save that for next time.
Speaker 1: Now, now, being eighteen years old, what the heck are
you doing up so early? I mean, you should be
a one or two o'clock person, listen.
Speaker 3: I'm I'm more of a night owl, but I've been
getting kind of used to it. My classes. So I'm
in college now, Belmont University in Nashville, and my classes
are I'm taking you know, the first year required ones,
but other than that, I'm not doing you know, cognitive
science major like my sister. Uh, I'm doing hopefully. I
applied to songwriting, so I'm doing what I love. And
so I got up early and I'm in the jack
Massy Hall because my roommate was sleeping she has class.
I got up and came here. But it's such a
nice atmosphere here, and everyone's just so nice, Like even
this morning, when like no one usually I mean me
from New York everyone would be kind of grumpy. Yeah,
you smile even though it's like freezing outside and it's
like six and six thirty in the morning. Like everyone
just it's just happy here. So I think that really
does lift my mood. But yeah, that's why I'm up early.
Speaker 1: Please do not move. There's more with Ava Nat coming
up next. Eighteen years old, and she's featured on NBC's
The Voice. We are back with Ava Nat. When did
you know that music wasn't going to be your childhood hobby?
That it was like, oh, we're gonna have to take
this seriously. Some things are starting to happen inside my
imagination that no longer says I'm just a child.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so like when I got put into like lessons
and stuff, like when my close family friend who's also
like a vocal teacher, Ali she she got married, not
condor recently, but for Zetto Armor Ali Lambrea. She kind
of noticed I would just sing at every family event.
I would sing NonStop or like headbop to songs. People
started noticing I had rhythm or and so she kind
of brought me in and made She was like, let
me try to like teach your like actual technique and
actual and see if it's not just like she's singing along.
And we started to take lessons. We started it started
to be less for fun and we started to get serious.
And then I did things like Nisma, which in New
York it's like kind of like you audition in front
of judges and then you get put in to acquire
all the kids from your county that audition and you
did want more. So I started to do that and
take it more seriously. But I didn't really find you know,
I was doing classical because that's like what's required. And
then I always knew like I really like or like
soul full jazz, but it wasn't really until I was older.
I had like an epiphany as an artist. I started
because I remember when I was little, I would like
have this big iPad that I stole for my like
mom's office and just start voice memoing outside, like singing
melodies that I heard. I didn't know how to play piano.
I didn't know how to do anything, but I would
do that. And then it wasn't until like I was
older in high school that I was like, I am
like a songwriter, Like I love writing. English has always
been my favorite subject, but I've never really connected it,
and I'm like, what am I doing here? Like I
like and the second the second I got the chance
to switch out of classical to vocal jazz for Nisma,
I did it right away, So I just connect with
jazz as well. But yeah, so I started songwriting and
once I did, we start working on that AP and
I was I was in the home studio and I
was hearing those sounds and I was like, wow, I
can do this artist thing, Like it kind of does
come come to me, Like you know, it's hard work obviously,
but it's like something that I love. So it's like
something that I can I can do and see myself
doing in the future.
Speaker 5: Then it just kept going on from that.
Speaker 3: I really sedp whatever. Then I'm like looking for schools
and like, this is what I want to do in school.
I found the best program songwriting, and they have such
a good commercial like they and it's Nashville, it's music city.
So that's kind of how I ended up here.
Speaker 1: Wow, when you when you speak of doing the vocal
jazz right away, I'm taking back to the story of
George Benson and then and then just recently, I was
I was with Brian Culbertson, who puts a lot of
vocals on his new jazz album and and and So
to hear you speak in that language, I'm going Ava,
You're on target, man, this is where it's at that
now the door is open for you to climb through
there and you know, and take your line EP to
a whole completely different level.
Speaker 3: Yes, thank you, Like I love I love all I
because it's so you know, young, vulnerable, not overly professional.
It's I'm proud of it. I'm not you know, the
productions kind of. It's just it's just it's it's literally
like it It's almost like when I released I was like,
she's I'm gonna go into school the next day. And
at the time it was just like a girl Shirley
sing EP. I mean, everyone knew I was a singer
because you know, that was big for me in high school.
But I was like, wow, they're literally gonna get insight.
It's very vulnerable. It's it's like they're reading out of
my diary and like, and so I walked in through
the halls, I'm like, I wonder if they listened to
the song. So there's definitely the aspect of that. But
then when I started to actually sorry, I was saying, oh,
I sing with the EP. But then now I'm like,
I could see myself in the future writing these jazzy
songs because I love singing it, I love scatting. But
it's like this this side of my artist shea I
want to unlock and it's.
Speaker 5: Like I have so much time and I'm so.
Speaker 3: Lucky to have a platform, even more of a platform
now and hopefully you know, I said in my in
my blind episode, like I wish I do sing jazz,
and then Michael was like, I wish would have said
a jazz song. So I'm like, I'm just I'm creeping
up there and it's kind of just like a surprise
and a side note, but it is still something important
to me. So I always do like to mention it,
like along with me being a singer, scritter because I
think jazz is so special and like not to choo
my own more. But like Natalie said, it kind of
is something that people have naturally. It's not really like
you can learn to scap but like she showed me
the blue scale and played it and we just went
back and forth scatting, and it's just something that came naturally.
I mean, there's this video of me and when I
was taking a bath when I was little that I
simitted it to the show. It's me singing Frank Snatchra
five times again. I'll show you what I just I'm
like full on, just like somebody me in the ah
like singing jazz. And I was like six, and so yeah,
it's just kind of something you have naturally, I think.
So I always like to mention my jazz background.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, where can people go to find out
more about you? And as you continue to grow forward,
because I mean, you are experiencing a great place in
music history where it's wide open and it's looking for
that next step that people can tap into and just
basically call their own.
Speaker 3: Well, thank you. Honestly, I would say for now, like
just my my Instagram because I have I'm gonna make
my website and put it on there, so it's going
to be easier for people to access. But if you
look me up, I mean my my artist name's Ava
Nat a Va Nat, and then my last name is
my lone, little Italian Milone. So my all of my
stuff's linked on my Instagram. So Ava Nat nine eight
nine eight, I love it.
Speaker 1: Please come back to this show anytime in the future.
The door is always going to be over to you.
Oh man, you're fine, You're fun. Will you be brilliant today?
Speaker 3: Okay, thank you you as well.
Speaker 1: Thank you