Today, 15 year-old indie pop prodigy AVIV releases a new alternative track titled “Failed English” via Dine Alone Records accompanied by the official video.
Stream and purchase “Failed English” via Dine Alone Records HERE
Watch and share the official video HERE
Download the press photo HERE | Credit: Nick Merzetti
The multi-instrumentalist is the latest remarkable talent to emerge in ‘bedroom pop’ and poised to become the next big thing in the lo-fi pop scene with support from popular Spotify playlists including Indie Pop, Pop Sauce, and Young & Free among others. Her track “Black Coffee” emerged on Spotify’s New Music Friday and attracted widespread critical acclaim, illuminating her keen melodic instincts and vivid storytelling. Currently it’s charting at #5 on the CBC Music Top 20 and has been added at Indie88. With over two million Spotify streams and 75,000 monthly listeners, as well as 114,000 plays on Apple Music, she continues to effortlessly lead her youthful fanbase, building a purely art and expression driven brand.
AVIV retrofits those warm and fuzzy first-time feelings you wish you could hold on to forever, penning the kind of affecting and arresting D.I.Y. pop that’s both nostalgic and prescient, like ‘90s alternative born post-social media. “I’m just a teenager who acts much older, still gets excited about little things, and really loves to over-analyze her emotions and put them into music,” she says. “I try to be true to myself with everything I do. The more AVIV the music is, the better.” Her style of vintage visuals and background distortion is like getting lost in an ambrosial daydream, and that’s exactly what she intends while co-producing each track. Using a combination of grade-school-inspired props and an array of instruments in her live set, her sound takes simple pop beats and layers them with breezy, well-developed vocals to create perfectly arranged, uncluttered ballads.
At age six, she began to develop her voice as she studied piano, but her journey as a performer started in film, cast in roles for shows like American Gothic, L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, and Milk Kids. At age 10, AVIV shifted her sights to music, joining a band and learning to play guitar on her brother’s red electric Les Paul. AVIV grew up in a big family of four siblings, including her twin brother. Every Saturday, they went record shopping together on Queen Street in Toronto, picking up classics by Fleetwood Mac, Radiohead, and more. “Most families went to the mall,” she recounts. “We went to the record store together.” Casual poetry transformed into songwriting as she
regularly played her early compositions for friends and family. Throughout high school, she obsessed over the likes of Clairo, Lorde, and Lana Del Rey. “They’re my three moms,” she jokes.
Working with her big brother’s friend Jackson Follemer as co-producer, she regularly took the train to Montreal to visit them at McGill University and started to record music in 2020. Following “Cookie Dough,” her independent single “Girls In Red” claimed coveted real estate on playlists such as indie pop & chill and eventually amassed hundreds of thousands of streams. “Frontlawn” and “Lonely Bitch” only increased her momentum with consistent organic growth. “Music became a way to convey my emotions,” she reveals. “Since I won’t even talk to my friends about a lot of these things, it’s an outlet for me to talk about things.” She leaves off, “If my song takes you somewhere emotional, there’s nothing better to me. My music makes me answer my own questions – I hope they do the same thing for you.” As COVID-19 brings her deeper within her own psyche, AVIV will continue to deliver singles as she pulls inspiration from an array of genres.