Ava Earl, the 20-year-old Alaskan indie folk/pop artist, has been killing it: she opened for Maggie Rogers while still in high school, released 4 albums by the time she was 18 and The Roses (2021), produced by GRAMMY-nominated JT Nero, had several songs were featured on Spotify editorial playlists, with “Mountain Song” amassing more than 100,000 streams. Her forthcoming album, Too Much, produced by JUNO-winner Zachariah Hickman and recorded at Great North Sound Society in Maine. In our interview, Earl describes the push-pull of showing her big personality and explains how songwriting helped her come out.
How do you feel your coming out journey plays into your music?
When I came out, I was already an established artist in my home state of Alaska, and I had been using music for quite a while to express parts of myself that I was still exploring or understanding. My sexuality was definitely part of this, and I actually came out in my music years before I truly accepted that I was queer. I found myself writing songs about women, and creating queer narratives in my music, and being able to do this I think ultimately gave me the confidence and courage to come out and embrace all parts of myself, even though I still felt unsure in my identity. Music has always been the part of myself that is most honest and open, and I’ve continued to try to use music to uplift myself and others.
Explain the title of your album.
My album, Too Much, is coming out September 15th. The title showcases a duality I try to express with the album: my being “too much” for everyone else, and the world being “too much” for me. I’ve always been told that I’m a lot, and as I moved away from home and started making my first set of friends who met me first as an adult, I realized that I am a bit insecure about my personality and afraid of being too much. I try to embrace that part of myself on this record, because I don’t think it’s something I could change even if I wanted to, and because I think it makes me a better musician and performer. Other songs deal with the overwhelmingness that is growing up––I have felt a lot of my life change suddenly in the past couple years, and this album also reflects on that, and how I’ve changed as a person.
Do you start off with the music or lyrics first? Why?
I write music and lyrics usually at the same time. Sometimes I start writing with an idea of a song in mind, but I always end up crafting the lyrics along to chords I come up with in the moment. Sometimes a fun chord progression will get my mind started, but I wouldn’t say that the music is fully created before I begin writing on top of it; it’s more of a joint process of getting chord ideas while singing different lyrics and seeing what sticks and sounds good.
How are you using your platform to support marginalized people?
I am very politically active and passionate, and I don’t believe that music and politics have to be separated in order to be a professional and successful artist. Something I do to support marginalized people is try to uplift and amplify artists of color and their stories, messages, and music, by promoting it on my social media. I also believe that a lot of work is done internally, so I try to challenge myself and see what the diversity of my own music choice looks like. Am I listening to predominantly White artists? How does that limit my viewpoint? By asking myself these questions and acting on the answers, I try to make myself a better ally to people of color, but also a better musician.
Where are some places you’ve found joy within the country/Americana world?
I have found a lot of joy in queer and woman-dominated spaces of the country and Americana scene. One of my biggest inspirations, and someone I’m honored to have worked with in the past, Allison Russell, curates a lot of queer joy in spaces she occupies. I both rejoice in this, and also try to bring that energy with me to new spaces that I enter! I’m very lucky to be at Northwestern University right now, and they place a lot of value in queer spaces. It’s been wonderful for the first time in my life to have many close friends and peers who are openly queer and proud, and to have people to look up to both within and outside my schooling who create safe and joyful queer spaces on larger stages.
Too Much will be released on 9/15
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