Aaricia is a twenty-two-year-old pop singer-songwriter from Montreal. In the midst of finishing her sophomore album and preparing for this new year, we caught up to talk about her debut Figures, her admiration for Billie Eilish, inspirations and more!
On Twitter you tweet a lot to Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas, what do you love so much about them?
Well, their connection is absolutely amazing since they’re family. I kind of have that with my producer that I’m working with right now, we’re not related but we get each other on some level that she acts with her brother. Also, her style is amazing, and its impossible that somebody that young can be this cool. Her brother is an absolute genius, he wrote two of my favourite songs and I think he’s amazing!
Which ones are your favourite?
Watch is my favourite and he wrote it, I think his lyrical game is absolutely insane. I love Bellyache too, they wrote it together and he wrote Ocean Eyes and that one’s really nice too.
Is there any music you listened to when you were younger that made you want to become an artist?
Not really. I had a very hard time discovering myself artistically because I have this thing where I don’t want to be put in a box. I love exploring, I love all sorts of styles, I would never do country or heavy metal but anything else I’m opened to trying. Amy Winehouse was always one of my favourites and I was still young when she died so that’s when I discovered her, but she definitely was an influence.
Why did you name your album Figures?
Well, because the concept of the album, it mostly talked about different kinds of relationships and figures represents different things like calculations, numbers, actual people and bodies and I felt like it englobed what I was trying to say.
How was it writing/creating the album?
Its always super fun because I always work with Max, I’ve been working with him for the past 3 years and we get along so well. At this point its just effortless and we end a session and its like ‘good job, we did that!’. It was a fun process, it was the first full length album we made together, before that it was just an EP. It was our second project so we were even more at ease with each other. I would come in the studio and we would write from scratch, there’s a couple of songs that I wrote on the piano or the guitar at my house before but most of them were started at the studio together and went from there.
How important are lyrics?
100% I hate that there’s - I love rap but I feel like some people, not everyone because there’s Kendrick Lamar, Joey Badass, J Cole and a lot of other ones that their content is great, but some, their lyrics are total shit and the instrumental supports the track, the instrumental shouldn’t carry the rapper. I feel lyrics are important because that's what’s gonna make people react; its the disses and different lines.
What song are you most proud of?
Probably one of the most underrated songs on the album, Quit It & Go. I thought that one was really cool but I guess people didn’t catch on. Its slower, there’s no drums and no drop whatsoever and I thought it was sick, like it's the song that never drops. I thought it was a bit more out there than the rest of it, I was really down with that one. Wildest Dreams is one my favourites too
What was the hardest one to write?
Known Better was one of them because it talks about this guy. It was about this past relationship and I was just having a hard time expressing myself I guess with that and when my friend came in and co-wrote, it all made sense.
What’s next for you?
There’s a lot of things coming up for 2018, I’m finishing up my second album. I’m gonna have a song coming out in the next few months with a few videos for that project as well and shows definitely.
Check out Aaricia's website