Interview: Aislinn Davis

Artwork by @artbykens

lackluster is the first EP by singer-songwriter, Aislinn Davis. Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, Aislinn has been uploading original songs, covers, and mash-ups onto her Tik Tok account where she had garnered over 100k followers. lackluster consists of four glitter-filled, melancholic tracks written, recorded and produced completely independently by Aislinn, with some help from her younger brother.

INTERVIEW BY DELFI RUIZ

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SOCIAL MEDIA:

Twitter @aislinndavis

Instagram @aislinndavis

TikTok @aislinnd17

MUSIC:

YouTube Aislinn Davis

Soundcloud @AislinnDavis

Spotify Aislinn Davis

Apple Music Aislinn Davis

How would you introduce yourself and your music to someone that had never heard of you before?

Introducing myself and my music is honestly something I struggle with a lot actually. Everything I write is usually about very specific people or situations, and comes off very honest and personal. Most if not all of the people I've written about will be able to listen and know it's about them. I would describe Lackluster as a product of overthinking and the panic of growing up. My inspirations are kind of all over the place but I think that's what keeps it interesting.

After making covers and mashups online for years, what made you decide to put out an entire EP of your own music?

The decision definitely had a lot to do with my own self confidence. I've always made music for myself behind the scenes, but until I started uploading covers and mashups online I never thought I was good enough. Without the encouragement of my friends and everyone else who has supported me so far I can confidently say Lackluster would have never seen the light of day. They helped me find my voice.

Was the process of writing and uploading your EP entirely on your own difficult?

Uploading the EP was actually way easier than I expected it to be as an independent artist. I had a friend walk me through the process and the whole thing took maybe 10 minutes. For me the hardest part was actually producing the songs once I had written them. Even though I wrote everything, I definitely have my little brother to thank for making that part of the process as painless as possible.

How many songs did you write that were contenders for the EP? How did you decide which would be on the EP? Now that it's out, is there anything you would change if you could?

Oh man I think I have close to 50 different snippets and notes saved in my phone of different song ideas for this EP. I have a couple friends who I regularly share stuff like that with to keep me on track and make sure things don't accidentally suck. Their opinions matter a lot to me so I think when it came down to the final track list it was pretty much a collective decision. Listening back to it now, I think it's easy to nitpick and point out all of the things that I would have done differently but for where I was at the time, I'm pretty proud of how it turned out.

Does having a background in being a “fangirl” affect your music / how you interact with the people that listen to your music? What inspired you to feature hints of the people you’re a fan of in your album artwork?

I think in many ways it has made things pretty interesting for me. On one hand a lot of people don't take me very seriously, but on the other it's the reason I've been able to connect with so many different people. For me, the decision to include some of my inspirations in the album

artwork was easy. Lackluster wouldn’t exist without them and there's probably no better representation of who I am than that cover. I think Kendall did an amazing job bringing everything to life, when she sent me the final piece it was honestly more than I could've ever imagined.