Bradleigh-Ann Walker
Senior Content Editor
Singer/songwriter Audra Mae contributed her vocals to Swedish DJ Avicii’s recent single, “Addicted To You”.
However, Oklahoma-born Mae is no newbie to the music world.
She has two albums so far, The Happiest Lamb (2010) and Audra Mae And The Almighty Sound (2012), and has written an average of 100 songs a year since 2006. Some of those have been passed on to other musicians, like Britain’s Got Talent runner-up Susan Boyle, legendary songstress Celine Dion, and Avicii.
Mae says her songs are a mix of elements.
“They’re a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I would call it… gumbo. The roux, the gravy, the thing that gets cooked down — like the reduction — is basically pop with balls,” Mae tells Out in a recent interview.
Along that vein, Mae doesn’t want to write songs that present her as a victim of a break-up, or the typical girly topics.
“It’s not simple, pretty-girl stuff. And it’s also not victim–torch-singer stuff. I don’t want to be the chick that sings all the time about the guy that did her wrong, because all that’s doing is reinforcing that most guys suck. And that’s bullshit. There’s so many great guys, or great girls, or great people for you. I have to figure out how to spread that message,” she explains.
Her love for music may be genetic; Audra Mae is the great-great-niece of iconic actress and singer, Judy Garland.
“When people find that out, they’re like, ‘Oh, that makes sense’. When I had a smart mouth, my mom would say, ‘You’re just like Judy—a smart ass.’ And when I would do really well on stage, my grandfather would tell me, ‘I haven’t seen that since I saw Judy do her thing’,” Mae recalls. “[The connection is] far enough removed that people always hope I’m a little more related than I am. I was afraid people would think I was trying to use some bullshit to get somewhere, and I have a lot of pride. But now I feel like I’ve earned it.”
On her recent collaboration, Audra Mae admits that she’d never heard of Avicii when he first asked her to sing on the track.
“We were up all night, and we wrote a track, and he let me play my kazoo on it, so I thought he was the coolest thing ever. But I didn’t know who he was,” she says.
Mae is currently recording her third album.
Check out the music video for “Addicted To You” below.
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