Alt-Pop Breakout Artist Au/Ra on Taking Back Control of Her Career: ‘My Fingerprints Are Over Everything’
Categoria: Musica
Eight years after she emerged as a promising new voice, the 24-year-old's debut album is finally here.
Por Billboard | 22/06/2026
There was a moment, as experimental alt-pop singer Au/Ra entered her mid-teens, when her imagination seemed to lose its autonomy. Songwriting no longer came naturally; it was as though she’d forgotten how her music had come about in the first place. “I was successful to a certain degree, and I understand why a lot of people really struggle mentally when they get to that level,” the German-Antiguan artist (born Jamie Lou Stenzel) explains, speaking to Billboard U.K. over video call. “Because you start to think that’s the only thing that people value you for. I really needed to go to therapy and realise that I’m making music because I love it, and not to feel like I need to fulfill something.” Stuck in major label limbo – at age 16, the now-24-year-old was one of the youngest acts on RCA Records/Sony’s roster – she found her creative identity increasingly obscured when she became embroiled in a contractual dispute. Prior to this, multi-million streaming hits “Panic Room,” “Darkside” and “Emoji,” which echoed the brooding electro-pop of CHVRCHES and the nightmarish undercurrent that defined Grimes ’ Art Angels era or early Billie Eilish , had articulated a pop vision that felt incontrovertibly hers. Au/Ra was writing about the world through digital anxiety and distortion, inviting the rest of us in. The aftermath of that early promise, however, didn’t quite go to plan. Tension over the creative direction of her next steps as an artist meant that she was unable to release music for three years. She was forced to hit pause on the career she had built between Los Angeles and London to deal with the legal ramifications of her situation; touring and any sense of momentum suddenly all seemed a distant dream. These experiences now inform Au/Ra’s forthcoming debut album Heartcore (due June 26 via Polydor), where disorientation and emotional overload are often reframed as something mythic rather than merely personal. Inspired by her childhood hero Björk, she treats the project less like a traditional pop record and more like a living, universe through which she can rebuild on her own terms, incorporating elements of electronica, high-voltage hyperpop, grunge and beyond. An avid “anime nerd”, Au/Ra has always gravitated toward stories that transport her elsewhere. The creativity she has found in the medium has not only been a coping mechanism during the more difficult periods of her career, but a key source of inspiration for Heartcore , which, lyrically, follows a fantasy character as they freefall through a metaphorical dungeon door and then start to fight it out for survival. Their determination to keep moving forward serves as Au/Ra’s own symbolic representation of the resilience that has shaped her journey. “My fingerprints are over everything to do with this album,” Au/Ra says, adding that she handpicked her team from the ground up. It’s a level of personal investment reflected throughout the record, perhaps most poignantly in the refr