What sparked the concept behind INNOVATIONS?
All writings about A.I. Pros and cons.
The title track imagines a hopeful future, do you lean more toward optimism or warning?
Sometimes I look optimistically at the future, but then we have all these leaders who start wars, people who have no morals, bigots screaming in our streets, and on top of all that: climate change.
How did you approach writing about real-world tragedies like Nova?
Since the song NOVA has no lyrics, we chose to depict what happened on that horrific morning as the music festival draws to a close. That’s why we chose a typical techno song that ends with the attack itself.NOVA has exactly the same beat (146bpm) as GENERATION Z so the transition is smooth.
Generation Z opens the record, what made it the right starting point?
They are the ones who will take over after this mess we have created.
Where do you draw the line between protest and performative activism in One Trick Pony?
If Greta hadn’t been famous as a baby, this would never have happened. A normal “Svensson” would never have allowed their child to skip school for so long and completely ignore their education. And the media loves these kinds of sob stories. I think most people thought it was okay at first, but then it completely went out of style. And when I heard about the term “ONE TRICK PONY”, it was easy to write a song about this.
AURA has roots in Swedish rock musicals, how do those beginnings still shape you?
The different rock musicals also had different themes, the lyrics were in Swedish and our audience was both schoolchildren and older people. I loved playing on the bigger stages like the Konserthuset in Gothenburg, Södra Teatern in Stockholm etc. The music we make today would do fantastically well on a bigger stage, framed with the messages of the different songs. A bit like Genesis’ fantastic “The lamb…” where Peter Gabriel portrayed different characters. Or why not “THE WALL”…
You’re already working on CELEBRATIONS, how does it differ in spirit from INNOVATIONS?
CELEBRATIONS is our 10th album with English lyrics and will contain both brand new songs, re-recordings of favorites + some old material that has not been released.
What can fans expect from the live shows this October?
We will certainly play most and perhaps the most popular songs from the new album. And of course also some from our previous albums. 2 hours of wonderful music by AURA are promised.
