Sat outside a Next Door record shop in Dalston, I saw Ava rushing across the road, with all pleasantries exchanged and chit chat beginning, I was eager to delve further.

Having travelled during much of her younger life, which encompassed Ireland, Devon, Surrey and London, Ava had plenty of time to pursue hobbies, music being the main one. With influences such as GaGa, Britney Spears and Adele, the strong vocalist that Ava would become was almost predestined. “I was really into singing, like I remember getting a karaoke initially one Christmas and I was obsessed with Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Adele and Lily Allen, all of the sort of like mainstream pop artists at the time.”

She gives credit to her father: “My dad is in a band, actually, and I think growing up, seeing him play and listening to his music and just being around that, sort of really inspired me.

Ava has used songwriting as a way to express her angst through relationships, family problems, anxiety and life experiences, both positive and negative. She cites her childhood experiences, travelling around at a young age, as the reason she can get along with so many people.

This therapeutic release comes through in her tracks from her previous EP [see ‘Black Smoke’ and ‘Black Summer Babe’]: “It’s in those moments where you feel a bit scared, those are usually the moments in which you grow the most.” 

However, it’s especially present in her newest project, Big Beautiful Mess. “I can’t really hide. I’m not very good at hiding my emotions or anything like that, so it is, yeah…. The story’s there, if you go looking for it, you’ll probably start to understand a lot about me and what I’ve gone through.”

Big Beautiful Mess / Lost In The Woods

Touching on themes of youth, freedom and all the fun that comes with such things, Ava is exploring a new phase in her life and appreciating the change that we hear in her recent tracks. “It’s about taking in and embracing life,” she shares.

Speaking on songs ‘Big Beautiful Mess’ and ‘Lost in the Woods', “[they’re] kind of similar in the way that they’re sort of about freedom and, you know, the fine line between escapism and a healthy kind of release.”

No Man’s Land

“I think I wrote that song before him [her partner]. I was single, you know, living my best life, enjoying the freedom of not having a relationship, and really just appreciating girlhood and platonic friendships and love and how beautiful that can be as well.”

She continued, “It’s about going out with your girls and not giving a fuck about any man and not letting anyone get to you and not worrying, ‘oh, is he going to be pissed off while I’m out till five in the morning?’ None of that, just pure freedom and pure womanhood and girlhood. So that’s the song for the girlies.”

On the production of the song, Ava reminisced, “I wanted it to be quite trippy and quite psychedelic. That song I did with Dom Valentino, he’s an amazing, great producer, love the way he works. I like that one too because it’s just quite different from anything that I’ve made. It’s more of a vibe than a song in a way.”

What does this project mean to Ava? Since her first EP release, she has had two headline shows, supported Jalen N’Gonda on his 2025 UK tour and reached 1 million streams on her song ‘Try Me’.

Having two EPs out already, the question is, when can we expect an album? It might be a while, Ava had to say: “I wanted to create a journey as well. I didn’t just want to put one album out. I want it to be more of a this is where I started, and now we’re here, and this is where we’re going to go.”

However, she has the urge to continue creating, whether that is poetry, the visuals she creates for her videos or even her music. “I want to make as many albums as possible to be fair while I’m here.”

“I just want to tell my story, really. I feel like so many young people or people, especially young women, will relate to my story... for me, when I hear a song that I connect to, it just makes it all make sense, and it’s just a beautiful thing, you know, so that’s kind of my goal with it.”

“Life is my art and I just kind of reflect that into my music.”