AVIV SEARCHES FOR AN ESCAPE ON NEW SINGLE “RUNNING SHOES”
DINE ALONE RECORDS
17-year-old indie prodigy AVIV has released a new single titled “Running Shoes” which she explains “represents an escape. [Running Shoes] symbolize a gateway to comfort and sanity. In this case, to someone who provides these amenities. It’s the impulsive desire to just put your shoes on and run to safety.” The new single is joined by a music video today, directed by Ryan Faist also known as the artist boy wonder.
“Running Shoes” is her third video in partnership with Faist, following “Blue Eyed Boy” which portrays the evolution of a 300-day rollercoaster relationship and “Jimmy’s House” about anxiety caused by physical distance. This year, she toured North America with joan and Hariette. In 2022, she released her debut EP, Drowning in the Culture, available on DSPs HERE and vinyl HERE. A culmination of work put together during the complexity of life experienced in the pandemic, it tackles issues of social isolation, depression, technology, love, and heartbreak. In support, she toured across Canada with Imagine Dragons, and opened for Giant Rooks, Isaac Dunbar, and K.Flay; played POP Montreal, ZONA Music Festival, and M for Montreal.
AVIV is a remarkable talent, with support from popular Spotify playlists including Indie Pop, Pop Sauce, and Young & Free among others. Her track “Black Coffee” emerged on Spotify’s New Music Friday and attracted widespread critical acclaim, illuminating her keen melodic instincts and vivid storytelling. With millions of streams across platforms, she continues to effortlessly lead her youthful fanbase, building a purely art and expression driven brand.
The singer and songwriter retrofits those warm and fuzzy first-time feelings you wish you could hold on to forever, penning the kind of affecting and arresting D.I.Y. pop that’s both nostalgic and prescient, like ‘90s alternative born post-social media. “I’m a teenager who still gets excited about little things, and loves to overanalyze my emotions and put them into music,” she says. “I try to be true to myself with everything I do. The more AVIV the music is, the better.” Her style of vintage visuals and background distortion is like getting lost in an ambrosial daydream, and that’s exactly what she intends while co-producing each track. Using a combination of grade-school-inspired props and an array of instruments in her live set, her sound takes simple pop beats and layers them with breezy, well-developed vocals to create perfectly arranged, uncluttered ballads.
At age 6, she began to develop her voice as she studied piano, but her journey as a performer started in film, cast in roles for shows like American Gothic, L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, and Milk Kids. At age 10, AVIV shifted her sights to music, joining a band and learning to play guitar on her brother’s red electric Les Paul. AVIV grew up in a big family of four siblings, including her twin brother. Every Saturday, they went record shopping together on Queen Street in Toronto, picking up classics by Fleetwood Mac, Radiohead, and more. “Most families went to the mall,” she recounts. “We went to the record store together.” Casual poetry transformed into songwriting as she regularly played her early compositions for friends and family. Throughout high school, she obsessed over the likes of Clairo, Lorde, and Lana Del Rey. “They’re my three moms,” she jokes.
Working with her big brother’s friend Jackson Follemer as co-producer, she regularly took the train to Montreal to visit them at McGill University and started to record music in 2020. Following “Cookie Dough,” her independent single “Girls In Red” claimed coveted real estate on playlists such as indie pop & chill and eventually amassed hundreds of thousands of streams. “Frontlawn” and “Lonely Bitch” only increased her momentum with consistent organic growth. “Music became a way to convey my emotions,” she reveals. “Since I won’t even talk to my friends about a lot of these things, it’s an outlet for me to talk about things.” She leaves off, “If my song takes you somewhere emotional, there’s nothing better to me. My music makes me answer my own questions – I hope they do the same thing for you.”
AVIV
[Single/Video]
(Dine Alone Records)
Release Date: September 27, 2023
Artist Links
Single Artwork Credit: AVIV | Background Photo Credit: Ryan Faist
