Song Exploder - AURORA - Runaway

Episode Date: June 30, 2021

AURORA is a singer and songwriter from Norway, who released her first EP in 2015, when she was 19 years old. It featured the song, "Runaway" and after it came out Aurora went on to win Norwegian Grammys for Best New Artist and Best Pop Artist. And she played the voice of the North Wind in Disney’s Frozen 2. This year, six years after that debut EP came out, Aurora’s song "Runaway" became a huge hit on TikTok. As of this recording, between YouTube and Spotify, "Runaway" has been streamed over half a billion times. In this episode, Aurora looks back at how the song first began, and how it evolved over time, from the demo to the final version. For more, visit songexploder.net/aurora

You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made. I'm Rishi Kesh Hirwe. Aurora is a singer and songwriter from Norway, who released her first EP in 2015 when she was 19 years old. It featured the song Runaway, and after it came out, Aurora went on to win Norwegian Grammys for Best New Artist and Best Pop Artist, and she played the voice of the North Wind in Disney's Frozen, too. This year, six years after that debut EP came out, Aurora's song Runaway became a huge hit on TikTok. As of this recording, between YouTube and Spotify, Runaway has been streamed over half a billion times. In this episode, Aurora looks back at how the song first began and how it evolved over time, from the demo to the final version. My name is Aurora. I was around 11 years old when I first started writing Runaway.

I was living very happily in my childhood home. It's on the west coast of Norway and it's very nice here, it's very quiet. You really have the space and time to kind of dream yourself away. So I just sat down at my piano and played and I wrote. When I started writing Runaway, I had a story quite clear in my mind. When I was younger, I struggled quite a lot

with understanding people around me, especially the part where people kind of lie about their current state of mind, because we like to pretend that we're happier than we are. And I feel like people fear to open up about whatever troubles us. So I just wanted to write a song about how we run away with our emotions rather than to face. them and ask our family and friends for help, it becomes so much easier once we share what lies within us because then we realize that it's perfectly normal, but we never get the chance to ever understand that because we never tell anyone about what's going on inside. And I guess I just thought about that quite a lot as a child for some reason.

I remember the day I wrote Runaway, I was listening to the ocean, the very first line of the song. I was listening to the ocean. And I am looking at it right now. The ocean to me is kind of like human beings. It's so mysterious and it's so deep and dangerous and beautiful, which is how I feel about people. I was listening to the ocean.

I saw face in the sand. But when I picked it up, then it vanished away from my hands. When I started writing Runaway, I was going through grief for the first time in my life. And this experience really inspired me. And in the first verse, you can hear that I'm missing someone. Because when you miss someone so badly in your heart, you kind of see their face everywhere. and I just wanted to write about this feeling as well as I could. And I think that's what I mean with, I saw a face in the sand.

And when I picked it up, then it vanished away from my hand. And I was running far away. Would I run off the world someday? That was something different the first time I wrote A Runaway. I think even it didn't have any words, if I remember correctly. I just had like la-di-da-da-da-da because I'm very inspired by Norwegian folk music. There's one type that's really sad and it's just really beautiful. It sounds like a lullaby but a really sad one.

It's kind of like... That da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-m... That's a good night lullaby that you would usually sing to your child. But it's kind of sad, you know. It's kind of, it's beautiful. I think that's my biggest source of inspiration. You can hear it in the melodic universe. I had a dream I was seven, climbing my way in a tree. I saw peace of heaven waiting impatient for me.

The first time I ever showed anyone runaway was about five years later. December 2012, the school asked me to sing for a little ceremony in the end of the year. Someone filmed it and put it online and then my management saw that video somehow. And they messaged me, I think, if I ever would consider me. meeting them and becoming an artist. And first I said no, but then my mother actually said to me that I should give it a chance because when I sing for her, she feels both sadness and happiness at the same time. And it's good to have things in life that wakes up these emotions. The world is trying to kind of shut down, I guess. So I think I just played it to

a producer called Magnus Skylstad and we made our first demo in 2013. I was listening to the ocean. I saw face in sand. But when I picked it up that it vanished away from my hand dark. Oh, that's so weird to hear. I haven't heard this version since the day I recorded it, I can hear that my accent in English, well, it's still very there when I speak still today, but I remember people telling me to kind of work on it. And I can hear that my timing is quite bad. That's very funny. I always knew from the very first day I stepped a toe into the studio, how I wanted the music to sound to kind of reflect.

the coldness from the country where I was from the original seed of why the song was written is quite cold. So I wanted the sounds to sound cold. And also I know that my voice is quite natural and folky, so I thought I could add some modern sounds to kind of make an interesting mix. Magnus, the picture was a painting of you, and for a moment I thought you were here, but then again, it wasn't true. Magnus, he is very good at listening, and I think it's very rare to be a young female in the music industry, and to find a man that kind of listened to you and had respect for your wishes. It's a very good and respectful a relationship and I'm very grateful for it. And I was dancing in the...

This emptiness inside my heart has been there from the start. I've forgotten about that part. That was how I wrote the song and if you can tell I'm switching from like a waltz beat from 3 out of 4. I'm switching to 4 4. And when my first ever show came along and we had to play this song live, I remembered just me and my band back then. It was too hard for us to enter the last chorus with a new rhythm. And it just ended up sounding weird.

So I just wrote a new mid-late during rehearsals and then I just kept it. A lot of things happened in 2014. had a record deal by then and I got asked to make an EP. So I re-recorded Runaway Winter 2014 and then I knew what I wanted the song to do and be. I had really learned that my biggest strength, I guess, is my voice and I knew that I should use it as much as I can. So you can hear all these voices and choirs all around my leading vocals. In the ocean, I saw face in the sand, but when I picked it up then it vanished away from my hands done.

In the very beginning, the man that you can hear is actually Magnus himself. He can sing quite deep, which is nice for me, especially when we play live. But yeah, that's me and Magnus. It's kind of like mysterious and dark and it reminds me of trolls in the mountains just humming in the wind, you know. I just love the mood. It felt very nice to let go of the piano. I felt like I only needed my voice and then some kind of deep sounds to accompany me. I love drums, but I'm much more a fan of drums that feels ancient and big that you could play in the circle.

around the fire, if you know what I mean. And I've always hated traditional drums, high hats and like a normal snare. And I just wanted the drums to also mirror this dark and lost feeling. I feel like whoever is playing it is lost in a deep well. But the guitar, it must have been played by Od Martin, another producer from Bergen, and he plays the guitar very well and it has an excellent voice.

And you can hear that it's a bit like weird a sounding. It's because the song was a bit faster, but I asked for it to be lowered in tempo, so we had to stretch out the guitar sound rather than just playing it again. But it made this kind of cool effect that I kind of like. But Martin and Magnus and myself, we made my first album together

and then they just joined my band because they had a sense of belonging to my music also, to our music. To me, that synth represent this being getting closer to you, like, boom, boom, boom. I wanted the meaning in the verses to be reflected by the music in a way that enhances what you want to run away from, this dark and haunting feeling. And in the pre-courses, you can hear the pattern stepping up and getting more frequent. Bump, bum, bum, bum, bum. That also to me represents that this being is kind of running faster,

and you're stepping up the pace trying to get away from it, but it's right there behind you, no matter how fast you run. And all this time I'm in secret to myself. Things are on the farest place on my shelf. And also this deep feeling to me made it so easy and beautiful to really open up and make it feel like you're flying in the choruses. Take me home where I belong. It's one of those lines that makes more sense to me the older I get.

Because the longer you get from your birth, the more you long to get back to whatever that was. It just felt beautiful and I'm. heartbreaking to say to someone, take me home. It's just so simple and you ask for so little, but still it's such a big need to have and it just felt heartbreaking. Also in the last chorus, you can hear this male choir and that's also Ad Martin and Magnus, just shouting their lungs out. And I remember looking at them and being very touched. by how they gave everything.

I was very moved by it. What I wanted the song to do to me, and that's why I added the ending, with a lot more emotions and kind of velocity in the vocals. Were you like on your knees? You're just begging for someone to hold you. And I really wanted to reflect at grandness. I've never thought about home as a location ever.

Home to me is what I know and away is what you don't know. The unsure and the unknown. Sometimes you're around people or you do things and suddenly you look in the mirror and you don't even recognize this version of yourself and I hate that feeling. Luckily, I don't have it often, but home is also just when you know that you're in a place in your life and you're surrounded by people. And you're doing things that make sense with who you are, who you really are. And then it feels safe and home. And now here's Runaway by Aurora in its entirety.

Visit a dream I was seven I saw a piece of heaven Waiting in pain I was running far away Would I run off the world someday Nobody know I was dancing in the rain I felt alive and I can't

Make it anymore Picture was a painting of you And for a moment I thought you I have Visit songexploder.net slash Aurora to learn more You'll find links to buy or stream runaway and you can watch the music video.

I have a new album of my own coming out on April 24th. It's been about 15 years since I last put out a full length, and this is the first one that'll be out under my own name, Rishi Kesh Her Way. I started making Song Exploder when I was feeling lost in my own music career. And then for over a decade, I've gotten to have these incredible conversations about the process of making music, talking to other artists, and it made me completely rethink my relationship to music and my way of writing songs. And this album is the product of all of that.

It features contributions from some of my favorite artists, including some folks that you may have heard on this podcast, like Iron and Wine, Kevin Morby, Vagabon, Fenlily, and the producer Phil Weinrobe. I'm going to be on tour playing in cities across the U.S. starting in April, and I'm trying to bring the spirit of the podcast with me. So every show that I'm playing will begin with a conversation about the album with a different amazing guest moderator in each city,

like Adam Scott, Samin Nod. Rossrat, Jason Manzukas, Josh Molina, Minjin Lee, Ken Jennings, John Roderick, Austin Cleon, and more. They're all going to be my conversation partners on stage, and then I'll play with my band. The album is called In the Last Hour of Light, and the first couple songs are out now. You can listen to the music and get tickets for the shows on my website, rishikash.co, or just go to songexploder.net slash live. That's songexploder.net slash live. Thanks.

This episode was made by me, with editing help from Tini Lieberson and Casey Deal, artwork by Carlos Lerma, and music clearance by Kathleen Smith. Song Exploder is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a network of independent, listener-supported, artist-owned podcasts. You can learn more about our shows at Radiotopia.fm. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Rishi Hereway, and you can follow the show at Song Exploer. You can also get a Song Exploder t-shirt at Songexploader.net slash shirt.

I'm Rishi Kesh Hereway. Thanks for listening.