Auburn interview: La La La, Beluga Heights and more

Auburn is her first name, but it hasn’t always been – don’t bother asking her what it used to be. And her hit song “La La La” only paints half a picture of who she is a musician. But as the first female artist to join the ranks of the Beluga Heights label (Sean Kingston, Jason Derulo, Iyaz), the Minnesota native finds herself garnering plenty of attention even as she grapples with just what direction she wants her debut album to take in our Beatweek interview…

So just who is Auburn? For one thing, she’s the rare artist who, even after we’ve blown though our allotted time, all but insisted that we keep going until I’d had the opportunity to ask her about every topic in my notes. But any conversation about Auburn’s music has to start (but certainly not end) with her breakthrough hit single La La La. “I told everybody, that I wouldn’t sing anyone else’s lyrics,” she says of the fact that this is the only one of her songs which was originally penned by someone else. But after hearing La La La (which was penned by friend and labelmate Iyaz) and falling in love with it, she recorded it that same night. “It’s about a clingy guy, all in your face, in your space, and I just felt like it was just Auburn.”

The urban-pop song has enough of a meaty backbeat to it that it’s already been heard over the PA systems at NFL Football games. But if you’re expecting La La La to give you a full picture about what else you might be hearing from Auburn, those assumptions erased the minute you hear a song called Perfect Two, a gentle upbeat ballad which sees her vocals backed by nothing but acoustic guitar. And that’s before you even get to her rap videos on YouTube.

“We were in the studio one day and I heard those chords, and I just fell in love with it and I just started writing to it,” she says of Perfect Two, which could “possibly” end up being her next single, with the other candidate being of a different style altogether.

So why is Auburn’s music all over the map? “That’s because of what I listen to. I listen to a lot of different music. I don’t just listen to one sound or one genre. I’d say the only style that I don’t listen to is heavy metal. So in my iPod, you can see me walking around listening to Rascal Flatts or Nickelback, and people are surprised by it. But that’s what I’m interested in, is just music. Music is music. I don’t think that you should be confined to one sound, you know? So I think that all holds some type of effect on my way of writing.”

The genre-jumping nature of her music has left something of a quandary for Auburn and Beluga Heights label boss J.R. Rotem. “We have more than enough songs to make about two albums,” she says of her impending debut album. “But we’re both really picky. And because my sound is everywhere, I don’t want to confuse you or your ears, so we’re still working on figuring out what the album will be, figuring out the right sound. It’ll be done probably, if not late this year, early next year for sure.”

The partnership with Rotem dates back to 2007, when his brother spotted her MySpace page and wanted to know why she’d already racked up more than four million song plays on the site. That led to a trip from Minnesota to Los Angeles, and after they hit it off, “I did a song with JR that night. I’ve just been making music with him ever since then.”

The pairing has her in the position of being the first and so far only female artist signed to Beluga, a label whose early success has been otherwise dominated by male artists. But of Kingston, Derülo, Iyaz and the gang, she says “They treat me like I’m a little sister or a big sister. It’s more of a family at Beluga. It’s never felt like work when you walk in there. It’s always felt like a family. So I don’t feel any pressure or anything like that.”

Her newfound position in the spotlight is a big jump from the “painfully shy” child who was tagged with the nickname Wednesday by her family growing up because she rarely ever spoke.

“Back then it was just an issue with me feeling like I couldn’t trust anybody, I didn’t want to waste my words on people I felt didn’t deserve it. I was young. I just thought I knew a lot,” she says of a stage of her childhood which abruptly ended when her mother sat her down one day and explained that “she didn’t want me to grow up to be this rude kid.”

The adult Auburn is a far cry from that, spending significant time on Twitter interacting with her newfound fans and of course giving interviewers more time than they’re supposed to have with her. But despite her forthcoming nature, there’s one topic she has no intention of dishing on: the first name she was originally given. “My mom didn’t even name me. My cousin named me. I would tell you my original first name, but I’m not gonna do that. We changed it when I was a baby. It was back and forth, they argued about my name. It was horrible. I’m not even gonna put it out there.” Asked if she’s concerned that fans will begin a guessing game now that they know that Auburn wasn’t her originally her first name, she jokes “They won’t even guess it. It was really bad.”

Twitter bios are often posted in jest (Emmy host Jimmy Fallon lists himself as “astrophysicist”), but when Auburn lists herself as being a singer, songwriter, and graphic designer, she means it. “Before I even linked up with Warner and Beluga, I was making all my profiles and pages,” she says of her own internet presence. ”I’m so hands on, it’s ridiculous. I’m hands on with everything that has to do with visual and anything that has to do with design. So let’s say we’re trying to work out a MySpace layout, it’ll all come from ideas they’ll pull from me and see what I want.”

Although she’s already amassed a war chest of studio material, her impending tour dates opening for Derülo won’t interfere with her ability to continue generating new demos. “I have a mic that I carry around that connects directly to my MacBook, so any time I get an idea I’ll just record it in GarageBand and probably send it through to J.R. and ask him what he thinks. I’ll still get a lot done while I’m on the road.” While the silence of a hotel room is her preferred recording locale on the road, “I can record in the car and it still works out.”

Auburn’s live shows have thus far consisted of little more than her own live voice along with backing music coming from an iPod connected to the venue’s sound system. But asked if she plans to keep it that simple forever, she says “Heck no, I’m gonna bring in a band, I’m gonna bring in fireworks. I’ll bring in as much as I can to be as entertaining as I can.”

So is Auburn surprised to see her debut single blowing up already? “Of course,” she says of the fact that the song has carved out a spot in the top fifteen on the iTunes pop chart. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I didn’t have faith in the song. But I didn’t think it would do that well so soon. So of course I feel overwhelmed by it. That’s kind of freakish.”

How does she keep it all in balance? “I’m really spiritual. I pray before I do a show. I pray after I do a show. I pray before I even do an interview.”

And about that debut record, whose release date, release year, and even its next single are not yet set in stone? “Because I have so many different songs, I feel like I’ll give you a little bit of everything.”

Learn more at CallMeAuburn.com • iTunes • Twitter • Facebook

Iyaz on tourmate Justin Bieber: “that little dude is strong”

Iyaz, whose full length debut album is due in August on the strength of his current hit singles Replay and Solo, and a just released a new EP entitled So Big, is embarking on a tour with Justin Bieber and Sean Kingston – and he recently spoke with Beatweek about his plans for the tour: “I think the tour is going to be crazy. I just can’t wait. I’ve got some tricks planned up my sleeve for Sean and them.” Of the fact that he was recently seen on YouTube being sucked into a playful headlock by the diminutive Bieber, Iyaz told Beatweek “that little dude is strong. He caught me off guard last time. Fool me once, can’t fool me twice.”

Full list of upcoming tour dates:

• June 30thDes Moines, IA @ Wells Fargo Center
• July 5th Grand Prairie, TX @ Nokia Theatre at Grand Prairie
• July 6th Tulsa, OK @ BOK Center
• July 8th Broomfield, CO @ 1stBANK Center
• July 13th Everett, WA @ Comcast Arena at Everett
• July 14th Portland, OR @ Rose Garden
• July 17th Oakland, CA
• July 18th Reno, NV
• July 20th Los Angeles, CA @ Nokia Theatre LA Live
• July 21st Paso Robles, CA @ California Mid-State Fair
• July 28th Kansas City, MO @ Sprint Center
• July 29th N Little Rock, AR @ Verizon Arena
• July 31st Memphis, TN @ FedEx Forum
• August 1st Lafayette, LA @ Cajundome
• August 8th Charlotte, NC @ Time Warner Cable Arena
• August 9th Duluth, GA @ Arena at Gwinnett Center
• August 11th Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena
• August 12th Indianapolis, IN @ Conesco Fieldhouse
• August 14th Columbus, OH @ Schottstein Center
• August 15th Auburn Hills, MI @ The Palace of Auburn Hills
• August 25th Albany, NY @ Times Union Center
• August 27th Providence, RI @ Dunkin Donuts Center
• August 28th Newark, NJ @ Prudential Center
• August 29th Syracuse, NY @ New York State Fair
• August 31st New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
• September 1st Manchester, NH @ Verizon Wireless Arena
• September 3rd Essex Junction, VT @ Coca Cola Grandstand
• September 4th Allentown, PA @ The Great Allentown Fair
• September 5thTimonium, MD @ Maryland State Fair

Iyaz reveals release date, title for debut album

Four months after releasing his “Replay” debut single, rising pop star Iyaz has finally set a date for releasing his debut album. The full length record will see the light of day on June 8th according to his people, and it’s also been revealed that the album will share the same “Replay” title as the single; it had previously reported that the album would be entitled “My Life.”

While fans will have to wait another month and a half to get their hands on the album, in the mean time they will get to hear him perform with Charice on her song “Pyramid” on the Oprah show on May 7th.

Iyaz, the British Virgin Islands native and current resident of Florida, is signed to J.R. Rotem’s Beluga Heights label. Beatweek interviewed his fellow Beluga Heights labelmate Jason Derulo earlier this year.