Interview: Avalon Paints a Sonic Cityscape with ‘permanent californian’

Underground LA artist Avalon reflects on intergenerational memory, East LA culture, and full-circle moments in her new EP ‘permanent californian.’

Stream: ‘permanent californian’ – Avalon

Turning the ignition key, Avalon revs her Chevrolet Impala, driving forth into the atmosphere around her as she paints a sonic narrative of Los Angeles.

Driving up the Interstate 5 freeway from Orange County, an evening glow shines through the windows as the lights illuminate a neon “Psychic” sign off the highway – a warm dusk fading as light shimmers above the horizon line. The urban landscape is infused with film dust as she exists “living on video,” foreshadowing the audio-visual persona behind her artistic curation for permanent californian. With an underground edge saturated with indie, post-punk, and electronic roots, she is influenced by the music that inspired her. Avalon smiles, “I find myself getting lost in the past and present to define what I think is timeless,” she shares with Atwood Magazine, expressing the medium she intends to use for her upcoming soundscapes.

permanent californian, out July 18th on KRO Records, is a five-track EP that invites listeners to lose themselves in time. “Harder to reach than god” kicks off the joyride with soothing synths that later lead into a seamless feel-good drum pattern, layered with melodic undertones for a smooth listening experience. The track is written by Avalon and co-produced with Grammy-nominated star Chris Greatti, known for his work with artists such as Aurora, Yeule, Yves Tumor, and Willow, among others. Fading into “forever,” the runner-up sets the mood with an electronic drum pad, creating grooves with a nostalgic yet futuristic feel. Avalon smiles, “I keep finding myself going back to movements such as vaporwave, which was a very big thing when I was a teenager, and thinking about how it was futuristic to me to hear one snippet of a song,” she explains, describing her quest to blend genres into a single narrative.

I need you somehow
Don’t think you’ll slow down
I want you right now
You always give me the runaround
The runaround
The runaround
The runaround

Forever and ever and ever and ever
Forever and ever and ever and ever
Forever and ever and ever and ever
Forever and ever and ever and ever

Building on the energy, “so good” offers heavy guitar distortion, an alternating tempo, and filtered vocals that resonate with a gritty, infectious attitude. Uplifting the mood, “Scream” introduces layered acoustic guitar and an ethereal mix of vocals that create an airy atmosphere. Closing out the EP is the title track, “dedication hour,” which she visually directed and edited in its entirety. This timeless standout sets the scene and state of mind for a permanent californian universe.

But she don’t want to fuck with you no more
‘Cause you don’t know a thing about hardcore
She gets in my car, turns the radio on to Art Laboe
She don’t wanna fuck with you no more
‘Cause you don’t know a thing about hardcore
She gets in my car and the radio goes

Ooh, dedication hour
Ooh, dedication hour…

Avalon discussed her dedication hour EP universe with Atwood Magazine and how full-circle moments have shaped a significant part of her story. She shares that her music videos can be processed similarly to film – ever-changing and overlaid with messages. Supporting her vision, Estevan Oriol drives alongside her with his representational vision of documenting Chicano history in photography on the streets of East LA. “Dedication Hour” refers to Art Laboe’s show, a radio host who revolutionized dedication songs on the air, cementing his cultural relevance.

Read on as Avalon shares her journey in creating her latest work.

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:: stream/purchase permanent californian here ::

:: connect with Avalon here ::

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A CONVERSATION WITH AVALON

​Avalon: Being a fan of music is where my journey began, and where I will continue to drive my craft. I’ve been really privileged to have experienced so many incredible live shows and different subcultures through those shows. That’s always contributed to the feeling that I wanted music to be my life’s work. I’m trying to make music for fun and remember what it was like when I first started making music, experimenting, and vibe-questing. That’s the work ethic. Being a fan of music is what comes first and foremost, and I think that’s always going to drive.

Avalon: That is a seminal experience for me, experiencing music through culture, not necessarily through an algorithm. No shade to the algorithms. Numerous things are happening at the same time. Cultural nuance can get lost over time, but when you’re immersed in it and experiencing it, it’s a lot more nuanced than a label can ever convey. So, I make what I want to hear.

Avalon: What I’m a fan of influences me. I can never say, Oh, this thing influenced me, or I had this reference. I try to stay away from that, because then it stifles creativity. I suppose I wouldn’t say I aimed for a sound or an aesthetic for permanent californian. I think more important to me was a narrative and a through line of a vibe, or ethos. I want to paint the picture in as many ways as I could possibly paint it. It was my main concern. That, in turn, bleeds into the visuals, which are, to me, just as important as the music. I make music, but I also feel like it’s just another way of the entire project; I’m drawing from a lot of different references to paint that picture in a lot of different mediums, and I’m just very involved in it. I paint a picture of my experience, my life, or these moods as I’m trying to capture these feelings. I just don’t want them to go away, and I want to have something to look back on.

​Avalon: The definition of futuristic is really interesting. How can we really define what that is? I’m very interested in post-modernism, specifically the concept of cultural flattening, which ties into what I was discussing previously, and examining things through the lens of TikTok. Become increasingly homogenized and lose their characteristics as they’re absorbed into a conglomerate, consumer-driven machine.  I keep finding myself going back to like movements such as, like vapor wave, which was a very big thing when I was a teenager, and thinking about how it was futuristic to me to hear like one snippet of a song that just completely was forgotten about from the 80s, and to be repeated over and over and over again in this cathartic way, and how it was almost a Warholian expression. All of this really fascinates me, like time. I find myself getting lost in the past and present to define what I think is timeless. That’s where I find my inspiration: trying to do what I think is right. To some, it might feel retro, or it might feel futuristic, but to me, it’s just defining what I would look back on and think of as timeless, or capture that energy.

Avalon: “Scream” was specifically less about fame and more about referencing, sort of not referencing, but it was more about innocence and joie de vivre, and the person behind the persona. I learned a lot about myself through writing the song, because it did start as an analogy for how I felt in a relationship that I was in at the time. So it almost felt like I was holding someone captive. But then it evolved into a deeper internal question of “what is experience?” It evolved into a deeper question about identity. So in that song, I’m really just reflecting on identity in general, and how ephemeral I feel identity is, and how also you put your identity into other people when you’re so close to them. Identity in the term, in regard to a persona as well. So I just don’t feel like there’s any separation between myself and any personas. So that’s kind of maybe why it’s hard for me to come out of my shell. More often than not, as an artist, I’ve been concerned about presenting a caricaturized version of myself, just as I said, to paint a more vivid picture. You have many personas that you carry throughout life. You’re a certain type of person with your family, then you’re a certain type of person with your boyfriend, or you’re a certain type of person with your friends on stage.

Avalon: I conceptualized, edited, and shot most of the video. That was the first time I ever did anything like that. All the people whom I thank for the additional shooting are just my friends. I couldn’t shoot by myself. The video captures what my life genuinely feels like, or the aspects of my life and surroundings that are really special, and a really special mood, which I want to keep and bottle up. For that video, I took most of the footage in my house and my neighborhood. I always just want to feel like my life. I fixate on the little beauty things in my surroundings. Directing that video really opened my eyes to less. I also learned how to edit that week. But from working on music, I understood the editing software in this really intuitive way. It really opened my eyes to the possibilities of video. I’m working on more videos, which I’m very excited about for the next new releases.

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​Avalon: Staying current with new music is extremely helpful. Most of my contemporaries and the musicians that I hang out with aren’t making the same genre, but they’re running in the same crowd. And if you listen to my DJ sets, you’ll also find them extremely eccentric; I now play hard tech. I played rap for years. I still play rap to this day. I’m into a lot of different types of music, so I also constantly stay up on what’s cool, what’s not, and what’s happening, especially with the youth. I think it’s funny because there’s this TikTok propaganda that the kids are trying to push where they’re like, “oh, you’re too old,” not me personally, but if you’re like, over the age of 21, then you shouldn’t be going to underground shows listening to underground artists. But I just think that’s ridiculous. I also grew up in the punk scene. There were always old punks who attended the same shows as the kids. They just weren’t in the pit. So I guess you know that that’s how I stay current.

Avalon: So Art Laboe is a really iconic figure, and Estevan Oriol. They’re both really iconic to Chicano culture. Art Laboe had a radio show called Dedication Hour, which is where the song gets its name. The connection has really been more of those things that I feel really blessed, and it’s beautiful that you can connect with people inter-generationally. I can’t overstate the importance of dedication hour, especially in introducing so many generations of people to oldies. Those are two goats, as the kids say. And you know, I had always wanted to work with Estevan, and I met him at an opening. And just remember, he moved water so we could shoot together. He got me a job. He wanted to shoot. I was really excited that this legend, whom I had admired for his work growing up, wanted to shoot. From the moment we met, it took us probably six months to actually plan a shoot before permanent californian.

But the day we got together, I remember my dad came with me too, because he’s a big fan of Estevan and wanted to come and support, give me a ride, since it was in Venice Beach, and it was far. We were all on the set together, and we received the news that Art Laboe had passed away. It’s hard to explain how much that one really hit in the gut. Art Laboe is like a Mister Rogers for the Chicano community. We came around to planning the album cover. I wanted to continue the vision and build upon it. And I thought, who better to ask than Estevan? He was available to shoot. I wasn’t even going to put ‘dedication hour’ on the record. And then I had to include that, because it really tells a story. It was a full-circle moment.

Avalon: It was more like a coincidence and a universal feeling. I just knew whatever Estevan was going to take was going to be iconic, because he’s so amazing. Then I got this vision in my head. I was remembering driving from OC to LA. I would always drive with my dad from OC to LA. Before Google Maps, you got there by the landmark. This “Psychic” was right off the freeway, it’s where I shot the cover, but it’s this little building, and you can see it on the freeway. When you drove at night, there were these big neon signs that read, “Psychic,” and it was just like a tiny little freeway exit, really dangerous too. I just had a vision of myself shooting there, because it was always important to me when I was growing up. It would also show up in my dreams. So that was the inspiration.

Avalon: The connection has really been more of those things that make me feel truly blessed and beautiful, where you can connect with people across generations. What’s going on with the youth, and also what’s being created by older people and people of all ages? Still, so much of my art is just about documenting in this weird way. That’s what drives me. Documenting and capturing energy. I’m the type of person who loves to take pictures and videos. I always have my camera; I literally have it right here. I was shooting today.

Avalon: Getting as deep in my vibe and a vibe as possible, vibe questing, as I like to say, just going as far into my interests and living into my fantasy as possible. Then, trying to be prolific about coming out of it with work and documentation. That’s how I’m going to continue. I’m just concerned with pushing myself as far as I can go and seeing it. I have the mini DV cam. So what’s next? 18 millimeter?

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​Avalon: I haven’t announced it yet, but I’m releasing a Deluxe version of permanent californian. I felt like I wanted to keep releasing music. Still, I’m also working on the album, which I do have, which will be a little bit more of a departure in the mood of permanent californian,  that really painted the picture and also kind of completed the thought of permanent Californian that I didn’t want to leave and not be able to return to. I wanted to add them to the project. I’m really excited to put that out and expand the permanent californian universe. I’m working on an album, which, as I mentioned, will be a little different-sounding, which people probably do expect. I like to quote Korupt from Tha Dogg Pound, he said, “It’s so much heat, it’s hard for us to pick the first single, but it doesn’t matter, because we’re underground. There’s no right way to move.”

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:: stream/purchase permanent californian here ::

:: connect with Avalon here ::

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