All My Demons Greeting Me As A Friend

After hearing her lithe, fairytale-reminiscent songs, perhaps it wouldn't surprise you to learn that AURORA (born Aurora Aksnes) hails from a Norwegian city with a name translates to "Fjord of Lights." Or that when she was six, the future singer/songwriter was disciplined for convincing classmates that their school was overrun with talking mice. Or even that her first brush with making music was discovering a toy piano, and she managed to keep her hobby a secret from her parents until well into her teen years.

Now nineteen and on the cusp of releasing her debut full-length, All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend, AURORA's fantasies have only grown, inhabiting every corner of her music. A girl makes peace with her murderer and the inherit vulnerability of life in the haunting piano ballad 'Murder Song (5,4,3,2,1).' A runaway fades away into the wonder of nature over the course of "Runaway," her escape marked with harpsichord, live percussion, and an undeniable sense of wonder. And coupled with an anthemic swell of synths and AURORA's triumphant vocal, 'Running With the Wolves' makes tapping into one's lupine side seem not only plausible but downright irresistible.

Nowhere is the idea of overflowing visceral content more evident than her new single 'Conqueror,' where, against a percussive wave, she sings of someone longing to be rescued from "Broken mornings/broken nights/broken days in between." Written for fun one night in the studio with her bandmates (who she refers to as her "second family") AURORA calls the anthem a personal reminder-in addition to being one of the most fun songs in her catalogue to perform live.

AURORA prefers to swap weakness and sorrow for happiness, punctuating even the heaviest of topics with laughs and thoughtful tangents. Even her album title, a metaphor for making peace with your past, hints at a chance for not only redemption, but also joy amidst the darkness.