Enfnts Terribles

Shiny Danger

“Nice to meet you, I’m Jamie.” says a beautiful girl with colorful hair while shaking my hand. Au/Ra is accompanied by her father, who is also her manager. As her greeting gives away, her real name is not Aura. It’s Jamie Lou Stenzel. She tells me how she thought that Jamie Lou sounded more like a girl who grew up in a corn field making country music instead of alternative pop. Picking Au/Ra as her stage name was a last minute decision, but she’s really happy with it. And the story behind the name is one you’d never guess.

“This is going to sound so weird,” laughs Jamie as we discuss it. “I wrote a Lord of the Rings fan fiction when I was twelve and the main character’s name was Aura. I really identified with the character and I always loved the name Aura,” she begins. As regards the slash: at first they put it there because they didn’t want to confuse anyone with artists that are also called Aura, like Aura Dione. “But then we also realized that ‘Au’ is gold on the scientific periodic table, and ‘Ra’ is radium, so we played with that too. Gold is all shiny and radium is pure danger.”

Panic Room: an Anxiety Anthem

Before this cosy get-together with Au/Ra, I had looked up her repertoire. I noticed that her newest track ‘Panic Room’ is not only the best song she has released, it’s also the darkest. After thanking me for naming it her best so far, she explains it’s about anxiety. It’s about somebody who is too afraid to face themselves and runs into the panic room. There, they’re pretending that everything is okay, but really they’re not facing the problem. 

She has been through it herself. Especially when she was still in school. Now, the singer does online schooling, so that has helped her. “But I think it’s a constant thing,” Jamie tells us. “It comes up in high school the most, with fitting in and wondering what people think of you. A lot of teens have problems with that, so I thought it was something that should be talked about.”

Jamie does not only write about things that happened to her personally. She also writes about things that happened to people she’s close to – or about fiction. “Books, anime or tv shows can be an inspiration for a song. It literally can be so many different things. Sometimes it’s just a word that I feel like I want to elaborate on.” Panic room is an example of the latter.

“My dad wanted me to become a lawyer!”

Both of Au/Ra’s parents are musicians. I was wondering if she had always known she wanted to become one too. “I guess you could say that,” she answers. “I always watched my parents work in the studio, so that’s probably what made me want to do that in the first place. Although they never really wanted me to go into the music industry. My dad always told me to become a lawyer or something, because the music industry is so tough.” Nevertheless, she recorded a song with him at a very early age.

“I was ten at the time – I literally had begged him since I was eight, though. We recorded a cover of Rihanna’s ‘Stay’. Such a beautiful song. I think that’s when he realized how passionate I was about it. The whole process of recording and stuff, I was just so happy about it. And it was the first time he ever heard me sing properly, too. He actually cried, it was super cute.”

Jamie was already writing at that age. Not real songs, more like pieces of lyrics and ideas. Since her mom is a songwriter, she started writing with her. Her dad would make backing tracks for her. So that’s how she started making music: with her parents. “It was super cool to be in a safe zone before I started working with different people,” she concludes.

Blue? Green? Turquoise?

At the end of our conversation I ask about her hair color. I refer to it as blue, while she actually considers it green. “Like a turquoise. The hair dye is actually called ‘Emerald’, so that’s like a green,” she clarifies. She’s been trying out different colors… pink, purple, red and dark blue. “And then when I came across this green-turquoise-ish color, I preferred it. So I went with that. Also, green is my favorite color. I feel weird saying green now. Is it green? I’m questioning myself now!”  she laughs.

Whether her hair is green or blue: Au/Ra is a cool chick who knows what she wants, but stays with both feet on the ground. And I’m sure she’ll become big one day!

Listen to Au/Ra’s new single Panic Room and more on Spotify.

Photos by Julia Dubois Rosca for Enfnts Terribles