Interview with Lola Aviva: ‘There’s a part of me that wants to be an Elvis impersonator!’

Lola Aviva, a singer-songwriter from London, will release her debut EP ‘So it Begins’ in mid-2024.

Aviva has been writing and performing her own music in her three-piece band for over five years and has gained a reputation as a rising star on the city’s vibrant music scene, drawing her sound from a range of influences, including soul, indie, blues, jazz and pop: ‘‘Aviva’ is my middle name. Abineri, my surname, could be Spanish or Austrian, but everyone thinks it’s Italian – my family lineage is a bit confusing!,’ she said.

She describes the EP as ‘a fling within an EP – with a beginning, middle and an end’: ‘It will include ‘If Only’, which has brass and is really classy, ‘No More Promises’, it’s funky, feel good and a souley thing, and three more tracks,’ she said. ”If Only’ is a kind of Peggy Lee song, it’s swinging and jazzy, you can imagine her sitting there in a jazz bar and singing. The ‘if only’ is ‘if only this could work, if you could change, if I could change’. It started with my playing around with the guitar. I was upset and had a guitar, it’s a weapon! Dating a musician is like dating a comedian but with less laughs! ‘No More Promises’, it’s a fun song, a bit ‘Midnight at the Oasis’ then turns into kind of a soulful funk vibe. It came from the sentiment “You’re amazing but I don’t know if I trust you yet, I don’t want to make more promises I can’t keep”.’

‘I was feeling my 80’s Debbie Harry fantasy, mixed with a gypsy vibe’

In August, she released the single ‘So Weak I Cried’, which is as bouncy as it is defiant, with its hooky guitars and warm, soulful vocals: ‘It kind of came out of the blue, it was a bit of a red herring for me, I don’t know why but I was feeling my 80’s Debbie Harry fantasy, mixed with a gypsy vibe,’ she said. ‘I liked the sentiment (about crying over a guy whilst asserting yourself and taking power back at the same time) and I thought the chorus was so good, it was going round in my head. I like how you say it’s defiant because that’s exactly what I wanted.’

As the track goes: “So weak I cried, ‘cos I loved a guy and I don’t know why I broke down and cried.”

She writes all of her songs on her beautiful green guitar (pictured top) and I ask her how long she’s had it: ‘I’m obsessed with her,’ she said, laughing. ‘I write all my songs on her, I start with the lyrics, the poetry, just fiddling around with the guitar. She’s a PRS semi-acoustic.’ I ask if “she” has a name, given that a lot of players name their guitar and she laughs: ‘She doesn’t have a name, that’s too much pressure, but you have to give them a personality. I was very lucky, my dad got me this guitar secondhand when I was 18. He found it, it’s got a slim neck, which makes it very jazzy-sounding.’

Musical ability clearly runs in the family as her father also writes songs and was an actor and  performer; he played Frank-n-Furter in the first British tour of The Rocky Horror Show, a role he subsequently played in the West End and ‘over three thousand times on several tours of Australia and New Zealand’. ‘So I definitely get my campy gusto from him!,’ she said. ‘I’ve always sung, I was a whistling baby. I taught myself the ukelele. I sang to my dad and stuff – I always wanted an audience! My dad is very musical, he’s self-taught and also wrote musicals. He had his old wind-up gramophone, so I grew up on Eartha Kitt, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald – all the old crooners and jazz singers. Songwriters I love are Carole King and Leonard Cohen, he’s the best. You can quote Leonard Cohen all the time! Then there are modern American bands like Khruangbin, they play psychedelic rock but not jazzy. I like such an eclectic range of music. Other artists I like are New Zealand funk band Hiatus Kayote, Laura Marling, Lady Wray, modern American Motown, and so much more. Now, we listen to music so differently, even I sometimes just know the songs rather than the artists.’

‘I love Amy more than anything’

On other tracks, most notably the dreamy, nostalgic ‘Green Eyes’, with its beautiful melody and brass fills, she reminds me a lot of Amy Winehouse and when I tell her this, she’s delighted: ‘I love Amy more than anything,’ she said enthusiastically. ‘I try not to sound like a carbon copy, as so many people try to and they just can’t, she’s so definitive. All her songs are perfect, but I often find myself singing the lyrics to ‘Fuck Me Pumps’, it’s such a fun, campy, sarcastic song and hasn’t lost its meaning at all. My song ‘Green Eyes’ came from a spoken word poem, it’s about my ex who cheated on me. We’re very good friends now but, at the time, my heart was broken. My producer, he’s called Benjamin James, he is a very talent multi-instrumentalist and producer, he lives in Vietnam, and he got a Vietnamese brass section in to do that.’

As the track kicks off: “Constantly changing, you have two different sides. She feeds your vanity, I feed your pride. She is a thrill, a novelty ride. I am the prize, what a surprise.”

The video for ‘Green Eyes’ is as dreamlike and nostalgic as the track itself. In one scene, she’s lying in a sea of flowers with her hair fanned out and I ask her where she got the inspiration for the video from: ‘They were wax flowers I got from a charity shop, a whole bin of them for about five pounds. The number of times I’ve nearly thrown them out but I thought they’d be perfect for this video with my Diana Ross-like hair (laughs).’ We get chatting about accessories and she tells me that she loves collecting handbags: ‘I’ve got a big bag collection,’ she says, moving the camera to show me a coat rack full of brilliantly eclectic bags. ‘I have this great Elvis bag – I found it in a charity shop,’ she said, holding it up proudly. ‘I get everything from charity shops!’

She also enjoys making art in other forms: ‘I am an artist who paints, draws and collages art, mostly based around brutalist buildings,’ she said. ‘I also love making videos and plan on filming some short films, that’s why I direct and edit all my own music videos.’

Aviva recognises that it’s difficult to make music in an environment where ‘Spotify controls the music industry’: ‘You gotta love it to do it,’ she said. ‘I just say that I don’t want to be a pop princess (laughs) if they try to tell me what to wear – I’ll tell you what I wear. If women want to be sexual, that’s their prerogative, obviously, but sex doesn’t sell music to me – I’m in the wrong market!’

‘It’s always been Elvis, he is the king of rock ‘n’ roll!’

If she could go for a pint with anyone, she is quick to say Elvis: ‘It’s always been Elvis, he is the king of rock ‘n’ roll! I’m fascinated by him and he’s gorgeous (laughs). I’m interested in the way he used to arrange the band, he wasn’t just a magnanimous performer, he analysed everything, he was a really good guitarist and composer – there’s a part of me that wants to be an Elvis impersonator! I do sing him a lot privately, I sing ‘A Little Less Conversation’ and ‘(You’re The) Devil in Disguise’.’ She would love to have written a song with Leonard Cohen: ‘To see how he worked, it took him forever to write ‘Hallelujah’,’ she said. ‘I have a book all about his lyrics, with illustrations. I’d love to see him doodle some beautiful illustrations.’

Performing has come in many forms over the years: ‘One of my best moments was performing at the Hanwell Hootie, a huge crowd filled with fans who have been following me for years,’ she said. ‘It was such a special moment to meet strangers who had made the effort to come and see me and who love my songs. But it hasn’t been all plain sailing, I can certainly say I’ve paid my dues – I’ve performed next to dustbins at tiny venues with screaming babies and birthday parties, even a dog trying to sniff my front while I play a soft love song!’

Her dream line-up is festival worthy and could go on for days: ‘It should open with Melody Gardot and Pink Martini, then Finlay Quaye and Paolo Nutini,’ she said. ‘Anderson .Paak should play, then we should amp up the vibe with The Noisettes, Ian Dury and The Blockheads, Sade, Amy Winehouse, Blondie then Stevie Wonder, The Beatles and Dexy’s Midnight Runners. Obviously, I’d include myself with Pink Martini accompanying me with Stevie Wonder! We have to finish the night with Leonard Cohen singing songs from his last album; you always want to leave people on a high, so I’ll finish with Madness. It would be a very long, very unusual night! But I’d love every moment.’