At the ripe age of 19 Ayla Scanlan, known to the world as Ayla has risen to fame in the realm of Australian indie pop-rock following the release of Wish I Was in 2014. The song scored high rotation on Triple J throughout the year, getting her a deal with Ego Music, a top 20 remix EP, 15th most played song on triple J for 2014 and will be playing BIGSOUND in September this year!
She may only be 19, but with youth comes passion and Ayla has it in spades. With a mature and poetic approach, she’s set to be an impressive figure of Aussie indie-pop.
Ayla received attention after making it into the finals with Wish I Was under two categories at the International Song Writing Competition in 2013 at the mere age of 17. Her debut single is hinged on a poem she wrote in her parent’s backyard on the Sunshine Coast, and if that isn’t enough to make you feel pretty shit about your own fledgling creative endeavours, then I don’t know what will.
With a musical selfhood that lies somewhere between the laxly contralto Australian vocal of Missy Higgins and the melodic ‘trip-hop-glam-rock’ of Lana Del Rey, it’s hard to imagine that Ayla will fall into the tried and tired dead pool of acoustic Australian indie pop (a graveyard housing bands and artists like Silverchair, Anthony Callea, Ben Folds, Shannon Noll and Sarah Blasko, to which we give our sincere condolences).
Wish I Was musters an emotive, cinematic soundtrack aesthetic with a sound that reciprocates the design of human emotion and reaction; in the way that her music builds and falls, the way her voice moves magnetically with the instruments and counteracts its melody. What’s best is the song actually sounds how her lyrics feel; it’s riddled with escapism, emotional fatigue and epiphany.
In May this year, Ayla released a new single, Waiting, and this is where we see the true prosperous future of a talented Australian artist. Her new single sees a shift in her musical style, still surrendering somehow, to the sound that brought her into the Aussie music scene; and it’s poetry in motion.
Ayla has joined artists like Husky, The John Steel Singers and Bonjah on stage over the past year, slowly building her musical presence and prominence on a national and international scale. If you can picture a 19 year old Florence & The Machine playing an acoustic piece featuring Lana Del Rey at a jazz bar in Melbourne, then you might understand a little bit of what this Aussie artist sounds like.
