I have to say that my conversation with Avery*Sunshine last week was unique. I reached her on her cell phone while she was in an Uber in Amsterdam making her way to a gig. The driver wasn’t entirely sure where they specifically needed to be and Avery*Sunshine wanted to stay focused on our conversation, but she was getting concerned. Would they make it to their own show?
Avery*Sunshine, whose real name is Denise White, has a show tonight at Yoshi’s in Oakland. On Saturday she’s performing at The Theatre at the Ace Hotel as part of the CAP UCLA season.
In these excerpts from our conversation we discussed music old and new, mixing of genres and how her father’s passing inspired her.
You are still touring behind your 2017 album, Twenty Sixty Four. Two plus years after releasing it, how do you make the material fresh for yourself in performance?
You know what’s interesting, because I’m an independent artist, there are so many people who have no idea who I am and have never heard the music. I’m always introducing it to people. That’s the upside of being an indie artist and playing clubs and not arenas. If I’m playing somewhere and 50,000 people come, I have to do more music. But for the way we tour, it’s not really hard to do. From my first album [2010’s Avery*sunshine Album] I have to sing it like it’s new. My husband [Dana Johnson] and I write all the music together and I love it. I really love the music.
You seem to release new material about every three years. Is new material on the way?
I’m actually working on new material. The album is almost finished. We’re finishing that album and we’re going to do a live recording in Atlanta on December 28th. There’s a bunch of stuff going on.
Will you be performing that material in these upcoming concerts?
We are going to do three-to-five tunes from the upcoming album.
You can’t easily be defined by any one genre. Why is that important to you?
It is important to me, but I don’t do it because it is important to me, but because it is a part of me. I am a roux of all the music I’ve ever been exposed to and all the experiences I’ve ever had. I find that when I just let it come out in the way it is supposed to come – it might come out in a gospel song or a love song – whatever it is, it comes out however it comes out. My focus hasn’t been on doing it because it is important but because it is honest to me.
I saw a video where you spontaneously sat down at a piano when Fantasia was being interviewed and sang Safe in His Arms in a blend of gospel and jazz styles. I’m not religious, but if every gospel song sounded like that I would sign up.
What’s so funny about that interview with Sirius XM and Cayman Kelly is we were on a tour with another artist and we had to wait [for someone to show up] and Fantasia came in and so he interviewed her and we’re all in the room. And he spontaneously says “Avery, come to the piano.” I was sick. It was her time and I didn’t want to do that. Everywhere I go in the world somebody tells me about that.
Thank you for reminding me that I have to allow the universe to move and to dictate. Sometimes I have to get out of my own way. I didn’t want anybody to see it. It felt like a really vulnerable space for her and me. It was too personal for people to see. But for someone like you who isn’t religious, that’s my hope that whatever I sing, I want people to feel better or be better. It’s not about which religion.
We live in troubled times. What role do you want your music to play in helping get through it all and what role does music play in helping you get through it all?
I just touched on it. i want people to feel better, to feel hopeful. The same way I feel hopeful when I listen to [Marvin Gaye’s] What’s Going On. For lack of a better way of saying it, it’s the songs like [Public Enemy’s] Fight the Power, the kind of songs that don’t exist now. The songs that make you feel like we’re going to be alright as long as we’re together. Aretha Franklin wrote songs like that. I want my music to be that way.
I hope that my music, and in no way am I comparing myself to them, I want people to feel better. I want them to feel hopeful. I know when I’m at a show and people say, “That one thing you said, you said that to me,” it’s real.
Does using a stage name allow you to do things Denise White would never do?
I thought so at first. No, it’s the same thing. God rest my father’s soul, he passed in March. My father and my daughter called me Avery. That burned me up. And they wouldn’t stop. He said, “It’s the same thing. You’re the same thing.” So no, I thought it would be a big deal.
I was in a non-creative space before Dad transitioned. I didn’t want to do anything and then he transitioned and it felt like the sky opened up and things were clear. So I’m grateful. On the upcoming album we have a song called Boomerang, the first song I wrote after Dad died.
I asked my Dad, he had been gone for three or four days, I said, “Man, you left us. I’m hurting. My heart is broken. I have not created in months. If you want me to do this, you have to help me.” It took fifteen minutes and the song was done. It was one of the best thing I’ve had the honor of being a vessel for.
By this point in our conversation, their Uber had found the venue and it was time for Avery to get inside, have a shot of espresso and get ready for her performance.
Avery*Sunshine performs November 21st at Yoshi’s in Oakland. Her Los Angeles performance at The Theatre at the Ace Hotel is on November 23rd.
All photos by LANSTU/Courtesy of Averysunshine.com