15-year-old indie pop prodigy AVIV has just released her new dark pop single and visuals for “You Feel Like Depression.” Watch the video now below.
With her latest single “You Feel Like Depression” the singer goes deep into the many feelings of “self-guilt, self-blame, and an overall feeling of failure. This feeling is amplified when the person whom you’ve ended the relationship blames you for the breakup,” confides AVIV.
With “You Feel Like Depression”, AVIV explores the many confusing and painful feelings following a breakup. She shares, “A breakup is many times accompanied by self-guilt, self-blame and an overall feeling of failure. This feeling is amplified when the person with whom you’ve ended the relationship blames you for the breakup. The song “You Feel Like Depression” was written about such relationship and the realization that the end of a relationship is much more complex and that usually many factors contribute to the demise. The song is presented as a dialogue – with one party blaming me for the breakup with lines such as “ I can’t fix you by I tried”, “ look what you did, drown in your senses”. However, I came to the realization that I did not need to “be fixed”, I was myself and all the negativity that was present in the relationship made our love feel like depression. I finally came to terms that I tried my best and that is enough. True love entails acceptance of who the other person is and not trying to mold them into something else. Instead of placing liability on your shoulders, a person who loves you should care about you with all your “faults”. They should not make the prospect of love depressing.”
You know all of those warm and fuzzy first-time feelings you get as a teenager—the ones you wish you could hold on to forever?
AVIV retrofits those emotions into her songs. The 15-year-old Toronto singer, songwriter, and multi- instrumentalist pens the kind of affecting and arresting D.I.Y. pop that’s both nostalgic and prescient (You could think of it like nineties alternative pop born post-social media). After generating millions of streams independently and receiving acclaim from Atwood Magazine and more, she continues to perfect this approach on a series of singles for Photo Finish Records.
“I’m just a teenager who acts much older, still gets excited about little things, and really loves to over- analyze her emotions and put them into music,” she says. “I try to be true to myself with everything I do. The more AVIV the music is, the better.”
AVIV grew up in a big family of four siblings, including her twin brother. Every Saturday, they went record shopping together on Queen Street in Toronto, picking up classics by Fleetwood Mac, Radiohead, and more. “Most families went to the mall,” she smiles. “We went to the record store together.”
At six-years-old, she studied piano under “an old-fashioned teacher who scared me into practicing and getting good!” Around the same time, she developed her voice and eventually picked up guitar. Casual poetry transformed into songwriting as she regularly played her early compositions for friends and family. Throughout high school, she obsessed over the likes of Clairo, Lorde, and Lana Del Rey. They’re my three moms,” she laughs.
Once the Pandemic hit, she found herself listening to more music than ever and, at the same time, writing as well. Working with her big brother’s friend Jackson Follemer as co-producer, she regularly took the train to Montreal to visit them at McGill University and started to record music in 2020. Following “Cookie Dough,” her independent single “Girls In Red” claimed coveted real estate on playlists such as “indie pop & chill” and eventually amassed hundreds of thousands of streams. “Frontlawn” and “Lonely Bitch” only increased her momentum with consistent organic growth.
“Music became a way to convey my emotions,” she admits. “Since I won’t even talk to my friends about a lot of these things, it’s an outlet for me to talk about things I don’t talk about.”