“But “China Doll” doesn’t need all that. It’s more distilled. I feel like I was listening to the version we’re recording, and I was like, ‘It sounds better when it’s just me and Teddy.’ We were trying to do too much and I think that, this one in particular, took a while to feel real because I wasn’t sure where to go with it, and then it ended up needing to be exactly where it was.”
Aubrey Jane has been creating music throughout the years but recently has reached a new era of songwriting with her latest, “China Doll.” Sounding like aching and the fall season, death of a rabbit has become obsessed with the lyricism and craft put into Aubrey Jane’s new single. Aubrey Jane shows her new era with us, discussing what it’s like to collaborate with others and the new sound she’s crafted.
DEATH OF A RABBIT: What season do you feel like “China Doll” is in?
AUBREY JANE: I feel like it’s late spring, early summer, but I feel like the song as a whole embodies that mid-fall October, like it’s starting to get a little misty.
DOAR: Almost like dreamcore, I love that. I wanted to also ask about the scope of your discography because it seems like this song is the start of a new beginning. Would you say that?
AUBREY JANE: I’d say so! It’s interesting; I wrote this song a few years ago. The recording process is always so long for me, because I’m young in my career and pulling together resources and such. We’ve been working on this project as a whole for like a year and a half now, and so these songs are old—I mean they’re not old old, but they’re not new either. I definitely feel like “China Doll” was the beginning of a new era of songwriting for me. I’ve always been a writer and lyricist, and the writing is the most special part for me. It was the first song that I’ve written in a long time that I really paid attention to and edited and really got into the writing instead of just saying, “Oh, this is what it is.”
DOAR: Since you mentioned it takes you a long time to record, do you ever get tired of the song? Or nitpick it?
AUBREY JANE: Definitely. I think with previous songs or music projects I’ve worked on, I can kind of hear in my head how I want it to sound production wise, and that wasn’t the case with this project at all. I had all these songs that I’d written that I was proud of and really worked on the lyricism and pushed myself as a musician, but I didn’t have a super strong or specific vision for any of them when I first started. I started working with my friend Teddy, just jamming and stuff. He helped come up with the sound of this project in a lot of ways. Then we just started working on demos with Gio, who has been recording and co-producing this whole project. We worked on demos for a year before we started actually recording final versions of songs; I think in part because I wasn’t super sure or clear of my vision at first, but also because we were all really busy, so we would do a session a week and figure stuff out along the way.
I feel like “China Doll” is one of my favorite songs that I’ve written, and maybe it’s because of that that it took me a while to feel happy with the direction we were going in the demo. I think for a while, we were over-producing it, doing too much, not feeling right. The way that Teddy and I do it live, I usually just play in a solo or duo with Teddy. So, a lot of the songs on the final project are a lot more fleshed out in their production in the recorded version than they are when I play them live. But “China Doll” doesn’t need all that. It’s more distilled. I feel like I was listening to the version we’re recording, and I was like, “It sounds better when it’s just me and Teddy.” We were trying to do too much and I think that, this one in particular, took a while to feel real because I wasn’t sure where to go with it, and then it ended up needing to be exactly where it was.
DOAR: I’m glad you recognize that and didn’t feel pressured to make it a whole thing, with production and everything. Because sometimes the raw or unplugged versions are the best way to convey a song.
AUBREY JANE: Yes, totally! I played in a band and they were wonderful, super fun playing with them. I think that it helped me feel comfortable collaborating with people. In a lot of ways, there were so many great things that came with it. But I also think in a large part, I relied on them to be loud as a crux, because it’s scary being vulnerable. And the music I write is really vulnerable and cuts deep, for me at least. It can be really scary to get up there and be like, “This is what it is.” It’s this really deep song for me, not having people to rely on to flesh it out, but I like this era for me of not relying on them and a whole band. Stripping it down to its most basic parts has been important for my confidence as a musician in a lot of ways. I also think that it serves my music a lot better. It sounds a lot better when it’s just me and a guitar or me and Teddy.
DOAR: I guess it’s one way to mark the end of an era, because you have a lot for your discography, a full album and many singles. Maybe it’s just the production and the band, but is there anything else that feels like the difference between “China Doll” and the rest of your work, maybe spiritually?
AUBREY JANE: The song itself has similar themes that all my writing is about. My writing has evolved as I’ve gotten older, but I’ve always had a really strong voice. Not literally, but in my writing. Since I was a little kid, I definitely said that I’m a writer first before a musician. I always wrote before I started making music, and I think that has been consistent. It’s a logical progression, the music I’m making now. This is the first project that has this emotional weight to me. (Everything is Weird) That’s the first EP I produced and recorded entirely on my own, and I’m glad I did it. I learned a lot, but almost in the way I did it out of ego, like I was trying to prove something to myself and prove that I was a real musician. I feel like as singer-songwriters, being a lyricist and vocalist primarily, we’re not taken as seriously all the time. I think that I felt like I needed to do those projects on my own, to be like, “I did this.” But I also think that there comes a point where I have to admit that I’m not classically trained in an instrument. I can play enough to get by and produce an album, but I have incredibly talented people in my life who I’m really lucky to call my close friends. I trust them on an emotional and social level, but also I trust them with my music. It seemed like my ego was almost getting in my way in some ways, you know? Like why not entrust this music with the people in my life who are incredibly talented and do this professionally and like it? It seemed like I was doing myself a disservice by not wanting to collaborate. Not only do I feel like I strengthened those friendships with Gio and Teddy, who are close and important to me, but it’s made the music so much better than it ever could have been if I was doing it on my own.
DOAR: Did you feel like the style or sonics of your music changed when you put collaborators on there?
AUBREY JANE: I hear the influence for sure, but it’s not so crazy of a change, if that makes sense, and I don’t think it should be anyways. I’ve always made music that was very inspired by folk, grunge, rock, all of these things. Those are also big inspirations of my collaborators on this project. But, I do think that you can hear the influence; they’re playing all over the album. They have very specific songs of playing and ones that are different from each other too. They have different subgenres within the indie rock umbrella. It’s been fun to have those come out in my own music, but at the same time, the songs are still very much, “Oh, that’s an Aubrey Jane song.”
DOAR: I also wanted to hear more about “China Doll.”
AUBREY JANE: To preface, I’m a very melodramatic person. At my core, I’m deeply sensitive and very emotional. When I write, it’s usually out of that really emotional place. When I write lyrics, I’m in this emotional state and it comes out then. A lot of my lyrics are super dramatized versions of things that I do. I’m using what I have and making it bigger for the sake of the art. So, that’s my disclaimer; but, the song as a whole is about feeling like you’re consistently putting more into a relationship or a friendship then you’re getting out of it, just feeling like you’re putting so much into someone and doing so much for them. You’re on their shelf, part of their little collection, but you’re not precious to them. Just a little trinket. A little china doll.
DOAR: death of a rabbit likes to focus on lyricism and poetry — I was wondering, what’s a song with lyrics that you’ve listened to lately that you really enjoyed, or what’s a lyric that you wish you’d written?
AUBREY JANE: Margot Texas, “Figure Skaters”
Chek out Aubrey Jane’s work here!
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