An Interview with AIJIA
While many young aspiring musicians may fear telling their family of their grand artistic goals, pop singer-songwriter AIJIA came from a family whose musical talents and aspirations matched her own. “A lot of people in my family are professional musicians. So I come from a family where everybody expects you to do [music], not be a doctor or lawyer. Everyone expects you to be a poor musician that grinds,” AIJIA describes, of her family that tunes pianos by day and plays shows at night. “Nobody can ever meet for Christmas cause everybody's got a gig.”
AIJIA’s music education began as a young child, taking lessons with her grandfather who for nearly two decades, ran the jazz piano department at USC. As a young adult, she studied vocal performance, strengthening her understanding of music theory, chord progression and song structure. As a highly trained vocalist, AIJIA leaned into on stage performance, singing live with artists such as Selena Gomez, Rachel Platten, Bruno Mars and more. And while performance is a large part of her musical expression, there was once a time where she relied too much on her skills in that arena, without flexing others.
“I wish I would've spent half the time playing shows and put that [time] into songwriting,” AIJIA says, as a reflection on her younger self and a word of advice to budding musicians. “I would write a song and then I would play a show with that song, instead of writing a hundred songs and taking the best of those and then playing a show. I wish someone would've told me, ‘Go write a ton with a lot of different co-writers, learn all the tricks from all these other people, because you get better, faster when you write with others a lot…Your unique perspective only strengthens when you learn little tricks from other people.”
AIJIA began to put in her 10,000 hours with songwriting, eventually starting to offer her talents as a topliner for artists within the industry, as well as continuing to craft her own stories as a solo artist - the latter being her main focus at the moment. “There [are] seasons as a writer where you can't tell other people's stories. [And] there [are] seasons where you can't tell your own…Right now I feel like I'm bursting at the seams with my own stuff that feels specific to me,” she describes of the current solo project she is working on. Her creativity thrives within the confines of structure, setting aside designated writing days, where she hopes for but does not put pressure on a creative idea to come. “I show up and I write a song and my expectation is not that I'm gonna write the best song of all time. My expectation is that I'm gonna show up and write something. That takes the pressure off…I'm just supposed to be here and do my best.”
As a working mother of two, AIJIA has recently been enjoying writing about the complexities of womanhood and motherhood, detailing the struggles and joys of women with whom she shares a similar experience. She’s continuing understand what she in particular has to offer as an artist who is also a mother. “I'm not sheepish about the fact that I have kids… I have two kids, and I'm here writing with you and we're gonna write a banger…And then I'm gonna go home and put my kids to bed. All of it can be yours if you want it, when you want it.” AIJIA is growing more confident in who she is as a woman and an artist, which is an increasingly difficult feat within an industry where the underpinnings of sexism often lead women to doubt themselves.
AIJIA details her perspective on dealing with sexism in the music industry, and the unique ways in which it takes place when married to a successful man in music. While having a partner in music comes with its own set of protections, it may also come with belittling comments AIJIA has described hearing such as, ‘Oh that’s cute, Andy [Grammer]’s wife wants to do music too!’ Statements like this disregard her own history and skill as a musician and fail to recognize that her interests or aspirations may be independent of her partner’s. “That pisses me off in a big way, because I've been at this since I was 13, I've had management since I was 14, I've been in recording studios my entire life. I have paid a lot of dues… But none of [these comments are] coming from [Andy]. It’s all coming from other people.” She also describes scenarios in which people will reach out to her for an opportunity, only to later reveal that they’d prefer Andy’s involvement instead. “I don't know that you would do that to him if it was the other way around. You wouldn't assume that he's the secretary.”
Through all of AIJIA’s experiences within the music industry, creating for both herself and alongside others, one of the major and most significant throughlines of her career is her dedication to helping women and girls in music. She is a longtime ambassador of LA’s Rock N’ Roll Camp for Girls, co-hosts the “Moms in Music” radio show on AMP, alongside friend and collaborator Christina Perri, and has served as a songwriting mentor in the She is the Music Mentorship Program. “I heard someone say once, if you feel like you don't have a mentor [and] you're searching for that person to guide you [but] you're not finding them, it means you're [that person] for someone [else,]” AIJIA says, describing her ethos. “I wanna be the big sister to people entering in music to be like, ‘Come here, let me show you how to skip the line.’”