By Rosie Fawzi
June 20th, 2021
If asked to describe Aumi Luxe, the young alternative artist standing at 23 years old, I would include the following: honest, a strong sense of self, fluid, and lastly, not a morning person. Given the seemingly different task of describing Aumi Luxe as an artist, my response would have remained the same. This is because while talking to him, it became clear his creativity and music were strongly woven into his very being. As if mimicking growth of both parent and child, he had grown alongside music since second grade, exploring classes like choir as he grew into his connection to the musical world.
For centuries, self expression has been scientifically classified by all artists alike as a “tricky thing;” it can give one so much freedom and liberty but its openness can simultaneously cause any artist to tear themselves down. As Aumi continued into the intricacies of the creative process, he talked about how he felt most like himself when creating: “When I’m inspired enough to let the creation take over and unlock new sides of myself. ” The beauty in Aumi as an artist is noticing that he felt the most like himself when learning a new side of who he is, which is a beautiful contrast since it’s often that humans find comfort in the familiar. But with beauty always comes the balance of darkness, and as Aumi and I continued, he shared details of his own critical lens and pressure from society to frame himself as a brand. While these limiting qualities are brought out during music production, he described his natural state to be one where these anxieties are devoid from his mind, “My anxiety is not my core self,” he noted.
Whereas balancing anxiety can make artists to ‘play it safe’ versus free, unguarded creation is strongly embedded in the use of intention. Independent artists have the beauty of freedom in choice, but this can simultaneously put extra weight and anxiety on the decisions they make in regards to their music careers. Aumi described this oddity as “A double edged sword, because I want to use intention in my work to show who I am, but at the same time I can trip myself up with overthinking and giving myself unrealistic standards.” The ability for artists to overcome their darkness is a beautiful process, but often a process that often happens more than once as life and artistry continue to grow. Aumi knows he is more than his anxious thoughts, but he can still get trapped by them. This is simply because we all do, no matter how many times we’ve had the revelation that our anxieties are not our reality.
Aumi and I ended with thoughts on how his songs should be seen as only moments in time. He wished that “Listeners don’t get caught up in one image of me,” and continued to say that, “Curating one specific image can be limiting, my goal is to not have one image or sound.” To showcase his efforts and growth in the past two years, Aumi Luxe has an EP that just dropped “Liquid & Pain”.
Listen on his Bandcamp page!
Check out all the art and columns of June's Boston Compass at www.issuu.com/bostoncccompass
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