Buick Audra is a Grammy-award-winning musician, writer, and activist living in Nashville, TN. She is the guitarist and primary songwriter and vocalist in the melodic heavy duo, Friendship Commanders. Buick has released three solo albums to date and has returned to her solo work with her first single in ten years, “All My Failures.” She has a forthcoming full-length album called Conversations with My Other Voice, as well as an accompanying memoir.
In our interview, she explains the origins of her latest single “Afraid of Flying,” and how looking back has helped her move forward. I encourage you to check out the Friendship Commanders’ song “Stonechild” and its origins as well. Whether she’s pushing ahead with muscular indie rock or the delicate folk-icana of “Afraid of Flying,” Buick Audra brings a clarity of purpose to each song.
Explain the title of your album.
I’d love to! My new album is called Conversations with My Other Voice, and the title references the way the album was put together. The record is five songs from a previous life chapter, and five songs from now, in response to the original songs. It ended up being a back-and-forth between me then and me now, like little conversations. I named the record after the format. I consider the project to be a memoir-in-songs.
Does your album have an overarching theme?
Absolutely. It’s about change; the way we change, and the ways the stories we tell may change. Because I set the structure up to be like a dialogue, I was able to update my thoughts and feelings on certain events in my life. Like, in my new single from the record, “Afraid of Flying”—which is one of the original, older songs—I talk about the end of my collaborative relationship with Joss Stone. It’s a song about acceptance and grief.
But the response to it, written more recently, is called “From Down Here,” and it’s about how women can marginalize other women; how we’re taught to dislike and distrust one another. So, that’s a snapshot of how I felt then, and how I feel now. There’s a big difference between the two, which the a product of time and growth. The whole album does this, but around different narratives.
Tell us about your favorite show you’ve ever played.
Last year, I played a hometown show here in Nashville at 3rd and Lindsley which was meaningful to me on a couple of levels. When I still lived in Brooklyn and came down to Nashville to check it out, 3rd and Lindsley was the first Nashville venue I ever walked into. I went to see Lori McKenna play a daytime show there, by myself. The room was different then; it was before they redesigned and expanded it. I’ve since moved to Nashville and been to many, many shows in that room, but last year was my first time playing it with the amazing musicians who are also the band on my new record: Kris Donegan, Lex Price, and Jerryy Roe. It was my first full-band show of my solo work in Nashville in years. We played the new stuff, and we played like we meant it. It was a real full circle moment for me, and it remains a favorite musical memory.
How are you using your platform to support marginalized people?
Excellent question. I try to amplify the voices and work of marginalized people. I get that I’m a cis het white woman, so I make sure to listen and learn. My band, Friendship Commanders, released a song that I wrote in 2020 about a Chippewa Cree man named Stonechild Chiefstick who was murdered by white police in Poulsbo Washington, in 2019. What platform we had was used to raise awareness around that story—and to include members of his community. A friend of his family, and a member of the Suquamish Tribe, Cassy Fowler, spoke in Lushootseed on behalf of his family on the track. I also did an Instagram live conversation with a member of the Suquamish Tribal Council, Robin Little Wing Sigo, after that release. It was an honor to have both of those women, as well as Suquamish Tribe member Lynne Ferguson, present for that work. It was important to speak with those people about their loss, and not just about them.
I’ve also raised some hell in Nashville about bigotry within the scene. It didn’t make me wildly popular, but it changed some things. I’m fine with that. Change is more important than being liked sometimes.
Is there a professional “bucket list” item you would love to check off?
Hmmmm. I used to want to play on Saturday Night Live, and that would still be rad, but I have to say: releasing this new album is a bit of a bucket list item. I didn’t think I’d ever make another solo album, and this thing has been a long time in the works. If I can tell the truth about what I’ve experienced and have other people receive it, mission
accomplished. Grateful to be here now.
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