AVA WILD'S ‘NOONER COFFEE' ABOUT SAVOURING A MOMENT
Hear It Live is a closer look at a song and its writer/performer. You can hear “Nooner Coffee” when Ava Wild performs Saturday night in Regina, at A + T Vinyl.
THE ARTIST
Ava Wild began playing viola as an eight-year-old. She has since taught herself other instruments — including guitar, which she first picked up when she was 12.
Songwriting came shortly thereafter, when cover songs didn’t pique her interest.
“I didn’t feel like I could relate to them. Like, the songs I was hearing on the radio at the time was like Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber or whatever,” Wild said. “From that I naturally just started writing my own stuff.”
The Regina artist performed for the first time at the Cathedral Village Arts Festival — “terrifying ” for a self-described shy 14-year-old — but “after that, I just kind of was like, ‘This is something I have to do.’”
Before even finishing high school, she was booking her own tours with other solo artists.
“I didn’t have a vehicle and I’m not old enough to rent a vehicle, so I always had to take someone with me, which is kind of funny. On my first tour, I didn’t even have a credit card, so I couldn’t get a hotel if I needed unless I called my parents.”
THE SONG
“Nooner Coffee” is a love song that Wild didn’t intend.
“I was sitting on my back deck out in the sunny, warm summertime and this song came out, just kind of from a little guitar part that I wrote. And it’s a really sweet kind of love song talking about spending a moment with another person, regardless of
how long that moment is.”
Wild’s airy vocals are set to a jazzy sound, including shakers as percussion.
THE WORDS
The song starts,
The taste of honey still lingers in my mouth /
Drinking coffee from morning until noon /
But it ain’t wasted time if you sit next to me.
The song is partly inspired by Tom Petty’s song, “Mary Jane’s Last Dance,” one of the first songs she learned on guitar.
“It’s like a love song about a person, but also about a different substance. And I kind of thought that was really brilliant,” Wild said.
In writing “Nooner Coffee,” “I was thinking about how much I love coffee and honey and sweets, and then also kind of thinking it’s funny to add that into a human relationship.
“When I write music, it’s not like I’m going to try and write the best song ever, or try and write a song that someone’s going to hear,” Wild added.
“It’s just kind of like, I’m in my
own world and spending time with myself and kind of reflecting on whatever’s going to come up in the space that I’m in. And it ended up being this kind of sweet love song.”
LISTEN NOW
A recording and music video — which Wild directed, filmed and edited — is on her Youtube channel, along with other music.
HEAR IT LIVE
Ava Wild performs Saturday, Feb. 1, 8 p.m. at T+A Vinyl. Tickets are $15 and available at the
venue or by emailing avaiswild @gmail.com.
This is Wild’s first time performing with a full band.
To record “Nooner Coffee,” she collaborated with drummer Marito Marques and violinist Hanna Bussiere Kim (a.k.a. Luna Li). Performing live, she’ll have Drake Mark on drums, Danny Jones on bass and Carter Powley on saxophone.
“I’m hoping to do more collaboration just because there is so much to learn from that,” Wild said.