“What’s the Manchester music scene like? I’ve never been.”
“It’s honestly like… It’s very indie. It’s indie boys for the most part. Just because I think the music that comes out of Manchester is people who wanna’ be like Oasis or The Smiths and the Stone Roses, but if you look in the right places you find every kind of thing because there’s so much music.”
Cash Aura explains to me over the phone, giggling through a mix of what can only be described as both student bliss and student dread. The dread comes from the fact that Rona has pretty much grounded Manchester’s indie music scene. The bliss comes from making DIY tunes in your bedroom, and finding herself part of a new community of creative musicians.
Oh to be young and creative in the bedroom!
Cash Aura is a glittery, messy, and super fun emerging artist. She has a few tracks on Spotify, of which there’s a whole bunch of remixes from her surrounding creative pool of mates. It really feels like the Manchester scene is inclusive and warm.
The young musician recently dropped a new single ‘Kinda Gross (But We Love It).’ She says she feels great about it, “like really great. I mean I say this about everything I make, but it’s my favorite thing that I’ve made, yeah. I’m really happy with it.”
“The response I’m getting is really great and it just feels like a step forward for me as an artist. And I’m getting to a sound, and a kind of community around it, that I’m really happy with.”
If you didn’t get from the title of the track, the tune’s all about being gross, (but being fine with it.) Cash explains “it’s kind of just inspired by lockdown and thinking about house parties when we could go out, just that kind of gross but we love it. You know, just like a messy party and you’re up to the morning and having a crazy time. I was just like missing that.”
“It’s a silly fun song really to be honest.”
I asked Cash Aura how she would describe herself? “Me making music in my bedroom, writing, producing, singing and making lots of weird, electronic sounds and just expressing myself however I feel like really basically.”
That’s it. Writing about messy nights and making fun bops. I kind of feel like that level of escapism is justified. The world is shit. Have a (socially distanced) boogie already.
If you’ve seen Cash Aura’s insta or track artwork, it’s safe to say it looks like pop on steroids.
Bright, fun, caked in glitter.
“I just love that phrase, ‘pop on steroids.’ That’s what I wanna do! I love fun, trashy culture and just things being taken to an extreme in whatever direction. Pop music has always been the place I’ve looked to express myself and see people like me, especially with the videos. When I was younger David Bowie was my icon and it was like I saw someone like me. I loved it.
“You can create a different world that’s outside of what you expected in real life and that’s what I want to do.”
I ask Cash Aura if she’s inspired by Bowie because of his characters, personas, and fictional worlds. She agrees. We do an exercise picturing what the planet of Cash Aura would look like – safe to say there’s enough glitter and colour to make Elton John nauseous.
We talk about exploring sexuality through music. For me curating stories and writing is a huge part of my exploration of identity, Cash Aura uses pop music. The spunky brashness of pop has always lent itself to loud self exploration. Cash continues “I think [sexuality] is so important, it’s a huge part of my music and what I’m working on. It’s an outlet for me to, you know, explore different ways of being, and express things better than I could realise myself”.
Cash Aura has new music coming out very soon, as well as more remixes from her mates in Manchester.
Cash Aura
She / Her | Musician / Producer
Cash was interviewed by Lev Alexander
