Conversations with Avital van Leeuwen

Today we’d like to introduce you to Avital van Leeuwen.

Hi Avital, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
According to my parents, I started singing before I could speak. I sang in my dad’s band, took piano and violin lessons, studied theater and was in choirs. Around 11, I started to write songs and at 12 I began to teach myself guitar. I played in bands as a kid. One of my bands even auditioned for America’s Got Talent after a scout came to my middle school theater class, but back then we were just screwing around in my mom’s garage.

In 2017, I started an alternative/indie rock band called BTCHKRFT. We played a lot of shows all over California (at venues like Silverlake’s The Satellite and San Francisco’s Café Du Nord), but we never recorded. By the end, I was frustrated by how unreliable collaboration was. I didn’t like needing to rely on others. I was already writing the songs and all the arrangements myself, as well as managing the band. After dissolving that band, I decided that I would learn to do as much of the recording process as possible myself, so I could have more independence as an artist. I discovered songwriter/producer Max Martin and I read a book called The Song Machine. This opened up a world of behind-the-scenes possibilities in the way I envisioned my career.

Also in 2017, I was given a very introductory recording lesson from one of my heroes, Theresa Wayman from the band Warpaint. Nobody had never done that for me before – it was such a gift. That day or so of lessons inspired me to teach myself how to record music. I’ve always been an autodidact, but learning to record music presented new challenges. It was a new way of thinking for me, as more of a creative person and more of a writer. After an internship and about a year of working in production at concerts, I finally went back to school last summer at Women’s Audio Mission in San Francisco. Women make up only 3-5% of audio and music technology jobs, so WAM aims to break that glass ceiling. At WAM, I learned to record on an analogue console, mix, and became an Avid Certified Pro Tools Specialist.

Mixing was a major missing piece to my puzzle. I now have one more skill and need to rely on one less person. This empowered me to finally release my first fully-fledged recordings as a solo artist under the nom de plume Avital IRL. Symphony / Eclipses is out now on all streaming platforms, accompanied by 2 music videos – and I have a Christmas song coming out in December of this year.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Despite being born into a musical family, it has not been a smooth road. One of my early challenges was bridging the gap between my creative ability and my technical skills with recording technology. Creativity can be hard to pin down, so when inspiration strikes, it’s pertinent to get your ideas on paper as quickly as possible. That’s difficult to do when you are faced with troubleshooting technology. It breaks your focus. I’m glad that’s not a problem I have very often now that I have lots of experience with recording in digital audio workstations. The other challenge has been money. There are many rabbit holes to fall down in the music industry, and few people are willing to talk about money. Not only is money a major barrier to recording, but you can also waste a lot of your time following paths that are never going to be lucrative. It’s really important to learn about finance while you’re still young so you don’t get screwed and make the wrong decisions. Music industry workers should be grounded in the reality of these material and basic needs which are supposed to be met by our jobs and careers. We deserve comfort!

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a songwriter and record producer. I sing and play most of the instruments on my recordings. My dream is to have a song factory, a streamlined system and team for creating songs that big pop stars will sing and be the face of. Aside from that, I also work behind the scenes in the live music and live events industry as an audio-visual technician, stagehand, and carpenter. I studied audio engineering, so I specialize in sound and I’m pursuing a career as a live sound engineer. I was classically trained in acting as a kid, and I have always loved film. Making music videos was really inspiring, so in the future, I hope to work in film as well and make my own movies.

Outside of that, I am also an advocate for survivors of institutional child abuse. In April, I traveled to California’s state capitol as a guest of Paris Hilton to support her while she testified in a state senate hearing. We were there to support a bill that will protect teens from being abused in treatment centers, something Paris and I both survived in the ‘troubled teen industry’ when we were young. The law was signed by Governor Newsom in September. Paris’s organization 11:11 Media has been responsible for passing 11 laws nationwide on a previously very neglected issue. I’m very proud of my participation and I’m looking forward to doing more lobbying with them. On Christmas Eve 2024, President Joe Biden signed our first federal bill, the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act, into law.

Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
While I had mentors who were musicians, singers, and songwriters, like my dad, I didn’t have many mentors who encouraged me to embrace recording or music technology until recently. Women are severely underrepresented in these roles. I didn’t anybody who looked like me running sound at venues, for example. The lack of representation is probably the reason it took me so long to visualize myself doing jobs like that. I am really grateful to have discovered the non-profit Women’s Audio Mission. They are a powerful network which has connected me to new mentors, teachers, and peers who don’t treat me differently for being a women or for being feminine. My behind the scenes job is also very social, so I’ve had many conversations at work gave me better direction. I have a lot of respect for the people I work with, especially those who have taken the time to teach me a new skill or give me invaluable advice.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.avitalirl.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/avital.irl
• Twitter: https://x.com/avitalIRL
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@avitalirl

Image Credits
The personal photo, and photos 1-2 were taken by Billy Baque. Photo 4 and 7 were taken by Natasha Austrich. I took photo #3 The other photographers are unknown