"Spotify: Mic Check" Podcast: Korean-American R&B Artist Audrey Nuna

  If it wasn't for Spotify: Mic Check, my streaming playlist would consist of The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and Marvin Gaye. Sorry. I'm old.

But, every episode, Spotify: Mic Check introduces me to new artists and music. Now, my playlist has artists from around the globe.

This week, Spotify will release the newest episode of its original podcast series, “Spotify: Mic Check,” - a series aimed at connecting fans with the world’s biggest creators from around the globe through exclusively intimate conversations. This episode features an in-depth interview with R&B singer/rapper Audrey Nuna. 

You can listen to the full episode here.

On the heels of celebrating the one-year anniversary of her first album, A Liquid Breakfast, Audrey sits down with “Spotify: Mic Check” host Lea Palmieri to discuss her Korean-American heritage, collaborating with Jack Harlow, and gaining a fan in Jung Kook of BTS.

 

In 2019, Audrey was featured in Spotify’s Fresh Finds playlist - a hub that features the best new music from independent artists and labels.

 

Available to stream for free exclusively on Spotify, please see below for interview highlights in the episode: 

 

• 08:01-08:42  - Audrey Nuna on collaborating with Jack Harlow on the song “Comic Sans” 
• “I had been a fan of Jack Harlow's, like older projects, for a long time, and he was just on a list of people I thought would kill over the song Comic Sands. So we reached out and his team go back to us probably six months later or something. Like we were at a point where we're like, ‘Oh, looks like the song is not going to have a feature. No one thinks it's cool, and no one's going to fuck with it,’ but he just randomly like DM'd me his verse. So we worked and like shot the video, and he blew up after that, which was like so awesome for me to see someone I've been a fan of for a while, kind of take that trajectory and be able to do what he's doing now.”

 12:18-12:53 - Audrey Nuna on receiving a shoutout from BTS’Jung Kook on social media.

• “It's so cool to get love from K-Pop stars because I just think it's crazy the influence that they have, first of all. I remember when that happened, shit was going crazy, and I had no idea why until I realized it was because of the shout-out. The love is so real just cause you know, we're both Korean and there's a similar experience that we have. But at the same time, it's also not a given because being Korean-American versus being Korean is different upbringing. So to connect in that way through music is really, really sick.”

 03:13-04:09 - Audrey Nuna on representation and her Asian-American role models growing up.

• “In terms of Asian-American role models, I don't think I have that many. Aside from the people in my life, you know, of course, my mom, my older sister. I think at some point, you just imagine them for yourself or…Not having role models sometimes sucks, but it also sometimes allows you to just build what that is for yourself. Like, I have friends who are Asian-American in entertainment, and they're just so not the stereotype of like the Asian-American person that's been perpetrated in American media. At least for me, I recognized at an early age that those stereotypes that were pushed in American media of even the minor characters were not who I am. And it kind of is liberating in a way to be able to, like, be whoever you want to be, not have to fit into any type of box.”

 07:01-07:45 - Audrey Nuna reflects on the release of her first album, “A Liquid Breakfast,” a year later.

• “A Liquid Breakfast. That project is really special. It's, you know, everyone's first project, I think is really special. It's the project that you spend your whole life writing, you know. I feel like your very first project is a sign of the times in your life where like every year before that has led up to, to this body of work. And I'm really proud of that project. I just wanted it to be as honest as I could be, and I think it's just set a precedent for everything that I want to put out for the rest of my career. It has to be at this level of honesty or greater. So I hold it really near and dear to my heart, super proud of it and proud of everyone involved, and grateful for all the memories attached to it.”

 09:23-09:54 - Audrey Nuna on being featured on Spotify’s “Fresh Finds” playlist.

• “I think Fresh Finds like being on that playlist meant more to me than anything as an independent artist before being with the label and everything. Being on Fresh Finds, it's like one of the most, like times I appreciated Spotify because just putting people on who don't have that platform yet, I think that's one of the most important things that any platform could be doing for artists. And they really, just as they do that shit still to this day, you know, fresh finds is still on my favorite playlist on Spotify.”

 You can listen to the full episode here.