Aubrey Haddard: Bending Boundaries, Crossing a ‘Thin Line’

Aubrey Haddard is an electric singer/songwriter whose music is “indie rock at its core, bending the boundaries of new wave/indie pop,” she tells Brooklyn Roads.

Aubrey Haddard /Photo by Holy Smoke Photography

She grew up in a home where her parents’ musical tastes ranged from jazz to classic rock. “Nothing too eclectic, but influences like Joni Mitchell and Carole King make their presence known from time to time in my music,” Haddard says. More importantly, “My parents have always supported my dream,” Haddard tells us, adding that living in Brooklyn “has definitely propelled my writing into a new stage.”

While the music Haddard is releasing this year came to fruition elsewhere, moving to our borough has inspired her to “seize control of my muse in a way that wasn’t quite there before,” she tells Brooklyn Roads. “Being able to walk to dozens of incredible venues and stand a couple feet away from virtuosic players doesn’t hurt the inspiration either.” She adds that everyone in Brooklyn, and New York City in general, “is here to give it their best shot and have a damn good time doing it. It’s historic and inspiring.”

Among her favorite stages as a performer is C’mon Everybody (“just a couple miles from home”), where she played past November to a packed house. Going back a few years, she tells us, “Some of my fondest memories are of Pete’s Candy Store with people crowding in the narrow room, sharing space on the floor. And one of my favorite live performances to this day was opening for The Dip last spring at a sold-out Brooklyn Bowl.”

On May 22, 2020, Haddard released a new single and video, “Thin Line,” which she describes as “a total pivot for me musically. It’s a bolder statement than my previous releases, and a maximalist, indie-pop declaration of where our new music has arrived.” Like most of her music, “there is still a grounding, guitar-driven core to it ,” she adds, “but ‘Thin Line’ is the northern star of a new vision for me.”

Aubrey Haddard- A “Thin Line” / photo by Andrea Zalkin

As a songwriter, she loves hearing fans cover her tunes. “I’ve even started posting lyric and chord charts with tutorial videos on my Patreon page,” she tells us. “It really floors you to hear someone cover your music, and sing your words with conviction.”

Looking ahead, Haddard expects 2021 to be “an amazing touring season for us. We can’t wait to get back on the road.” If there’s an upside to the hiatus imposed by the sheltering-in-place scenario, she adds, it had given her “time to really focus and work on a new repertoire. There’s definitely a new record brewing and it feels really aligned with my heart and my head at this time,” she tells Brooklyn Roads. And that, she concludes, “is a magical feeling.”