“Nobody Is You” was written and produced by AV and longtime drumming associate, Elie Mercier. AV performed all other instruments on the track, which was mixed and mastered by Brandon Unis.
About “Nobody Is You”:
Soulful and melancholy, “Nobody Is You” is a song that unites Soul, Gospel, and a dash of Contemporary Pop, beneath a contemplative tale of regret about a relationship. Opening with sparse instrumentation and AV’s soft vocal, the initially lonely song gradually builds to include drums, bass, and percussion and the stirring harmonies from The Inner City. AV’s exceptional Blues-hued voice emotively ascends to new heights with the inclusion of the additional instruments and vocals, bringing the emotion of the song from reflective sadness to acceptance that the one who got away was simply irreplaceable. With melodic nostalgia in its Gospel-style harmonies and space between notes, “Nobody Is You” grows into an anthemic and resolute embrace of a commonly experienced, personal truth.
Quote:
“Nobody Is You” is a song about contemplating the loss of a relationship, and realizing the importance of it. It starts off very sparsely, but as The Inner City voices join it becomes a less lonely song, and ends as an emphatic, unapologetic, and anthemic declaration of love.” – AV and The Inner City
Biography:
“AV & the Inner City” is a soul/roots group which formed during the course of the COVID19 pandemic in the inner city of Edmonton, Canada. Only two years old, the group has just completed their first summer tour, which included the Vancouver Island Music Festival, the Calgary Folk Music Festival, and most recently, the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, at which they received an “Emerging Artist Award” based on their performance. In Calgary, the group received a rave review from former Nickelodeon promoter Vic Bell, who stated: “Soul and gospel singing ruled…. This was an act that could have closed the Main Stage any night of the festival. They earned a full house standing ovation.”
AV & the Inner City is made up of 6 singers: band leader and multi award-winning singer-songwriter AV (Ann Vriend), Debbie Houle (co-founder of the Juno-nominated Indigenous vocal group “Asani”), jazz radio host, jazz singer, and professional pickle company owner Johwanna Alleyne (company: Mojo Jojo Pickles and Preserves); Crystal Eyo, a communications business owner and lead singer and songwriter of Edmonton pop/RnB band “Mercy Funk”, ESL teacher Alenka Lundell, who fronted and wrote songs for bands in her home country of Czech (formerly Czechoslovakia); and Jenn Dahlen, a guitar player, singer, and clarinetist, who also has sung background vocals for American singer-songwriter Jennifer Berezan.
From April 2020 until October 2021, on every Sunday that the pandemic restrictions and weather would allow AV hosted and performed nearly 60 free concerts on her front porch in the inner city neighbourhood of McCauley, often with guests, including the 6 above mentioned singers. The “porch concerts” often also featured other acts and bands who came from all parts of Edmonton, and though informal in nature, the “porch concerts” were a much needed life-line of music and social interaction for both performers and audience members alike. In the early summer of 2021, the vocalists became an official, rehearsed act; performing AV’s original songs with a cover song or two thrown in for good measure, and 3 part harmony soul/gospel style arrangements based around her voice and keyboard playing. Their next step is to work on their first body of recordings, and in the meantime are about to release AV’s latest single, “Nobody Is You Featuring the Inner City,” which will be released on September 8, 2023.
Connect with AV and The Inner City:
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