Avi Roy talks about his beginnings and vision behind, ‘Loyalty Over Everything’

4 February 2021 / by Arushi Wadhwa
Avi Roy leaning against a shipping container

Avi Roy is a blooming 18 year-old singer based in Milton, Ontario. Since the beginning of his musical career in 2018, Roy has been gaining popularity through his charm and expressive lyrics. His latest single, ‘Loyalty Over Everything‘, tells the all too familiar story of relationships, trust, and betrayal. With it’s energetic beat and euphonious voice, ‘Loyalty Over Everything’ has quickly become one of his most popular songs. After releasing his single, we had the exclusive opportunity to sit down with Roy and talk about his inspiration and future goals. 

Arushi Wadhwa: You’ve been making music for about 2 years, but you mentioned that you never saw it as a career path. Obviously this has changed, so what inspired you to start thinking about making music professionally? 

Avi Roy: That’s a great question, because I wondered about that myself. Sometimes, I’ll be making music and I’ll wonder “why do I want to make music now?” The main thing was that I felt like I was making something that was more than just sounds. Whenever you’re able to do that with any sort of art, it’s worth giving it a shot, right? 

Things started off because a lot of my friends said that they like my music in 2018. A lot of people were like “that’s Avi Roy, he made that one song!” and that made me feel good. Then quarantine came around, so I found myself with a lot of time on my hands, but I didn’t have any recording equipment at home. So, I got a free 90 day trial of Logic Pro and I told myself I have 90 days, let me make something. 

Wadhwa: Let’s talk a little bit about your creative writing process. When you’re coming up with lyrics, what goes through your mind?  

Roy: A lot of people will say the best songs come from emotional places, and so I would also say my best songs have come from emotional places. Other than that, a lot of my lyrics just come naturally. I wrote ‘Nostalgia’, my song before ‘Loyalty Over Everything’ because I went to the washroom for 30 minutes and my roommate said “yo, when you come out of the washroom, have a song ready” So I went into the washroom with an idea and the word nostalgia, and then I came out the washroom 20 minutes later and I had a song. Sometimes the process is as easy as just thinking and pulling out my notes app. But my best is definitely yet to come.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vONeWsrfHkg

Wadhwa: It seems like song writing comes very naturally to you 

Roy: I think songwriting really originates from your ability to put words together in a very nice and  aesthetically pleasing manner. I get that from poetry because I always loved poetry ever since I was young. I’ve gotten multiple poems of mine published, and I’ve just always loved it. It’s beautiful and when you have that basis of information it becomes a lot easier to write because you already understand how to get people emotionally attached to your lyrics. 

Wadhwa: That’s interesting, so does that mean your family is very musically inclined since they first introduced you to poetry? 

Roy: My sister actually is the singer of my family, which is funny enough because she is a far, far better singer than I am. She actually grew up taking vocal classes, so she would come home and sing a song and I would stand outside her room and sing the same song. 

Wadhwa: Would you ever consider releasing a song with your sister? 

Roy: See, I thought about that, but our vibes are very different. She grew into an indie phase, which could be a cool crossover since I’ve never heard of an R&B indie song. But we could absolutely try it out. 

Wadhwa: On your latest single, ‘Loyalty Over Everything,’ is there a specific lyric that is your favorite? 

Roy: The lyric that stands out for sure is “rather have loyalty than love, ’cause love don’t really mean jack” because it’s inspired by 21 Savage and his original lyrics that I was able to change. In terms of an original lyric, I like “so you should go and tell your friends that Avi dropped a new song, so you could be the one who puts everybody else on”. I just thought that name dropping myself and telling people that they can put their friends on and say “oh, I knew Avi before he was big” is pretty fun. 

Wadhwa: If you were to make a music video for ‘Loyalty Over Everything,’ what would that look like? 

Roy: The number one thing is that I would want to be the star of that video. The whole, you know, let’s get a few really expensive cars and a lot of women is not my type of scene. I wouldn’t want there to be another girl in the video or and or even other people. Just have something that tells a story about how you can’t always trust people. But I probably won’t do a music video for that song just because the songs I have coming up are definitely a lot more meaningful. 

Wadhwa: What can the world expect next from Avi Roy? 

Roy: One of my goals is to get 100,000 streams on a single song, and 25,000 to 50,000 monthly listeners. Get onto a bunch of Spotify playlists, get maybe 50K on TikTok by the end of 2021. In the long-term future, I’m never going to stop making music. I think music is something I love, and I will continue to do for as long as I possibly can. Then you know if all goes well, maybe a Grammy or two.