Perhaps it’s the hormone-laced chickens or our constant exposure to BPA, but each successive generation breeds even younger (and talented) musicians. Take Avigdor Zahner-Isenberg) or Avi of Avi Buffalo. Just shy of his twentieth birthday, his debut, self-titled album reached a near universal acclaim on Metacritic in addition to an unprecedented 9 out of 10 on Britain’s highly read, NME. Signed to the prolific Subpop, Avi boasts diverse musical influences from the likes early Ariel Pink to Folk and Blues. The latter of which is unsurprising since he used to jam with noted Blues musicians.

A lot of his earlier material were recorded on his computer so a few of them make it onto the album, but Avi described the album’s genesis as a slow, three-year process. He’d written some of the material while still in high school and when I asked him for some of the album’s influences, he couldn’t give me a straight answer since he wasn’t too sure himself. It was also in high school that he met Avi Buffalo drummer, Sheridan Riley.

The allure of the album stems from the awkward, adolescent angst and pangs of self-discovery that recall bare-bone honesty of Elliot Smith (Aaron Embry, the album’s producer also produced for Elliot). ‘“What’s it for?’ sets itself up like an embarrassing adolescent scrapbook of ill-timed romantic encounters with face palm-inducing memories like ‘I couldn’t help your mouth which I missed by two inches’ or ‘You are tiny and your lips are like little pieces of bacon. I can feel you on fire because you’re drunk and I seem too cool.’” Even a quick listen of this album beckons Wilco at its best, but Avi claims the latter wasn’t an influence on the album. I was in disbelief over this answer so I googled it and lo and behold The Los Angeles Times article lists Yankee Hotel Foxtrot as an influence on the High School Avi so I’m assuming he’s being sarcastic. You be the judge.

I got the chance to see him at the Echoplex last week and after waiting among the throngs of fans (mostly proud family members of which some were Bruins), he graciously granted me this hard-hitting interview. If you couldn’t catch my nasally voice, these were the questions that I asked:

Note: I cut out scenes where fans came up and talked to him because they talked forever and I also deleted my painful giggles for the sake of your aural health).

1. What was the process of writing the CD (Yes I said CD because I’m from the 90s)?
2. Are there any other LA-based musicians that you think we should check out?
3. What are some influences on the album?
4. What are some artists that you want to collaborate with in the future?
5. If you weren’t doing this what else would you be doing?