- Our next guest is a very talented musician,
who's song "Kings & Queens"
has been stuck in all our heads for the last year.
Her latest single is called "My Head & My Heart,"
and it's also on the album, "Heaven & Hell."
Clearly she enjoys a good conjunction, y'all.
Please welcome Ava Max, everybody.
(audience clapping) (bright upbeat music)
- Hey. - Hey.
You look incredible.
(bright upbeat music continues)
- Hello, again! - Hi.
- I know we can't hug.
Hot air balloons are like my favorite thing.
- You know, I've never been on one, but-
- You haven't? - I'm living through
my shirt right now.
- I told my friends, okay, funny story,
I love going on them.
But I told my friends, were in like Scotland or Ireland,
I can't remember, I think Scotland.
And they were like, "Okay, we'll do it, we'll do it."
And they were afraid, and literally landed so hard.
Something happened and it fell over. (laughs)
- Oh, my God, that's terrifying.
- And I was like the one going,
"You're gonna love it." (audience laughing)
Anyway. Well, the last time that I saw you,
we talked about how you got started.
But I didn't know your mama was a singer?
- Yes. She has a beautiful voice.
She can out-sing me any day.
She has an incredible Operatic voice, you know?
She never fulfilled it fully her dream,
'cause she had kids, but...
And she was, you know, an immigrant to the States,
and she got to work immediately,
'cause they didn't have money
when they came to the States, and they didn't have jobs.
So, you know, she dedicated her life to her kids.
- So, you were born in Wisconsin,
but so, where were your parents from?
- [Ava] Albania?
- I feel like there's a lot of great singers from Albania.
Like there's you, there's Rita Ora.
There's Dua Lipa, there's Bebe Rexha.
There's a lot of singers from...
What's happening there?
What's happening? - I don't know. (laughs)
I don't know, but my entire family,
grandma, grandpas, uncles-
- And you're all unbelievably ugly.
That's yeah. (Ava laughing)
You're also all very hard to look at,
so that's yeah.
I mean, what's happening there?
What's, why?
- Very good makeup. - It's the good water?
Like what's happening?
Like, is it a passionate?
- I think it's in our blood.
It's very passionate. - Okay.
- We're very passionate.
We're kind of like,
you know, like we use their hands a lot.
We're very like...
We kind of sing our words in a way. (laughs)
Everyone tells me, "Oh, you sing kind of when you talk."
And I'm just like, "I don't know, but maybe I-"
- You just said, "I don't know, but."
(audience laughing)
- Maybe I was always meant to sing. (laughs)
- It's awesome though.
I didn't realize how many people were from Albania.
I was like, "Wow. All their relatives."
I thought that was interesting.
- I love that.
They're like basically my sisters.
And I feel like they're like my musical sisters.
- Yeah. It's a good bunch.
Y'all would be the most amazing girl group ever.
Well, do you remember the very first time
that you ever tried to write a song?
Cause you're a writer as well, not just a singer?
- I do remember.
There was a few instances.
One, I wrote a song called "Treat Me Like A Lady" at 13.
- At 13. - And what did I know about-
- You were getting puberty, yeah.
- What did I know though?
So, I was way ahead of my female empowerment game back then.
- Yes. - Like I knew what
I was gonna write about even way back then,
with that subconsciously.
- You noticed something was wrong early on?
- I didn't like the way women,
I was like looking how they were treated.
And I wrote a song called "Treat Me Like A Lady."
Like who does that at 13?
- I love that. - Very strange.
But, I don't really remember it.
I just remember the title and it being very like soulful.
It was kinda like an R&B song.
- Yeah. - And I just went in-
- My first songs were like that too.
I think that was the '90s influence really for me too.
Yes. - The best.
Yes. All the best R&B, wow!
Well, your new single is "My Head & My Heart."
So, what were you going through?
Was that a relationship kind of thing, or friendship or?
- You know, I'm always living my art.
It's very strange.
- Do you ever find that you're...
Like you feel like you're like fortune telling?
Like, you'll write a song,
and then it happens? - And then it happens.
Did that ever happen to you?
'Cause that-
- Yes. - It's insanity.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- And I'm starting to- - And did I project it?
- Exactly, did I project-
- I talk about these things in therapy.
(audience laughing)
- I think I need to do. (laughs)
'Cause I put it out there, and then it happens to me,
and then I'm like, "Oh, wow. Life imitates art in a way."
And it makes sense 'cause energy is everything.
What you put out there, you get back.
And so, yeah, all my songs are kind of me right now.
I am a torn,
torn kind of part.
I'm always like this or that.
Like, I'm always...
I never know what I truly want in relationships, you know?
And that's just who I am.
- And I think that we don't...
Maybe you don't have to know that.
Maybe it's like a process, like that you learn,
and it's always gonna be different with different people?
- Exactly. I feel like you'll know when you know, right?
When it's... - Well, I don't know.
- Right? (laughs) - I don't know,
anymore. (audience laughing)
- Let's just say that.
- Is it true that your mom,
you said she studied Opera, right?
Did you ever do any of that kinda stuff with her?
Did she ever- - You know, I never-
- Sing in the house, where you're like,
let me sing with her?
- I always sang pop, she always sang opera.
So, it was chest, my voice and hers,
was like all head voice, and I can never do what she did.
- It's very Mariah Carey.
I feel like her mom was an opera singer.
- So weird, right? - And then she did pop.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
- Yeah. We also have the same birthmark.
I know that sounds crazy.
- You do? - I'm not-
- The fact that you know that, doesn't sound weird at all.
- (laughs) It's I love Mariah Carey.
I love Mariah Carey. - I do too. I do too.
- My number one.
And so, I remember seeing a picture.
I think the "Butterfly" record is on the end.
She was like...
She was pretty much like just a bra,
like pretty much naked. - Yeah.
- And I used to- - It was like Tan.
It looks like everything was there like brown and beige.
- I have birth mark right underneath my belly button,
same one. - Wow!
- And our mothers are Opera singers.
Mariah, did we? - I didn't know
she was there like ultimate.
She's very nice.
- I love-
- I've run into her a few times, she was so nice.
- In a way, her songs taught me how to sing.
I would be in my basement singing her songs
over, and over, and over. - She's one of mine as well.
Yeah. - The best.
- And especially just her octaves, like are insane.
- Yes. - It's like, "Shut up!"
- I'm like, "Why you so good?" - So talented, yeah.
(audience laughing)
Well, Ava's single is called "My Head & My Heart."
It's on her Heaven & Hell" album.
Check it out, everybody, you're gonna wanna check it out.