From head of choir and the Maqupellas, to writing songs and making her own films, Ava Bridges ’24 has demonstrated her talent and love for artistry in many different forms. Ava has spread her talent throughout the Groton Arts community through singing, songwriting, and filmmaking.
How did you discover your love for singing?
I feel like it was sort of ingrained in my family. My brother is a big singer, he does acapella at college, and my family’s always been a huge singing family—my mom sings a lot too.
What inspired your love for songwriting?
Taylor Swift is a big part of it, I’m not gonna lie, but I always felt like I didn’t really have a way of expressing my emotions until I started songwriting. I just picked up my guitar and started venting.
What’s the song you’re most proud of writing and what’s it about?
I feel like I have one that I’m more proud of every week, it sort of changes day by day. Right now I wrote this one called He Will Always Be the Better Man, and it’s about the patriarchy but it’s also the more personal aspect of it, it’s not just “Oh being a woman sucks,” it’s very specific. It’s about being viewed as something that inspires other people instead of someone who can actually create their own art.
What about your interest in filmmaking? What inspired that?
Other films. The first one I saw that really connected with me was this movie called Hugo, and there’s a part of it where this old man rediscovers his love for film. I rewatched it a couple of years ago, and I don’t know, I started crying. I was like “Oh my god! This movie is why I’m so inspired to do this.”
What was your experience making a short film during your Spring FSA like?
The experience was amazing. I wrote and directed this short film with [English teacher] Irenae [Aigbedion]’s help. We started off just watching movie trailers to see the vibes we wanted to go with, and then we found a cast: it was Tim Hebard ’24 and Mei Matsui ’23 and a bunch of other people in smaller roles. They were so down to do anything that I could tell them the most ridiculous thing, I’d be like, “Hey, so, I think we’re going to have a scene where you’re just going to shower in your clothes, and then in the rest of the short film you’re just going to be drenched. All of your clothes are going to be soaked in water.” And Mei was like, “Sounds good, let’s do it.” Everyone was really excited to just be a part of it so it was really fun.
What are your plans for either film and/or songwriting in the future?
Well, for songwriting, my goal is, by the time I graduate from Groton, I want to release a song on Spotify and Apple Music. So I’m trying right now to find a producer that I like and then I’m going to try to commission them to produce something for me. In terms of film, I’m hoping to study it in college after Groton. For both songwriting and film, I’m going to continue pursuing them and see what comes out of it.
If you could say one thing to students who are interested in singing/songwriting or filmmaking, what would you say?
Just do it! I started songwriting before I knew how to play the guitar, so you don’t necessarily need to have an instrument, you just need to have an idea and a will. Just try it, and show it to one person and go from there!
