Ashley answers the zoom call with an immediate shot of her cat on her pillow — he is the size of the pillow.
office— He’s so big!
Ashley— Do you hear him purring? He’s so good. Living with furry creatures has actually changed my life for the better.
Where'd you grow up?
Nashville, Tennessee.
I can hear the Nashville in your music. What was that like? Did you have a musical upbringing?
Not really, to be honest. My family is pretty non-musical. My parents didn’t grow up putting on records, but I grew up listening to some good local radio stations. When I was like, five years old, I remember getting singing lessons. My parents’ reason for that wasn’t because I loved music, but because I had a really squeaky voice and they were like, “We gotta fix this” [laughs]
I didn’t have a stage mom, but I’m glad I didn’t. My parents were ultimately super supportive of whatever I wanted to do, even if they didn’t get it. My dad was a Cuban immigrant trying to be a doctor, but I will say they had great records at home — they just didn’t have a record player. So, they did have it in them — they just had to let it go when they had kids. I do remember though, last time I went home, my dad was like, “Have you heard of Wet Leg?” And I was like, “How the fuck do you know Wet Leg?” [laughs] Shout out my dad.
Shout out your dad. But that’s so funny. That would be like if my dad was like, “Have you heard of boygenius?” I’d be like, “Who taught you that?”
Growing up in Nashville helped me out, because so many people there are already musical because their parents worked in music. And I did take piano growing up, but I never really expected to do music at all. It’s just kind of something that happened and I went along with it. I was actually a musical theater girlie. I have a full-ass degree in musical theater, but I’ve worked a long time to kind of rid myself of those isms. Now, I’m not embarrassed by it like I used to be.
I will say, when I started making music, I had moved back to Nashville after living in Argentina for a year, and I had written a few songs there, but I wasn't trying to be a musician… I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. But I started dating Ian — we were together for three years — he’s in my band and helped me produce my first two EPs — he’s my best friend and he really helped me out of those isms. He would hear my songs and say, “I’m not saying this is bad, but you sound like a theater girl. Too much vibrato” And I was like, “I don’t want to sound like a theater girl!” So I kind of had to learn how to not sing like that.
