Het hoeft vanzelfsprekend niet steeds loodzwaar en stikdonker te zijn. Wat te denken van de luchtige Poprock van Asia Marie (v) en Aaron Wood (g) uit Illinois? Op 13 december brachten ze hun tweede album Over The Moon uit via Rise Records. Noem hen gerust een meer poppy Paramore, ook al kunnen ze wat rauwer uitpakken (hun debuut Wildfire laat wat meer Poppunk horen). Op dit album vooral veel electronische beats, weinig guitaren, al zitten de songs verdorie goed in elkaar en mag de engelachtige stem van Asia niet onderschat worden: ook live blijft die overeind. Neen, het album koop ik niet, maar een plaatsje in onze Sounds moet kunnen...voor ze de charts bestormen en we ze bij de platte, commerciële pop indelen.
Even voorstellen
Alternative rock darlings Ashland have released their highly anticipated new album, "Over The Moon", out now via Rise Records. The band has also shared a brand new music video for their song “OMG". “'OMG' is the most honest music video we’ve created so far” shares the band oon the new single. “It takes a slightly humorous but honest look at how anxiety and low self esteem can impact someone’s life and how the power of choice, persistence and positive perspective can turn everything around”. On the new album, the band shares “We’re so excited to finally share 'Over The Moon' with the world! We faced a lot of challenges and heart ache during the making of this album but we’re thankful that we were able to pour all of those emotions into a collection of songs that will remain close to our hearts forever. 'Over The Moon' has a lot of moods and feelings throughout- the good, the bad and the ugly”. Hailing from a small-town in Illinois, Ashland took their name from a long-ago phenomenon that speaks to both destruction and transcendence. “My grandma told me a story about an old town that had been burned down by a fire and was renamed Ashland once it was rebuilt. We love the idea of beauty and growth coming from pain and struggle, and I think it really connects with the whole spirit of our band” explains vocalist Asia Marie, who co-founded the band with Aaron Wood.
Ashland formed in 2014 after Aaron and Asia linked up through a Craigslist ad. Despite their shared passion for punk and post-hardcore, the two musicians came from wildly different backgrounds: Asia grew up singing in church, choir, and musicals and taught herself piano and guitar as a kid, while Aaron took up guitar in fifth grade and then played in bands all throughout high school (in addition to producing for local acts later on). With Aaron describing the duo as “driven to the point of insanity”, the band soon began booking shows every place they could: VFW halls, friends’ basements, the parking lot of a Hardee’s in nearby Springfield. With their self-released EP "Interim" arriving in 2015, Ashland soon adopted a highly collaborative creative process by mining the songwriting material that Asia had secretly stored up for years. “She’d been hiding all these songs forever, and finally we pulled a ton of them out and started working on them” Aaron recalls. “We’d had a strong chemistry from the beginning but taking a more collective approach to songwriting really helped refine our sound and set us on the path we’re on now”. On their sophomore album "Over the Moon", Ashland channel that spirit into a batch of songs spotlighting boldly inventive guitar work and radiant vocal presence. Mainly produced by Kris Crummett (Dance Gavin Dance, Issues) and partly recorded with their longtime collaborator and close friend Matthew Amelung (a producer/engineer who passed away from cancer in June 2019), the band’s Rise Records debut unfolds with an entirely original sound that merges perfect pop melodies, genre-bending experimentation, and a consistent element of rock-and-roll.
