On her latest single “Pretty Shiny Things,” Ashton said, “I wrote that song three years ago. I woke up in the middle of the night in a dead sweat, at a time when I was going through some tough things. I went to the end of my bed, where my piano was sitting and I wrote half of it, the depressing half, and I sent it to my best friend Emily Landis. We were both in college at the time, and she sent it to me finished with the resolution.”
“We just love writing songs together and we kept it for three years as we tried to pick the perfect time to put it out. That perfect time happened to be now,” she said.
Her plans for the immediate future are to put out more songs and allow herself to have the creative space to put out more content and music videos. “That way, the fans can get to know me naturally, as opposed to just one song and one picture being marketed for a long period of time,” she said. “I want to put out a lot of things that feel authentic so that it feels usual, friendly and human to them.”
Ashton acknowledged that her music is inspired by true stories. “I started writing poems in middle school and those turned into songs, once I put melodies into them,” she said. “The lyrics are definitely the most important part to me.”
For young and aspiring singer-songwriters, she said, “Tell the truth and know who you are. Work every day and make sure you stretch your creative muscle, or else it will get tighter and you have to work harder for it to come back.”
Digital transformation of the music industry
On the impact of technology on the music business, Ashton said, “Honestly, I am new and I have only put out music in this new landscape. I am a bit jealous of the ’90s artists who got to sell CDs before social media. Also, the things that are the biggest burden are also the biggest tools. Whatever gets our music out to fans within reason is fine by me.”
Regarding the passage of the Music Modernization Act, she said, “I thought that was great. David Israelite, who headed the Music Modernization Act, is such a great guy and such a role model who really fights for the ‘little people.’ He took it upon himself to be the champion of that. I thought it was amazing.”
After already being afforded the privilege to sing with Keith Urban, Ashton listed Eric Church, Chris Stapleton and Brothers Osborne as her dream male duet choices in the music scene. “Keith Urban was definitely one for the bucket list,” she said, with a sweet laugh. “Brothers Osborne are so sweet and humble,” she added.
Ashton defined the word success as “steady growth no matter how slow or fast” and “always being true to herself as an artist.”
For her fans, she concluded about her new single, “They are not alone. Everybody has flaws and everybody feels pressured to be something that they are not, and I am here to tell them that we all feel that way. We all want to be seen and understood for who we are. Hopefully, I give them the power to listen to their gut.”
“Pretty Shiny Things” is available on iTunes.
To learn more about singer-songwriter Kassi Ashton, follow her on Twitter.
