Hi, The Rodeo! I’m Asha. Thanks for having me here! A bit of an intro about my new album for you…
‘Ego Ride’ is a story of growth and opening. A collection of songs that embody joy, heartbreak, playfulness, tenderness, light, grief, loss and most importantly change. It is not a break up album, it is an album about what happens from a break up. It’s a story of identity revelations and breakthroughs, sparked by heartbreak. It is a story about leaving toxic trapped partnerships, leaping open armed into community and friendships and the discovery of the queer self. It is a story written and dedicated to my younger self, that the meter of your world will keep on running and there is hope to be had.
These songs have a fundamentally ‘together’ feeling made possible by the collaboration between my band and Sam Cromack (producer and engineer of the album). All songs were recorded live together in one room and the sound of the album shapeshifts from indie pop to piano ballad to psychedelic indie rock to folktronica.
Stranger
Stranger opens up the album channeling a built up question – how are you to know and share yourself with someone if you’re never being given the space to explore or question it? The song speaks to being lost and trapped inside of a relationship and tackles themes around codependency, identity, voice and desire for freedom.
Keep My Shit Together
This song was written one hot and sweaty day on my piano in December. I was feeling stuck and existential which inspired me to make fun of myself. The goal was to bring lightness to hot and heavy stressful feelings around Christmas time. We recorded this in mid-December 2022, aircon cranking and all in organised matching white tank tops.
Baby Don’t Fight It
Baby Don’t Fight It was the first song we recorded with Sam back in December 2021. I remember pinching myself driving to the studio with Kaleah (drummer), having listened to Ball Park Music since I was a young teen. The day in the studio was so effortless and magical, I think we all knew there’d be more of it to come. This song has a pretty stripped back band arrangement which speaks to the song’s story – it’s about accepting the light and dark parts of a relationship and not fighting any emotion that comes up. I’d like to see it as a really sad birthday card in song format, missing, hating and celebrating someone all at the same time.
Golden Hour
This was the first song I wrote for the album in September 2021! It feels like a lifetime ago, where I was writing just to make sense of heartbreak and life changing so rapidly. I remember showing it to Sam when I came into the studio by myself to talk about making an album. It always felt like a half-written, oddly structured song until the band put new life into it. My favourite section will always be the free, open-falling outro where the song finally gets its relief and closure of having to let go of the past.
Tank Tops
I could write what Tank Tops is about forever. It’s a song that means so many things to me – it’s personal, it’s about my identity and the community around me. It’s a song about entering a new phase in my life and how my queer identity has taught me to love.
Spinning
I’ve never written a song like Spinning before and it is so special to me. It is hopeful and tender and attempts to showcase the gratitude I have for my life, hopefully in a not-too-cheesy kind of way. I remember playing on the piano after a band rehearsal at Prawn Studio by myself one night in May 2022. Alone at the studio where we were making the album, it gave me a moment to reflect on how stoked a younger version of myself would be if they saw me now. Time can feel so slow and stiff and then one day you wake up and you’re living a totally different life where you can feel heartache ending and love beginning.
Brand New Bitch
Brand New Bitch was inspired by Haley Blais’ lyricism in her song ‘Coolest Fucking Bitch In Town’. How tough but melancholic the song is feels almost humorous and I regularly feel the tug to become a better, newer version of myself.
Reply
I wrote this song during a thunderstorm in the shipping container I teach music lessons in. It sounded like a blizzard on the roof and I was reflecting on moments that I responded to too strongly or not strongly enough.
Cruise Control
To be in cruise control, is to ride steady and smoothly through the storms of rough climate, harsh roads, lame parties and undesired romantic gestures. It’s a phrase I have kept close, after a lesson learnt on testing my boundaries and finding the confidence to trust my gut. The body always wins and I’ve learnt to listen. I would rather feel safe within my body than have somebody like me and I would rather be myself than try to utilise a sense of false esteem. It’s a growing up type of anthem, cultivating comfort in my own skin and exercising what feels right and what doesn’t.
Ego Ride
Ego Ride was the last song I wrote for the album in March 2023. I had been saying the album was finished even though it didn’t feel like it. When I wrote it, it felt like the perfect wrap up song, tying all of the stories of the album together without meaning to. It speaks to self-doubt and being able to see when your ego is driving. Each time the song’s dynamics rise, it feels like I’m popping the bubble of a spiral and coming back into myself. Sam and I had so much fun adding a pulse to this song as well as the subtle vocoder, which really makes the song breathe.
Listen to the new album Ego Ride by Asha Jefferies on Spotify HERE.
