we've been on the road now supporting your amazing second album but it's been a long tour you know I don't mind it though it's cool I'm gonna go my birthdays at the end of the month so I'm gonna go after the tour I'm gonna go spend some time like in Italy yeah alone for a while but it's such a weird time
for me because like my 20 I'm turning 24 man I was 19 when I wrote badlands and it's like I blinked and it just feels so insane and that you know it's very interesting to this record because it's gonna come right after my 24th birthday this is such a weird thing for me it's
so it's so complicated because there's so much to unpack here but the first thing is that like it's it's the most raw thing I've ever made and not just because of the content because I make concept albums so I have these comic-book universes where I'm playing a fantasy character and each song is
protected by the next it'll make sense yeah there's like a five-part video series and I'm not really myself I'm playing someone else and now this vid this song is on it's not attached to an album that's a standalone record and that's interesting thing about music is I was supposed to be taking a break and
then I wrote this song and it's like music doesn't care about your schedule it's like the timings right you need to see the fruit yeah I need to put it out and so here I have this record where it's like it's just me you know no wig no colorful hair no character and it's about my life and about my relationship
that the world has watched so closely and so vehemently like in the past past year and a half my fans are really gonna be like whoa you know all the video content everything behind the song is like me it's just me it's like me and a white t-shirt with like normal hair just like
seeing the camera no character no cinematography no gunfight car explosion you know stuff like I usually do it's just the first thing you've ever written as Ashley and not as I think that's the point of yeah I think that's what I'm kind of getting at is that it's like it's not protected by some character or
some subplot or some you know what I mean it's like this is really me talking about my life and letting people I've always it made me it kind of gave me like an existential crisis as an artist a little bit because I've like I've pride I've for so long I've prided myself on being
an artist who's authentic and writes about her life when it's tough and then when I made this and I felt just how about it hurt so you wondered whether or not you'd even gone there before and it made me question myself as an artist make have even been accessing this part of you is the good news
every artist I've ever interviewed in my life who's gone there has a stake yeah you know I mean if you'd gone there right at the very start who knows where you'd be now I mean you've got a warm-up we've got to live a life you were 19 when you started now you're 24 you're still incredibly young
and you've got you lived a life I mean you know debut album hard work check yeah second album ambitious concept record check yeah you know hustle for your six years put in the garage check public relationship big chick you know good chick I mean these are all things you've achieved and so it makes sense
that you're gonna go ahead and you're gonna write this song now because what would you have said before how would you have even gotten that's a bit of character right that's the most important thing is that now they care and they want to know what's behind the curtain
now you are different man and I've said there's so many times no one I I mean here's a compliment for you I'm irrespective of the writing no one when it comes to stepping on the microphone to do a take on any song any situation and I've toned a bluff talk to Benny about this I've talked to PMD about this
I've talked to anyone who's actually had the guts to step in the room with you you see I've been there and take your first statement of what your verse it's Oliver for anybody else in the room and Ben he's like oh she's that she's the grace the first three seconds if any
takes she does the tone she has it's just forget about it's done I think it's because I don't even put my mouth in front of a microphone until I'm absolutely positive about what I want to say how do you even get there how do you even get there cuz a lot of people have to warm up to that you know I'm just
like I think a lot of people there's two ways of looking at it some people are comfortable like improving in the room that means one of two things and they're opposite things either means that they're so comfortable with whatever they're making or whatever they're saying they don't care if someone hears
them mess up yeah or it means they're so uncomfortable they need improv in the room to wait for the person to say that's good that's good yeah they're looking for feedback so it's one or the other it's either that they don't need any validation or they so desperately need validation yeah and I'm like a
completely different type of writer where I when I first started writing and people weren't familiar if my worker was like my workflow or I hadn't found the people I'm comfortable with yet when I first started writing I would sit in the room and like be in my phone and I could I
could feel like producers being like is she even gonna do anything and I'd leave the room to go smoke a cigarette or do whatever and they'd be like she even gonna do anything you're in the wrong game patience is the whole point 30 minutes later I'd come back in and I'd sing the whole song top to bottom and
they'd be like when did you write that and I'd be like when you were wondering if I was ever gonna do it and I come I can they cut it and so I think there is I mean I think I'm a perfectionist in that way where I don't get in front of Mike unless I know what I'm I'm gonna
say I have I only have like three demos the world's never heard most artists have like 100 and that's because I don't even start a song less I know I'm gonna finish it Wow interesting so like I've only ever made basically the songs that you've heard no vote no not really no vote cuz
I know what I want to make before I make it and I kind of reserve mm-hmm I reserved that instead of trying like Frankenstein stuff look my first message is like you know you're not bound to any thing besides yourself I've said that I said that in 2015 my apparent hurricane I said I don't you know don't belong in
no city don't belong no man that's always been my MO is you don't belong to anybody but yourself and then of course see no situations like this complicate things when you love someone almost as much as you love yourself maybe more yeah that's what's interesting about
that line cuz when I first heard it I felt like you were talking to him as much as to yourself yeah and in the past it's like oh you're talking to yourself like stand up for who you are and don't necessarily put your put your self-esteem in the hands of any situation it's not in your control this
time it was almost like a gift as well it was like he was saying it's not about you belonging to me you me you belong to you that's what I took from it 100% 100% and there's like a double entendre in that as well because I think the most important message for me with this is
like you know you don't belong to anybody but yourself and you know you're not bound to anything that doesn't serve you but the second message that I want to just remind everyone through this process is like or people or people you know what I mean like you text your best friend and you're like I'm done with
them I'm never talking to them over again and then you're dumb sorry asses back hanging out with them again next week - and if you're doing it so am i everyone's like you know people don't change people don't whenever and that's not true that's not true and I think that it's
especially convoluted when your image of yourself or your perception of yourself but look basic sociology is looking glass self we define ourselves based on how the people around us see us that's how we define ourselves so now imagine if the people around she was in ten people it's ten million
yeah and it's it through the eyes and lens of social media which is immediate into Rick's and the news is fit to print yeah yeah the news fit to print so now you have this like warped idea who you are because of 10 million strangers who are trying to tell you who they think
you are and it's like that completely you know it's like but there's an exception there that's an exception like my development of my identity and my self perception and my Higher Self and self-awareness like I kind of get a pass to experiment with it and to mess up and figure and so does he and so does
everyone I also you know you're being fed self reflection from so many different so uninformed Starr says I think it's the only thing that I've experienced in the past couple years that made me put my phone down and say I don't care what they think and I've you know me you've not me for a while now
and you know I've beaten myself up about what people think about me and about what people think about and so in a weird way like this relationship has been one of the most liberating thing that's ever happened to me because it made me put my phone down and go I don't care what you think cuz this makes me happy you