Please Support Ashley's Songwriting Project
Hello beautiful people.
This past year has been one of great turmoil and heartache. Like so many others, I was at a loss as I watched my entire business industry grind to a halt and crumble, with no work to be had, and no end in site. However, there was a silver lining. While I struggled emotionally and financially, I found myself absolutely thriving creatively. More so than I have in the past ten years. Go figure. When I actually had the time and space to let my brain create, it created, and WOW did it surprise me! As the stress and worry grew, I used those emotions as a bridge to gap my years long writers block, and suddenly I had a plethora of new music that was begging to be heard. While Taylor was writing two entire full length albums (god bless her and what amazing albums they are), I was cultivating new songs of my own. For the first time in years, I wanted to share my songs with all of you, with the world, but the unfortunate timing of my creative flareup and my simultaneous unemployment left me unable to do so... at least not in the way that I wanted the songs to be heard; professionally and in a studio.
A second silver lining. In November, I voiced my desires in an off handed, semi comedic post on facebook about possibly wanting to create an album but being financially unable to do so. Out of the blue, one kind acquaintance of mine, who I hadn’t spoken to since High School, immediately reached out about donating money for the album when he heard about my struggles. Just like that. No questions asked. I was absolutely FLOORED by his generous act. I asked him why he wanted to help, and he replied that "times were hard, that we needed to start helping people, and that he could see how much I love making music." It made me super emotional, and also started me thinking. Perhaps there are other kind souls out there who would also be willing to help make this long time dream of mine come true. I wondered, and pondered whether or not to ask for more help. I've come to the conclusion that if you don't ask for help, you'll never get it. So that's where hopefully you come in.
STARTING THE PROJECT: In December, I teamed with producer Jesse Fischer to start creating my first fully produced new single, "Lived to Love You". I used the generous facebook donation as a deposit, and will be using a big chunk of my savings for the remainder of the cost. This one man's generous contribution allowed me to start the recording process on this one song, but that's pretty much all I can afford to make. With your much needed support, I can continue the project to completion.
THE GOAL: Making music costs A LOT! Ultimately, I'd love to create a fully produced EP, somewhere between 3-6 songs, that will be available on all streaming platforms sometime in the next six months. Since each individual song is different in structure and musical need, they vary in cost, so I'm not sure exactly how many songs the above goal will actually cover. My hope is more than less as I have a ton of music "standing in the wings waiting to go on" (sorry, theater nerd here). Some funds would go to streaming platform costs, and mastering costs, and miscellaneous costs such as album pictures and design.
A LITTLE ABOUT ME: I started performing at the age of 3 and haven't stopped since. (Here I am ages 5 and 7)
I was a theater kid, but sometime in middle school, I wrote my first song, dabbling on the piano and recording them on my old boombox. The songwriting continued well into high school. I was getting pretty good at it, channeling my teenaged angst into an array of heartfelt love songs. It was sometime after I was on the tv show "America's Most Talented Kid" on NBC, that I decided I needed to learn the guitar to further my writing, and so I looked up a few chords on the internet, dusted off an old guitar laying around the house, and wrote my first guitar song later that day. It's been my writing partner ever since. (Below with Mario Lopez on AMTK)
At the tail end of my senior year of high school, my parents helped me fund my first six song debut CD entitled "Blind to the Light", and at just 17 years old, I headed off a budding and promising music career.
But like all things ebb and flow, I was on a BFA Theater track in college, and somewhere along the way, my music career got sidetracked as I pursued other ventures. I never stopped writing however, and while I have been hired to write songs for other artists in the interim, for the last ten years, I have harbored albums worth of my own tunes within the confines of my iPhone recorder and Garage Band files. The only people who have heard theses labors of love are family members and close friends. It took a PANDEMIC, and a new love of writing, to break open all the barriers I had locked in place for years, and finally DO something about it. I hope you will support me on my musical journey, and help make my songwriting dreams come true.
Special thank you to Kevin Dickson, who got the ball rolling with his incredibly selfless and generous donation.
Love, Ashley
Donators will be the first to hear my new songs before they go live to the general public! In the meanwhile, here is one of the songs I plan on recording entitled "Last Goodbye". The video is from an Instagram Live I did last year! Hope you enjoy.
This past year has been one of great turmoil and heartache. Like so many others, I was at a loss as I watched my entire business industry grind to a halt and crumble, with no work to be had, and no end in site. However, there was a silver lining. While I struggled emotionally and financially, I found myself absolutely thriving creatively. More so than I have in the past ten years. Go figure. When I actually had the time and space to let my brain create, it created, and WOW did it surprise me! As the stress and worry grew, I used those emotions as a bridge to gap my years long writers block, and suddenly I had a plethora of new music that was begging to be heard. While Taylor was writing two entire full length albums (god bless her and what amazing albums they are), I was cultivating new songs of my own. For the first time in years, I wanted to share my songs with all of you, with the world, but the unfortunate timing of my creative flareup and my simultaneous unemployment left me unable to do so... at least not in the way that I wanted the songs to be heard; professionally and in a studio.
A second silver lining. In November, I voiced my desires in an off handed, semi comedic post on facebook about possibly wanting to create an album but being financially unable to do so. Out of the blue, one kind acquaintance of mine, who I hadn’t spoken to since High School, immediately reached out about donating money for the album when he heard about my struggles. Just like that. No questions asked. I was absolutely FLOORED by his generous act. I asked him why he wanted to help, and he replied that "times were hard, that we needed to start helping people, and that he could see how much I love making music." It made me super emotional, and also started me thinking. Perhaps there are other kind souls out there who would also be willing to help make this long time dream of mine come true. I wondered, and pondered whether or not to ask for more help. I've come to the conclusion that if you don't ask for help, you'll never get it. So that's where hopefully you come in.
STARTING THE PROJECT: In December, I teamed with producer Jesse Fischer to start creating my first fully produced new single, "Lived to Love You". I used the generous facebook donation as a deposit, and will be using a big chunk of my savings for the remainder of the cost. This one man's generous contribution allowed me to start the recording process on this one song, but that's pretty much all I can afford to make. With your much needed support, I can continue the project to completion.
THE GOAL: Making music costs A LOT! Ultimately, I'd love to create a fully produced EP, somewhere between 3-6 songs, that will be available on all streaming platforms sometime in the next six months. Since each individual song is different in structure and musical need, they vary in cost, so I'm not sure exactly how many songs the above goal will actually cover. My hope is more than less as I have a ton of music "standing in the wings waiting to go on" (sorry, theater nerd here). Some funds would go to streaming platform costs, and mastering costs, and miscellaneous costs such as album pictures and design.
A LITTLE ABOUT ME: I started performing at the age of 3 and haven't stopped since. (Here I am ages 5 and 7)
I was a theater kid, but sometime in middle school, I wrote my first song, dabbling on the piano and recording them on my old boombox. The songwriting continued well into high school. I was getting pretty good at it, channeling my teenaged angst into an array of heartfelt love songs. It was sometime after I was on the tv show "America's Most Talented Kid" on NBC, that I decided I needed to learn the guitar to further my writing, and so I looked up a few chords on the internet, dusted off an old guitar laying around the house, and wrote my first guitar song later that day. It's been my writing partner ever since. (Below with Mario Lopez on AMTK)At the tail end of my senior year of high school, my parents helped me fund my first six song debut CD entitled "Blind to the Light", and at just 17 years old, I headed off a budding and promising music career.But like all things ebb and flow, I was on a BFA Theater track in college, and somewhere along the way, my music career got sidetracked as I pursued other ventures. I never stopped writing however, and while I have been hired to write songs for other artists in the interim, for the last ten years, I have harbored albums worth of my own tunes within the confines of my iPhone recorder and Garage Band files. The only people who have heard theses labors of love are family members and close friends. It took a PANDEMIC, and a new love of writing, to break open all the barriers I had locked in place for years, and finally DO something about it. I hope you will support me on my musical journey, and help make my songwriting dreams come true. Special thank you to Kevin Dickson, who got the ball rolling with his incredibly selfless and generous donation.
Love, Ashley
Donators will be the first to hear my new songs before they go live to the general public! In the meanwhile, here is one of the songs I plan on recording entitled "Last Goodbye". The video is from an Instagram Live I did last year! Hope you enjoy.
