Niall Ashley's artist name matches their ID these days.
Last year, the UK wunderkind discarded a previous moniker and all its baggage to start fresh, setting fire to artifice. The tender, curious, blistering result, Subject Access, sees Niall directing sounds off-grid and shedding old skin. They stare pain down and level up resilience. Lyrics don't so much exorcise unwelcome haunts but wish them well.
Leadoff track "Ghost of Your Life" takes stock of tough love's cyclical echoes. "Devil's Pie" marries juiced-up minor chords with all things haram. "How Dare You" reads like a feud ("Use my blame as a locket") but plays like a boom bap-themed block party powered off by HAL. All in all, the EP is an 11-minute emotion-coaster with atom-bending Unreal realms. Ashley continues to fashion each of these physics-free videos from scratch. A bedroom workshop makes for good kindling in their fiery video for "Frightened." A stormed heart get shipwrecked on "Incendio." A band of clones overtake the matrix stage on "Mademoiselle." Assume the lore runs deep.
We hope you enjoy this mini interview with Niall, who gets paid the moment you support their music on Catalog. Imagery courtesy of Niall and Dan Horitz. Thank you for reading, watching, listening, caring <3
Siber: Starting half-seriously... is there 100% fidelity between the dance abilities of IRL Niall and "Ghost of Your Life" Niall? What went into the creation of that virtual realm?
Niall: 100% fidelity, yes, hahah! That's all my motion capture! So right now, I'm staying at a friend's place. I just set up my motion capture suit at night with my laptop and freestyle the movement! Also, an excuse to use my dwindling breakdancing and capoeira days; I've always wanted to hit the ginga in a music video.
Siber: Would you be open to telling me if I have this lyric right: "We were stars, just to be hunted / I am my father, I am my mother"? And sharing what experience sparked it?
Niall: Last bit is right, but it's "Raised me with scars, just to be hunted." This line is a reference to the family trauma passed on to you as a child and how it becomes a glowing signal to all the worst people who step foot into your life. It almost sets you up to fail because you’ve pre-installed unresolved wounds that can be used as a free manipulative too. A mechanism in the hands of a bad actor.
The sad reality is that most of the time, our parents or family have the best intentions when giving you these tough-love life lessons. For example, I was thrown out of the house young to instill discipline in me, to teach me how to fend for myself. The intention was plausible and came from a valid concern, but realistically, it was just repeating what my family went through as kids.
If you've played Tekken, it's literally Heihachi and Kazuya throwing each other off increasingly dangerous cliffs and being like, "Ha! Sure showed that maniac," then being shocked when they emerge with a red eye and a bone to pick.
Siber: The project is an 11-minute odyssey (compliment). How does the EP's final form compare to the private journey it took? Was there a long process of elimination, refinement, chiseling, or the opposite?
Niall: Complete chaos. I mean, there's a song in here like "How Dare You" that was realistically written and produced in a day, just missing that last 5% push over the finish line. And then there are songs like "Ghost of Your Life" and "Incendio" that were in the works for almost a year, on and off.
I have a really bad habit of tapping into this ultra-focused flow state for 24 hours. Recording and producing with this finesse that I can't replicate a tenth of the next day. I have no idea how I thought of those chords on "How Dare You." It just hit me in the shower on a depressing day. The next day, I couldn’t find any solution to extend it, and after a few more days, I accepted that was it.
I find it's like trying to capture lightning. Sometimes it strikes multiple times in short succession, and if you’re lucky, you manage to capture enough to call it a day and complete the work. Other times, it strikes once and then once again six months down the line. One part I’m forgetting is how depressed I was while writing most of this music. It really impacted my ability to just finish writing on the day, when I’d already sunk so deep into the world of the song.
Siber: Listening back to your own EP now, is there a specific moment that really embodies your own creative growth? What are you proud of?
Niall: To be honest, I think everything. It was my first time producing in different time signatures and off-grid for "Incendio" and "Ghost of Your Life," which was a real test for me and my five beats a day mentality. I had to unlearn everything that making beats with presets taught me. Speed and output suffered, but new tools emerged from that destruction, I think.
I stopped punching in and developed my writing, trying to be much more intentional with what I'm saying, and also with what I'm not saying. I think there's a lot more space on this tape, more areas of silence.
Although it's my least emotional song, I'd actually say "Devil's Pie" represents the most growth for me. I really allowed myself to just have fun and ignore the current zeitgeist playing devil’s advocate on my shoulder. This song is completely uncool to me, which is exactly what I needed to realize how lame it is to be a nonchalant British artist who can’t let loose.
Siber: You've spoken a bit about resting one artist identity to embrace yourself, and your upbringing, through songwriting. Love and its cousins feel like a pretty constant force on Subject Access. Are there any sources or absences of love in your life, past or present, that played a role in propelling you through this transformation and release?
Niall: The repetitive notion of love and common R&B tropes is a nod to all the slow R&B my mother would play. It's the music I didn’t choose, but I was learning all the intricacies bilingually. So when I think of my resting voice, or the most visceral singing riff, it always defaults to a line with "baby" or professions of love.
For the first time, I tried not to fight that, no matter how uncomfortable it made me, and sort of own it. But songwriting-wise, the loves detailed are very much based in the real world, past and present. I think Mademoiselle encapsulates this motif perfectly.
Niall gets paid the moment you support their music on Catalog.
