When Ash met with Suki Waterhouse final summer time, she hadn’t written a track in six months.
The California-born singer-songwriter, who lately moved to Nashville, has taken a break from her relationship with the trade after canceling a tour to prioritize her psychological well being. “I used to be like, ‘Okay, however your expectations are actually low,'” Ashe mentioned of agreeing to take part within the Zoom name. sort and Waterhouse.
“I am going to by no means know,” Waterhouse interjected. “I do know you are resting, however you are like a ray of sunshine strolling in with these lovely flowers.”
After a day within the studio, Pushing Daisies was born, a dreamy, psychedelic collaboration between the 2. Impressed by the flowers Ash introduced (although neither of them bear in mind in the event that they had been daisies) and Waterhouse’s insomnia, the track combines tongue-in-cheek lyricism with undeniably catchy hooks and fuzzy harmonies sound mixed.
Luke Rogers
Ashe and Waterhouse — the musician, mannequin and actress whose sunny indie-pop sound earned her a spot on Taylor Swift’s Eras tour in London this summer time — are becoming a member of forces for the primary time. One assembly came about in 2020, when Ashe was visiting Waterhouse’s hometown of London.
“We simply went to have tea and chat,” Waterhouse mentioned, describing being struck by Ashe’s “radiant magnificence.” Within the music trade, “it is very uncommon to hang around and say, ‘That is a fantastic, cool man,'” Waterhouse continued. “It is all the time an enormous blessing to have the ability to speak to individuals in the identical trade anytime. So yeah, I am head over heels.
“Oh, Suki!” Ash exclaimed. “I imply, identical factor. I simply bear in mind being like, ‘Oh my gosh, that is so annoying — she’s cool, she’s all the way down to earth, and she or he’s lovely,’ and simply checking all these containers.
The 2 would see one another each time they had been in the identical place—”My first paparazzi picture was after me and her had dinner in Los Angeles,” Ash remembers—and all the time dreamed of working collectively. However the plan did not come to fruition till June 2023, when Waterhouse got here to Tennessee for a Bonnaroo present. Assembly. Fortunately, she wakened and was impressed.
“I positively felt plenty of existential concern,” Ashe mentioned. “The idea is like, I may not even be dreaming, I’d simply be lifeless. This may not be actuality in any respect.
Waterhouse feels the identical approach. “There was a synergy of understanding between us, and I believe we each felt just a little misplaced in our respective worlds,” she mentioned.
Though Ash went into the classes considering they had been engaged on a Waterhouse file — which ultimately turned Memoir of a Sparklemuffin, launched on September 13 — there was one thing magical about “Pushing Daisies” that made Ash Reinvigorated and revisiting my music once more.
“That is what introduced me again,” Ash mentioned. “I began writing once more and wrote an album the following day.” The album turned her first confessional album as a solo artist, Willson, which was launched on September 6.
Though each Ashe and Waterhouse have model new works, “Pushing Daisies” can’t be wiped from their minds. “The track was floating round on the planet, like, Oh my God, what are we going to do with this factor?” Ash mentioned. “I believe Suki texted me and mentioned, ‘You need to put this out, can we do it collectively?’ I used to be like, ‘Oh! That is what we must always do.
Luke Rogers
With this collaboration, the pair spotlight what Waterhouse calls “an unbelievable 12 months for girls in music, particularly working collectively,” particularly mentioning Charli XCX and Lorde’s ” Lady, So Complicated” remix.
“I like that [Charli’s] Open up and it feels bizarre typically and you are feeling all these fucking issues that everybody feels as a result of we’re human,” Waterhouse mentioned.
Ashe added that being a lady within the music trade — particularly within the singer-songwriter realm — might be “remoted.”
“There generally is a stigma round feminine artists not writing their very own songs, and we will run into a tough wall,” she mentioned. “I believe Suki is a rare author and I believe it is necessary for extra of us to return collectively and truthfully hear to one another’s tales and hear and be susceptible.”
For Waterhouse, speaking to Ash about setting her personal boundaries within the trade inspired her to do the identical. “It is so cool to see you taking again management of your life,” she mentioned to Ash. “Since you additionally should have a life to nourish your artwork – in any other case, the nicely will run dry. Watching Ash do that taught me lots and was very useful in studying methods to change some issues myself.
Take heed to “Pushing Daisies” beneath.
