Maddie Ashman’s ‘Her Side’ EP: Unsettling Pop for an age of AI and Unease
A debut EP from microtonal pop composer Maddie Ashman explores the uncanny and challenges musical conventions, arriving February 6 via AWAL.
There’s a scene in Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s J-horror Kairo that has become a touchstone for a specific feeling: that something is profoundly wrong. The film features a ghost moving slowly, deliberately towards the camera, forcing viewers to confront a terrifying and incomprehensible experience. It’s within this unsettling space that “Her Side,” the debut EP from microtonal pop composer Maddie Ashman, truly comes alive, celebrating the uncanny through deliberately corrupted melodies, jarring drops, and a sense of possibility that oscillates between euphoria and unease. “It’s very exciting to do something that messes with your brain,” Ashman explains, “and makes you really question everything.”
Speaking via Zoom on a sunny January morning, the Hampshire-born musician radiates enthusiasm as she discusses her ambition to provoke through her work. Ashman applies a pop sensibility to microtonal composition – an approach that disrupts the familiar sounds of Western music by utilizing intervals smaller than those found in the standard 12-note scale. The skittering synth hooks of her recent single, ‘Jaded,’ for example, orbit a chord progression that initially feels safe and reassuring, only to slowly dissolve into a “squelchy mayhem.”
“The 12 notes on the piano, technically, they’re not in tune with the physics of sound,” Ashman asserts.”You can subvert that. that’s something we take for granted, but we don’t realize everything that’s underneath it. Even if you can’t consciously hear the seventh harmonic take over and pivot, the way you internalize the music is different. It’s not necessarily a good feeling, either; it can be quite uncomfortable.”
Listeners are already reporting unsettling reactions to Ashman’s music, with some describing moments that feel “like I’m high. I don’t trust myself right now.” Others, she notes, “really melt into it.” In a world saturated with convenience, Ashman finds excitement in creating something “incredibly inconvenient.”
Unsurprisingly, Ashman’s background is rooted in classical training. Proficient in guitar, piano, and cello, she studied music at Goldsmiths.”Her side” was partially funded by several organizations as an exploration of microtonal techniques, building upon this foundation.
The discomfort Ashman elicits is intentional. She’s aware that her presentation is aggravating for some,because it changes the narrative,keeping it away from a technical,gate-kept space. It’s actually a whole universe.”
Ashman is continually refining her methods, refusing to compromise for those who find her work challenging. Having already collaborated with King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Jon Hopkins, and ‘Her Side’ mixer Leo Abrahams in live settings, she’s planning to incorporate live drums into her own performances, increasing the energy while acknowledging that, once the lights go down, there’s no “skip” button available to her audience.”If you have headphones on, you can always skip the uncomfortable bits,” she says. “But in a live habitat, you really have to sit with that.”
Writing for her next project is already underway, promising a swift follow-up to “Her Side.” “Hopefully we’ll be releasing music very shortly after this EP,” Ashman says. “With ‘Her Side,’ there’s a feeling that everything is holding together, with cracks and tension. But with the newer songs, it’s all out there. We’ve broken through those walls – it’s more direct, it’s more in your face, which feels like the natural conclusion.”
Maddie Ashman’s ‘Her Side’ is out on February 6 via AWAL.
