North Carolina-native Ashley Strongarm left behind the idealized vision of the white picket fence and societal expectations when she moved to New York to pursue careers in music and content strategy. Ashley’s new hot single, released today, “Pushing Daisies” is exactly about that – leaving behind a life in which she was expected to have children in her 20s, living in an idyllic house with a white picket fence, which is common in the South. That prospect looked bleak to her. As a result, this song is Ashley’s artistic expression of the dissonance at watching friends go down that path while she herself worked toward gigs in dark dive bars.
A bright melody strategically misleads listeners into thinking the track is thematically happier than it actually is. In contrast, Ashley’s darker, withdrawn, and poignant lyrics captures the conflicting feelings of adulthood. Take a listen now, available iTunes and Spotify! The song paints a picture of someone who does not have their life together, feeling a sense of being on the outside. Ashley has remarked that this is her tribute to the birth of her new life and a goodbye to her old life. The song began as a simple voice memo on the singer’s phone in 2018, two years after her move to Manhattan.
This release is promised to be the first of many more to come, Ashley’s Instagram declares, after a year of difficulty and challenges with coping around the pandemic. Justin Craig, Grammy-nominated record producer, composer, and musical director, co-wrote and produced “Pushing Daisies” with Ashley. She also counts herself lucky to be able to connect and work with the video’s New York-based creative director, Benjamin Lieber, alongside videographer Kris Khunachak.
The accompanying music video opens with imagery of the singer’s golden-eyeshadowed-eye and her in a daisy yellow dress with dramatic, petal-like sleeves. This is followed by four minutes of cinematic, abstract visuals, ‘50s attire, including a giant flower head and psychedelic projections. Though full of creative drama, the video also reflects her vulnerability around the subject of transitioning from a place of not belonging to finding a place of self-acceptance. The music video will be released February 12th.
The singer also touts herself as a musician and songwriter who now resides in Brooklyn, New York. Her beginnings are thanks to becoming a featured musician on the now-defunct Vine, where she helped form the band Dear Ears with musicians Leslie Laine and Whitney Galaher. That indie folk trio released an EP, four music videos, and a full-length album named “Doe Eyed.” In 2019, the group released a second album titled “Instead of Lying” that continued their signature indie folk style. Ashley later went on to release a solo EP titled “For Ghosts.” This 5-track EP, released in December 2019, took on a blend of folk, southern rock, and indie surf sound and revolved around topics of relationships. The final track on the EP, “I Don’t Feel Anything” was also her debut single ahead of the EP release and is the most played song in her discography at almost 75,000 Spotify streams. Find Ashely Strongarm with over 37,000 subscribers on Instagram as @ashleystrongarm.