Today, LA-based Ashlynn Malia shares a video for the track "Open," performed live at Smiley Studios. Ashlynn Malia's debut EP, rather be alone, is out now.
Speaking about "temporary," Ashlynn said "I got the inspiration for "temporary" from a dream. I woke up with feelings for someone
Ashlynn Malia felt emotionally starved by her environment and personal fears when she started writing rather be alone. The EP depicts Malia letting relationships last past their initial burst of passion and energy, acting on impulse to be closer to someone and welcoming their need for intimacy, all while accepting some relationships' inevitable abandonment and failure.
rather be alone shows a girl torn apart, winding her way through her circular deliberations, and ultimately growing to live with the forlorn conclusion that she can live with the empty spaces that relationships would fill. Life is much less complicated in solitude.
rather be alone was created by Ashlynn Malia over the span of two years with producers Andrew Weitz and Koby Berman.
On the creation process of rather be alone, Malia says: We played around, experimented a lot, and didn't take ourselves too seriously during the process. A ton of the sounds you hear in this EP are original. The first snare in "desperate" is a heavily processed recording of me biting a carrot. The pulse in "alone" is the ticking of a giant clock that we found in Koby's studio. I think we all genuinely enjoyed working together and finding our collective sound. Looking back at the start of this project, we've all evolved so much since. We poured our time, energy, hearts, and souls into this body of work and it's extremely personal and special.
Singer/songwriter/artist Ashlynn Malia provides a portal to her inner world through her deeply honest storytelling in the music she creates. She uses songwriting as a way to understand herself and hold a mirror to the subtle inner workings of her mind.
Raised in Los Angeles, Malia was introduced to the entertainment industry at a young age and toured the country for an internationally known kids music group at the age of 12. Before then, she had spent most of her childhood surrounded by musicians, learning to sing and play instruments at her family's music school. Since then she's worked as a professional dancer, in music videos for artists such as Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift, and has been finding her own voice as an artist herself.
Her debut EP, "rather be alone," is set to release in June 2021. It will include her already released song "desperate," which can be heard in an episode of The Stand on CBS as well as multiple dance films and movement visuals. It will also include her single "open," an introspective, cinematic song about the fear of being vulnerable with others and the consequences it may bring, and "Emergency," her latest release about wanting but not needing people and being able to prioritize her own peace when it comes to relationships. All of the songs on the EP center around Malia's personal experiences with social anxiety and human connection of all kinds. "If making those connections means enduring all the overthinking, insecurity, growing pains, abandonment, rejection, questioning of my own self-worth and blurring of my mental vision - then I'd rather be alone where I'm safe from that type of pain"
Malia first started writing the songs for "rather be alone" at age sixteen, and met her producers Andrew Weitz and Koby Berman a year later, starting the production process that would span over the next two years. She recounts the time spent making the EP, saying "I think we all genuinely enjoyed working together and finding our collective sound. Looking back at the start of this project, we've all evolved so much since. We poured our time, energy, hearts, and souls into this body of work and it's extremely personal and special."
When asked about how she wants her music to be received, Malia says she wants to make her listeners feel understood. "There are a handful of songs that I hold close to my heart because whoever wrote them made me feel like the words could've been mine, or they fit a feeling or an experience of mine in some perfect and unexplainable way. I want my music to be that for someone else. I want to be part of the soundtrack of someone's life."
.jpg "Ashlynn Malia Shares 'Open' Live Video")