Meet Ash Graves: Singer/Songwriter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ash Graves and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ash, why did you pursue a creative career?
I think I knew from a pretty young age that I wanted to be a musician. I didn’t have much growing up but I remember when I was 8 years old my nana got me one of those little toy guitars that make different sounds when you press one of the buttons on the fretboard. I would play it for hours like it was a real guitar and as I got older I just became more and more drawn to music. I always knew that no matter what I was going through I would always have music to rely on. It got me through some of the worst times in my life and I think just always having that around no matter what happened really pushed me to want to express myself and to hopefully give that same feeling to people that listen to the music that I make. 

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My music usually ends up being kind of dark and a little sad at times. I mostly write about certain struggles that I’ve gone through in life. Growing up without a mom or dad, failed relationships, feeling alone. I feel like most people can relate to a lot of what I write about. Some people don’t relate to my music at all and they just like the way it sounds and I’m okay with that too. If you can appreciate something for what it is and enjoy what you’re listening to, then that’s all that matters. As far as what sets me apart from other artists, I would say there are a number of things. I think just being my own person in general and not trying to copy and paste the same type of content other people are creating definitely helps. I also like to experiment with sounds and different ideas and concepts. Whether I’m writing at home or in the studio. I feel like being open to anything almost always makes the music I’m writing unique in the end.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Knowing us, we would probably do the most impulsive things we could think of for a whole week. For food, we would try to find small hole in the wall restaurants that no one has ever heard of so we could try some kind of weird food we’ve never had before. We would go to this place we go to all the time called The VOID which is a virtual reality experience. Basically they set you up in all of this gear and put a headset on you and you walk around different rooms they have set up and you interact with things in virtual reality. We’re both huge movie buffs so we would definitely go to the movies. A lot. There’s a place I’ve heard of called Otherworld which is an immersive art experience. We would definitely do that. I don’t know, we’re both the type of people that are like “hey you wanna go do this? Yeah. Cool, let’s go” so we would really just do anything and everything we could think of.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I want to dedicate my shoutout to my close friends and family who have continued to support me through the years, my producers who put just as much as I do into this and are always pushing me to work harder, and to everyone that listens to the music that I make. None of what I do would be possible without all you.

Website: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4KQ0fjELzYimzD5g1xEF6P?si=44TDuGMEQamLx_FMPSxRsQ
Instagram: http://Instagram.com/imashgraves
Twitter: http://twitter.com/imashgraves
Facebook: http://Facebook.com/imashgraves
Youtube: https://youtube.com/c/AshGraves

Image Credits
Nathan Nguyen Tommy Jackson