When Ashlynn Malia decides to dial it back some from her charismatic pop compositions, she transforms into that of a mature voice, well beyond that of an artist who just released her debut EP rather be alone. On her single “open,” Ashlynn sings with a stark and field hush that sounds both encapsulating and poetic. Malia certainly can cover the pop spectrum, but on her live video for “open,” that Glide is premiering (below), we see the singer-songwriter flair of this burgeoning artist
Ashlyn felt emotionally starved by her environment and personal fears when she started writing her debut EP 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.
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.
