Asha Jefferies Releases Debut Album ‘Ego Ride’

EGO RIDE – out now via Nettwerk

TRACKLISTING
1. Stranger
2. Keep My Shit Together
3. Baby Don’t Fight It
4. Golden Hour
5. Tank Tops
6. Spinning
7. Brand New Bitch
8. Reply
9. Cruise Control
10. Ego Ride

“Asha plays around metaphors, but also isn’t afraid to explore her emotional duality, singing over a shiny pop song, on her journey to honesty.”
 – The Line of Best Fit 

“A deeply honest indie offering with both rock and pop undertones”
– Wonderland Magazine

“Warm and brilliantly written indie at its most affirming.”
– Abby Butler, triple j

“Asha Jefferies will tug on your heartstrings with tender lyrics about friendship, love, and figuring out the whole ‘becoming an adult’ thing” 
– Frankie

“Not many artists can paint pictures as delicate and detailed as Asha.”
– Ash McGregor triple j

“…her weapon of choice is her guitar and her impeccable knack of telling great tales through her songs..”
– Purple Sneakers

“Brilliant songwriter with heart and wit.” 
– Dave Ruby Howe, triple j Unearthed

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Asha Jefferies (she/her) releases her debut album EGO RIDE via Nettwerk Music Group, a collection of ten songs filled to the brim with deep feelings of longing and courage as she navigates her experiences of queerness.

EGO RIDE is a self-portrait of Asha Jefferies in motion. At 24, she displays an uncharacteristically lucid sense of self-awareness. “Looking back, I realised that a lot of the narratives throughout the album are tied to my ego – whether that’s moments where I felt on top of the world or totally crumbled.”

Jefferies’ first LP is far from the beginning of her artistic output. The Brisbane-based songwriter and frog enthusiast has released two EPs, shared stages with Julia Jacklin and Lord Huron, and played festival slots at BIGSOUND, Bluesfest and many more. In recognition of her burgeoning career, Asha has earned accolades such as a Queensland Music Award and has been a finalist in both the Vanda & Young Songwriting Competition and the International Songwriting Competition (ISC).

WATCH & SHARE “EGO RIDE” VIDEO HERE:

The album was recorded by Asha’s long-term collaborator Sam Cromack (Ball Park Music) at Prawn Records in the inner north of Brisbane. Across the album’s ten tracks, Jefferies revisits two years of words and actions on loop – choices to speak or to stay silent, moments of stepping into or retreating from change.

Haunting opener ‘Stranger’ is propelled by a steady drum track that gives way to glittery, multi-layered vocals, refracting like beams of light shooting through a mirror maze. On singles ‘Keep My Shit Together’ and ‘Baby Don’t Fight It’, Jefferies tests bravery in the face of milestone-induced anxiety.

Written in half an hour, the glorious, sun-drenched ‘Tank Tops’ is inspired by Jefferies’ first experience of falling in love with a woman. “It feels like the song of opening and change and light,” she says.

On ‘Spinning’, Jefferies pauses to play sage, as if she’s pulling tarot cards for her younger self: you will learn to enjoy your body, you will feel your last breath of his fear, you’ll get so damn good at parking. The elegiac ‘Golden Hour’ sees her render dull heartache with a stinging verisimilitude.

Guitar-led ‘Reply’ recounts a transactional late-night exchange muddied by yearning – the kind of memory you wish you could go back and relive, just to have the last word. The sassy direct address of single ‘Cruise Control’ sees Jefferies do just that, breaking the circuit of an uncomfortable situationship by following her intuition: I trust my body / If it doesn’t want you around me.

As EGO RIDE closes out, soft strings dissolving into the gurgle and zap of static, Jefferies has travelled beyond the boundaries of a past life. Her tiny world continues to spin, offering itself to her imagination and to her body, wherever it would like to take her.

After showcasing at SXSW earlier in the year and with plans to play at The Great Escape, Asha Jefferies will tour Australia in April and May with headline shows in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

ASHA JEFFERIES EGO RIDE TOUR
Fri 26th April – Workers Club, Naarm/Melbourne
Sat 27th April – Waywards, Eora/Sydney
Fri 3rd May – Valley Loft, Meanjin/Brisbane
Tickets are on sale here