Indian-born, Aussie-raised and already blazing a trail of five star singles,
ASHWARYA is one of the buzziest new acts around.
Words:
Finlay Holden. Photo:
Gadir Rajab.In amongst the overwhelming swarm of new pop artists arriving in 2021, trying to stand out can be an intimidating prospect. But, it’s not a problem faced by ASHWARYA, an Indian-born and Aussie-raised star in the making who has captured the hearts of many with her dark and twisted hyper-pop anthems. In the wake of her EP debut, she chats to Dork from her bedroom about creating art in lockdown, her varied influences, and, of course, her unbridled ambition to simultaneously supply comfort and surprise on a global scale.
A big goal of your music is to connect with people – do you feel like you’ve been able to do that online?
Absolutely. Before releasing music, I never really understood the impact that it can have on people and how they perceive it in their own way. It was only after songs like ‘
BIRYANI’, after which I got SO many DMs, that it hit me. In an ideal world, we’d play and meet live and connect through conversation, which obviously wasn’t an option at the time. I had so many messages from people of colour and South Asians, and as someone who is passionate about seeing representation, it completely changing my perspective on the impact music can have. Especially when someone that looks like me puts out a bilingual song with Hindi in it that talks about ‘Biryani’ - it’s amazing.