Ashley Kutcher’s rich musical stories of everyday emotional multiplexes were first shared with audiences amid her time at university training to be a nurse. The Baltimore-hailing singer, now residing in NYC, started performing regular gigs at bars in between studying in 2019 and was subsequently propelled to online stardom with “Love You From A Distance”, garnering over 47 million Spotify streams via TikTok. However, new EP, “Survive My Own Mind”, opens doors to unchartered areas of her emotional expression, exhibiting once again, her ability to voice the complexities of life for her generation and offer pop perfection in the process.

Opening and title track, “Survive My Own Mind” details her struggles with anxiety and panic disorder. “When it came to a theme for this EP, I felt like all of the songs were really talking about my struggles within my own head,” she tells us below. “All of these songs are my way of venting. I wanted this EP to focus on helping others feel not so alone if they also experience these emotions.”

The EP follows her debut project “One Eighty” last November and her first headline shows, to sold-out audiences, in Los Angeles and New York in March. Hitting the road again from January 25th 2023, with the “Survive My Own Mind” tour, kicking off at LA’s The Echo, fans will be treated to Kutcher’s expert songcraft and infectious ethos in the flesh. Don’t mind us just looking up stateside flights to join them!

However, for now, immerse yourself in the world of Ashley Kutcher by listening to the “Survive My Own Mind” EP right now, below…

Hi Ashley! How’s your day? What’s one thing you’re looking forward to today?
My day is going great so far! So excited I get to take the time and chat about my new EP! I’m looking forward to spending some time writing on a few songs I have in the works for upcoming releases.

Congratulations on “Sleepy”! Tell us about the mindset you were in when you wrote it.
Thank you! On the day I wrote “Sleepy” I was, believe it or not, very tired. I was travelling in LA to do a few sessions and live gigs and only had a few hours that day to work on a new song. We wrote “Sleepy” in less than two hours and I just knew I was in love with it.

What do you hope people feel when they listen to the track?
I hope people feel very calm and at peace. Sleepy is about feeling safe and comfortable around someone you love. The song production is meant to feel sleepy so I picture people listening to it while winding down for the night or making coffee in the morning.

It’s a very romantically-driven song, are there any other artists you’ve looked to in the past for a really good love song?
Yes! There are a lot of artists I love that have great love songs. For “Sleepy” I pulled inspiration from songs like Hozier’s “Cherry Wine”, Patrick Droney’s “Call Me On Your Way Home”, and Justin Nozuka’s “After Tonight”.

“Sleepy” follows your previous singles “Emotionless” and “Love You More”. How do you think this release compares to your previous ones?
All of these songs have to do with surviving your own mind in some way. “Emotionless” and “Love You More” are songs about struggling with your thoughts. “Sleepy” is the song that helps calm you down and lean on your support people when the world gets to be too much.

Your upcoming EP “Survive My Own Mind” is here too! Tell us about the project’s title.
When it came to a theme for this EP. I felt like all of the songs were really talking about my struggles within my own head. All these songs are my way of venting. I wanted this EP to focus on helping others feel not so alone if they also experience these emotions. The track, “Survive My Own Mind” specifically describes my struggle with anxiety and panic disorder.

Earlier this year you performed your first headline shows in Los Angeles and New York! How was that and where would you love to sing next?
My first headline shows were absolutely insane to me. Communicating with people on the internet is so different from getting to engage with fans in person. Those shows were so surreal to me and I cannot wait to visit more cities! My goal is to hit every city I can make it to.

We read that you attended college to study nursing too! Is there anything you learned in that endeavour that you’ve brought to your musical journey?
I feel like being in school, working as a waitress for 5 years, and building my music career on the side really taught me a lot about myself. I had so many experiences throughout college that helped me write. Music is all about experience. You need to do things and feel things to be inspired, so going through college and having this very “normal” college life helped me to create songs that I knew a lot of people would relate to.

TikTok’s been a really important part of your journey, with “Love You From A Distance” taking off on the app. How do you find navigating the platform as an artist?
I’ve been posting covers online since I was young, so using social media platforms was something I was used to before TikTok. When the app started becoming popular I immediately started posting covers there. It wasn’t until I posted an original song that I started to get traction. It was actually amazing that the only thing I was doing online was writing songs and that’s what people were following me for. It felt great to know I was making music people could relate to and cared about. I just make sure I continue to share my journey and music online and that’s all I can do!

You’ve already ticked off some amazing milestones, but what would be the ultimate victory you would love to achieve?
My goal is to have amazing live shows! Ever since I was young, my favourite thing to do was go to concerts. My big goal is to just build a really great show and experience that people can connect to. I want them to feel the same way I do when I walk out of an amazing concert and can’t stop thinking about it for a week afterwards.