Winning an award is a memorable experience for any artist, but for Ashley Riley it was doubly so. She won the Midwest Music Expo listener-panel award in May 2020, which was smack-dab in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic (you may have heard of it). The song that won her the award also happens to be titled "Close To Me," which is about as ironic a title as you can get in an age of social distancing and isolation.
"Close To Me" introduced me to Riley's music. As an angry and bitter man, I'm not particularly drawn to love tunes, but the authenticity in Riley's voice broke through the shell of my coal-blackened heart. It's a moving song about the often confusing nature of our closest relationships. We wave forward with one hand while pushing away with the other. We want what we know is bad for us and yearn for that which we know cannot be. Riley captures all of this painful, difficult absurdity with "Close To Me."
The song is not the Decatur, Illinois, musician's first rodeo. She's been releasing music for over a decade. The song is, however, a deviation from her signature sound, which I characterize as "sort of like a country music version of Mazzy Star" (Riley approves of my characterization, so I'm rolling with it).
Riley took the time to talk with me about her songs, her musical roots, and life as a musician in Decatur. She's as thoughtful and sincere in conversation as she is in her music.
Jeff Suwak (Songfacts): Hi, Ashley. Thank you for taking the time to talk with us today. A few months ago you released an award-winning song in the midst of a pandemic, which is a pretty unique life experience to lay claim to. What's that been like?"Close To Me" introduced me to Riley's music. As an angry and bitter man, I'm not particularly drawn to love tunes, but the authenticity in Riley's voice broke through the shell of my coal-blackened heart. It's a moving song about the often confusing nature of our closest relationships. We wave forward with one hand while pushing away with the other. We want what we know is bad for us and yearn for that which we know cannot be. Riley captures all of this painful, difficult absurdity with "Close To Me."
The song is not the Decatur, Illinois, musician's first rodeo. She's been releasing music for over a decade. The song is, however, a deviation from her signature sound, which I characterize as "sort of like a country music version of Mazzy Star" (Riley approves of my characterization, so I'm rolling with it).
Riley took the time to talk with me about her songs, her musical roots, and life as a musician in Decatur. She's as thoughtful and sincere in conversation as she is in her music.
Ashley Riley: Thank you, it's my pleasure.
Yes, I was very excited when my song "Close To Me" won the MMX Demo listening panel back in late May, and that prompted the release in August. It was definitely interesting putting music out during a pandemic. On one hand, people had more time at home and were looking to stay connected, and music does that. At the beginning of the pandemic I did livestreams on social media a few times a week and it felt like I was able to help take people's minds off of the uncertainty in some small way.
On the other hand though, there were times I wondered if it mattered, you know? We were all dealing with one thing after the next in this year and it seemed like there was never a "good" time to do anything. At the end of the day, one of the things I enjoy most about music and songwriting is sharing it, so I shut down the negative and just put it out there.
Songfacts: Just a few days ago you released a cover of "A Long December," which is a fitting song for this particular pandemic December. Was the current global state of affairs in mind when you decided to do that one?
Riley: It definitely was. I plan on putting that out on streaming too. I just couldn't wait to share it!
This year I've gone back and listened to a lot of albums that were staples for me early on. The Counting Crows album August And Everything After is like a cozy sweater to me, it just makes you feel good. I got deep into a kick with that, and then "A Long December" shuffled into my playlist and I couldn't get it out of my head. It was right after Thanksgiving, and rising cases and stricter mitigations in the county where I live, and honestly I just felt like, yes... this is going to be a very long December. So, singing that song was like a hopeful lullaby to me.
Songfacts: After discovering your music, I was trying to find a way to concisely describe your sound to my friends. I came up with: "Sort of like country music mixed with Mazzy Star." Do you think that fits? Do you hate it?
Riley: I love that description, and I love Mazzy Star, so thank you! I think I see how it fits. It can be hard to describe your own sound so I always find it interesting to see what other people say they hear, and I just like when they hear it!
Songfacts: In the past, your music had a distinctly dreamy quality about it, but I don't hear that as much in "Close To Me." Was that deviation in sound a conscious decision? Unconscious? Or am I just hallucinating that?
Riley: Yes, I think there's a little less dreaminess going on lately. Now I'm jaded.
Just kidding, I don't think it was a totally conscious decision but I know what you mean. I've been working with a producer for the first time with my new stuff and I think that's been a good shift. I like having another set of ears that I trust to wonder what it would sound like if we tried this instead of that, etcetera.
I also feel like I learn quite a bit with each record and get a little better at conveying what I want or mean - at least I hope so. I'm sure my influences while working on this latest stuff probably play a role as well. I feel like that has a way of subconsciously seeping into your veins.
In case you're curious, I was very inspired by Erin Rae's 2018 album, Putting On Airs. I made a Spotify playlist called "Americana Woman" that has a lot of the things I'm into at the moment.
Songfacts: Do you think your planned 2021 album will be similar?
Riley: I think it will. This time around I've tried to be pretty conscious about the songs that I'm picking and the overall vibe. I'm working with a producer for really the first time in my career, so the process is different this time around. It feels really good to be giving each song a bit more consideration and time. I'm working with James Treichler at Wave Upon Wave in Champaign, Illinois. He works with a lot of local artists in the area. Most notably he worked on the band Hum's latest album.
Songfacts: Do you have the songs ready for the new album already?
Riley: We're really ramping it up right now. 2020 slowed us down quite a bit. At first I didn't realize how long we would be doing the social distancing measures so we were kind of waiting it out. Now we are working remotely and sending tracks back and forth to complete the songs. I'm a little hesitant to put a release date out there because we've still got four songs to work through but we're getting a good system going. I plan to release a few singles in early 2021 leading up to the album.
Songfacts: You pointed out a humorous irony in the fact that you released a song titled "Close To Me" in an age of social distancing. I couldn't help but wonder if that's part of the effect the song subconsciously had on me. Has anyone else commented on this with you?
Riley: Sadly no, the irony of that really made me laugh and no one else has commented on it!
Songfacts: Do your songs capture specific life experiences or are they more abstract?
Riley: I'm more of a life experience songwriter, but not totally autobiographical.
I tend to be pretty analytical. I'm always trying to understand where people are coming from and why they feel the way they do, do what they do... that kind of thing.
A lot of my songs aren't totally about me, but I do feel like you have to be able to relate to what you write so that it feels authentic. I start from experience and emotions, and then get a little dramatic with it.
I've dabbled in story songs and character songs, but it's not my forte. I wrote a pretty cool murder ballad once, but I never released that one. I really am open to writing any type of song, and I love co-writing and helping other people home in on what they're trying to get across. Sometimes I wish I was a bit more abstract, but that doesn't come naturally to me. For instance, Neko Case writes really great songs that seem abstract to me. The whole Fox Confessor Brings The Flood album. I love those songs, and I don't really know what they're about.
Songfacts: Are you a lyrics-first songwriter or a music-first songwriter? A mix?
Riley: The most common for me is melody and lyrics first. Sometimes I'll start with a cool little guitar pattern, but a lot of times I will be turning a phrase over in my head and then I'll hear a melody or rhythm and I follow that. I grab my guitar pretty early on and then I'll start writing it all together. I feel like there are so many ways to write a song, so I try not to get set in my ways. I think the most important part is to be open. Sometimes I critique myself as I'm writing and I try not to let that stop me.
I started to co-write in the last couple years and that opened up my creativity in a new way. I learned to start with ideas rather than wait for inspiration. Sometimes I like to think of it like putting together a puzzle. Some people gather all the edges and work in as they go, some people work on a part smack-dab in the middle and work out from there. I'm open to it - that's the fun of creating.
Songfacts: What inspired "Close To Me"?
It wasn't about a romantic relationship at all, but sometimes I do that. Change the details, keep it a little anonymous. Honestly, it's about someone really important to me, and I could just feel the distance growing between us... I was always waiting for them to respond.
It was probably a little passive aggressive on them. In the end I shut myself off to make it easier when they inevitably didn't stay. It's weird when I think about it now, I still come up with different angles of that relationship and how it derailed. More songs coming soon [laughs].
Songfacts: "Love Shark" may be my favorite title of all your songs. What's that one about?
Riley: Ahh, yes! That song lovingly got its name because the drum part in the beginning reminded the band and I of the classic song "Love Shack." We would mess around and yell the "Love Shack" parts at rehearsal. Fun times.
When we recorded it, there was a typo in the title when it was saved and it became "Love Shark." So the title was an inside joke, until now.
But the song was really fun to write. I remember really working out how the phrases turn around on themselves. There's a line I still love to sing, "I know that we are different, our differences, add 'em all up and times them by two, if it makes a difference to you."
It's been a really long time since I wrote that, but I think it was inspired by my single friends and all the drama they had with dating.
Songfacts: Was "This Town" about any particular town?
Riley: "This Town" is about a real city: Decatur, Illinois. Technically I live just outside of Decatur now, but I grew up in and around Decatur and lived there for a long time.
Decatur is pretty well thought of as a blue-collar town. It's full of a lot of hardworking, genuine people. In what they say were the glory days, there were numerous good-paying factory jobs at places such as Firestone, Wagner Casting, Mueller, ADM, Staley's (now Tate & Lyle), and Caterpillar. Decatur is a big railroad hub and it was also the original home of the Chicago Bears football team.
We still have Caterpillar, ADM, Tate & Lyle and Mueller. Firestone and Wagner Casting closed, Caterpillar and ADM have done numerous layoffs, ADM moved the corporate office from Decatur to Chicago and so on. Lost jobs, lost hope, a depressed city, that kind of thing.
It's strange to me, a lot of people put Decatur down and pick on the city, and it's hard to stay positive about it sometimes. That's what the bridge of "This Town" is talking about:
And you said, things just die here in this town
So why are you still hanging around
Songfacts: You did a cover of "Two Princes" that deviates sharply from the original. Was there any reason?
Riley: I love making moody acoustic covers of songs from the '80s and '90s. It's a guilty pleasure.
Songfacts: What's the music scene like in Illinois? Any other local acts you're particularly fond of?
Riley: The local music scene in my community is kind of small, but it's really diverse and really welcoming. With the state of things it's been about a year since I've played an in-person show in my hometown, but we've got a few really cool local venues that are supportive of original music, and that's so important.
Donnie's Homespun is one of my favorite places in my town to play a show. They put on monthly block parties when the weather is nice and feature lots of local acts. A few bands that I've shared shows with, or that are just friends and acquaintances of mine and great musicians, are Channel 4, Free Range Youth, Harlem Hayfield, Soy City Stranglers.
Songfacts: When did you start finding yourself gravitating towards being a musician?
Riley: I think always, but it took me a really long time to get there. I'm the middle child of my family. I've got two sisters. I'd say my family was a pretty normal Midwest working-class family. My Dad worked construction and my mom was a teacher's aide. Most of my extended family all lived in the same town so I grew up causing trouble with my cousins and watching cartoons on Saturday mornings. I've been drawn to music as far back as I can remember.
I remember the first week of first grade, I was the "Student of the Week" and everyone had to write a little card with something nice about you, and it was put on the bulletin board in the class with your photo in the middle. Anyway, about 90 percent of my cards said that I wanted to be a singer like Debbie Gibson. Apparently within the first week of school I was letting 'em know!
As a little kid I was a huge fan of Debbie Gibson and Paula Abdul. I remember playing their tapes on repeat so I could learn the lyrics to all the songs and then I'd wander around the backyard singing them. The best was singing into the end of a fencepost because it had an echo. I wonder if anybody else did that or if I was just a little weirdo?
I remember getting my own tape player with a microphone for my ninth birthday, and that was magical. I made my older sister and cousin start a "band" with me and paid my cousin a quarter to teach me what she learned at her piano lessons until my grandma took pity on me and started getting me my own lessons in fifth grade.
I took lessons for about five years. I should probably be a better piano player than I am, but guitar has been my main instrument ever since I learned to play, which wasn't until much later. Show choir was a really big deal at my school in junior high and high school. I tried out for those and made the group but was always too shy to try out for solos. I ended up dropping out of show choir after a few years and got a job instead. I don't know why I thought that would be more fun. Money, I guess.
So, other than the piano lessons and school choirs I wouldn't say I was an exceptionally "musical" child other than that I loved it and was always buying tapes and compact discs at Musicland at the mall.
I do have a really distinct memory of when I decided I wanted to write songs. I was a freshman in high school and these two older girls that I thought were so cool asked me to hang out. We drove around our little town doing nothing, but they were playing a CD from a girl named Jewel and I had never heard anything like it. I remember getting the CD for myself and telling my parents that I needed a guitar so I could write songs. I didn't get one but it always stayed in the back of my mind until years later when I was about 22 and I went and bought an $80 beast of a guitar that sat in my closet for about a year and a half until I decided to take lessons.
I learned a couple chords and started writing songs and I haven't stopped, but I did get a much nicer guitar. When I learned to play guitar my musical world opened up and my taste in music changed pretty drastically. I had always listened to what was on MTV back when they played videos, but then I started listening to Neil Young, Patty Griffin, Eva Cassidy, Gillian Welch, and a lot more singer-songwriter based stuff.
Songfacts: Is the song you're listening to in "Country Song" any particular country song?
Riley: You're the first to ask that!
I wrote "Country Song" back in 2016. I was in a songwriting funk and nothing was really coming to me, but I was not giving in, so I was trying things to get my brain moving and thought maybe I'd get inspired by listening to different types of music that I don't listen to regularly. I was listening to Kacey Musgraves' Pageant Material album. I really like her song "Die Fun." Her songwriting is very clever.
Songfacts: Is "Leaving Nashville" literal or metaphorical?
Riley: A bit of both.
I wrote that song with a friend of mine, Jessica Spain. We literally were leaving Nashville after a few days of writers' nights and exploring and driving to Knoxville to play a show. It was my second time there and her first. It's exciting and a lot to take in.
You don't really know what to expect when you hear so much about a city like Nashville, where people go to "make it." A lot of times we're fed these rags-to-riches stories with artists, and maybe that's true in some cases, but I think more often than not it's people working really hard, not giving up, and trying to make something happen. I think that's when it sunk in for me that you really need to enjoy the journey of being an artist and songwriter where you're at or you're probably not going to last very long.
We wrote that in 2010, but I went back and changed the second verse and ending with her blessing and rerecorded it to try and pitch it to the Nashville TV show that was airing at the time. It didn't get to their ears, but I still felt like it was a beautiful song so I released it on an EP in 2017.
Songfacts: Are there any other projects you'd like to tell our readers about? Any touring planned for after this virus mess clears up?
Riley: Right now what I'm most excited about is my upcoming album in 2021. I hope to be picking a release date (and a name for it) really soon. I'm definitely kicking around some ideas for safe touring and shows hopefully next summer. I'd love to be able to do some outdoor house shows or something of the sort but I'm waiting a bit to see how the end of the year goes. I'll be playing some livestreams online again soon as well, and that's always fun because you can listen from wherever you are!
December 29, 2020
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