If you’ve heard of Ashtin Larold before then chances are you know him for his buoyant trap tracks that got any house party bouncing and his emo anthems that were designed to be listened to with tissues beside you. Today however that all is change, throwing caution to the wind he takes away his usual somber soundscape designed to offer a cathartic release and instead goes for something with a bit more jubilance behind it, whilst still maintaining his melancholy brand of storytelling. Motions is a new chapter in Larold’s sonic journey, moving from monochrome and stepping into technicolour as his vibrant array of pop melodies form a bright world for us to reside in before his introspective lyrics come in to juxtapose the piece. Bittersweet by nature, this saudade track was made for belting out during the summer heat and crying to during those late lonely nights. It’s a stand out in his back catalogue but still feels at home within Larold’s discography, making it so excitingly refreshing that you’d be convinced it was another artist whilst also being warmly familiar, sort of like an old friend who you haven’t seen in a decade.
Spreading his wings and flying like a majestic bird over the sonic landscape below him, Ashtin Larold is refusing to be boxed in my usual genre conventions and is instead venturing out beyond the boarders that blocked others off previously. He’s carving out a space for himself in a every new genre that he becomes enamoured by.
“Motions” feels like the culmination of 5 years of work and growth as a musician. Five years ago me and my engineer Bobby worked together for the first time on the first song I ever released on major streaming platforms. We’ve worked together on pretty much everything I’ve made since then, and I feel like all of the growth and
experience finally paid off with this song. It has a lot of parallels to that first song we made. Both were experiments in new sounds, and they both differ a lot in tone from the other music I released around the same time. There was this moment during the making of both of them where we looked a teach other and just kinda went “this is the one”. That first song, “GHOSTS” was my first song to hit a million streams, and me and him both kind of had a feeling it would be. I feel the same way about “Motions”. It’s a step in a new direction for me and I can honestly say it’s the best song I’ve ever made, at least so far.”