Formed by lead vocalist Steven Davis and producer-musician-vocalists Josh Charles and Ethan Allen, ASHRR came together from varying backgrounds working in music. Charles started as a jazz pianist, mentored by the late Dr. John, before working in pop, rock, and country as a critically acclaimed singer/songwriter. Charles met Davis in Nashville after both moved from New York City where Davis was headlining huge rooms singing big band standards as well as writing for film and TV. They would soon after move to Los Angeles, where they were introduced to Allen, a Grammy-nominated engineer working with everyone from Ben Harper, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and Mavis Staples. Setting out to simply create music they liked, they formed ASHRR in 2018, quickly establishing a strong connection in the studio.

Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy is a deeply influential figure in the global dance music scene, known for her eclecticism, passion for music curation, and commitment to building community. She began her journey in music as a high school and then college radio DJ and has since become a revered DJ, producer, and radio host. Her work includes hosting the Balearic Breakfast radio show, founding the Classic Album Sundays listening events and content platform, and producing acclaimed remixes under her Cosmodelica moniker. She is also a protégé of David Mancuso and co-produced the acclaimed Loft compilations. Colleen’s dedication to music as a vocation has earned her a reputation as a pioneer in the vinyl revival and audiophile culture, always driven by a desire to bring people together through the power of music.

ASHRR and Colleen sat down to discuss their musical history, path to the release of the new record, inspirations, and more ahead of their forthcoming album release Sunshine Low on 20/20 Vision Recordings, released on September 20th.

‍Can you tell us a bit about your musical history?

Josh (ASHRR): I started playing piano when I was a kid, but I was also into rock and roll. I grew up on Motown music in my house, started listening to The Police and U2, and decided, I want to do this for a living. At 12 years old, I discovered New Orleans piano and on a blues station in Kansas City where I grew up, and it blew me away. I became obsessed with jazz and New Orleans piano, and somehow I ended up meeting Dr John as a teenager. Luckily, he became my mentor and taught me so much, very informally, but we both lived in New York, so I got to spend a lot of time with him in those pivotal years. I was pushed through the major label system in both jazz and rock andI finally went independent and released my first album Love,Work & Money which I called “NoTown” music, New Orleans meets Motown style. As the years went on, I did a bunch of songwriting and moved to Nashville. I met Steven Davis, who is now our lead singer. He was a former Big Band singer and my background was also in this style of music, so he and I connected. We ended up coming out to LA and recording big band albums that I produced and wrote. We decided to do something  more diverse which ended up being an album of 80’s covers done in a dark cinematic way. Then I met Ethan through a friend, and the rest is history.

Ethan (ASHRR): I started playing in bands and writing songs once I moved to Austin, Texas, from my hometown, which was a small West Texas town. I started working at two bigger studios in town, which were Willie Nelson's two studios. Paul Leary, the guitarist from Butthole Surfers, was a producer who was bringing in a lot of different bands and work. It opened me to a whole new world. Canadian Producer Daniel Lanois had a recording studio of his own in New Orleans, which is about 10 hours away. I went, knocked on the door and they let me in and said, “Oh, you're that guy that's been writing us letters.” After a year or two, I finally got my way in there. And then once I was there, I also got to meet Brian Eno and work with him a bit. Great artists were coming through, from Sheryl Crow and REM, to Nigel Godrich. It was an unending stream of all kinds of things, from ambient experimental music to rock and roll to electronic music Then I moved out to Los Angeles, went freelance as a producer and a mixer and a composer, and also started playing in bands again. I played in a band called Gram Rabbit for years. And then finally our path slid, Steven (of ASHRR)  and Josh and I met each other through mutual friends. We quickly found out that we had a really interesting cross-section of interests and talent. And it sort of very organically grew unplanned and quickly became something that we were pretty excited about.

Ethan, how did you initially feel about disco and how is that transformed?

Ethan: I grew up at the same time I think as when disco was in its prime. I was probably like eight or nine, but I was a rock and roll fan, for sure. It was Led Zeppelin and Van Halen and all of that. When I got to New Orleans, there were amazing jukeboxes. So there would be George McRae, all kinds of stuff that were kind of in that in-between world of disco and other things that has continued through up to now. To me, it's always been about my love for dance. Everybody in my family loves it. That's been one of the main things to go out and do all through my youth. So if you're doing that, just go as a part of it, whether you know it or not, and certainly most people are aware of it, if you are really getting into music. 

Please tell us about the new album, Sunshine Low…

Ethan: One thing in the process of making this particular record is we were sort of a prowess when we started making it, and we then started doing things, and then it began to have its own identity, sort of like a child. Then you have to kind of pay attention to its needs. And then went into an orgasmic frenzy of just, like, all this stuff started happening, including at the incredible encouragement of Ralph at our label  20/20 Vision, opening us to other people remixing us and then us doing remixes of ourselves. The Soundsystem DJ aspect was another whole explosion, which then informed the actual proper record, too. So it became suddenly that the record was stretched out, became unrecognizable, and then became more focused. So it became more clear what songs and what spirit would make the album complete. 

How were ASHRR signed to Ralph Lawson’s 20/20 Vision Recordings?

Josh: I sent Felix Dickinson a DM saying “Hey, man, we've got this song ‘Fizzy.’ We want to put it out, but we would love to have you do a remix. Love the work you've done on the Khruangbin record.” He asks for me to send him the song. And then, three days later, I get a text from him, saying how much he loves the record, and that we’ll be hearing from his manager. I got an email from his manager Annie, and her name looked so familiar to me. And then she was telling me she was the one who managed Khruangbin for years. Annie said, “I love this record. Do you have a record deal?” I told her we have our own label and we've just put it out independently. She told us she had a couple of ideas for labels she thought we’d be great for. She mentioned Ralph and the next thing I know, Ralph's on board. He's been wanting a band for a long time, but a band that has songs and a band that makes this indie dance category that he thinks has been missing right now. We're so eternally grateful.

What is your relationship with the electronic music community?

Josh: I will just say coming from rock music, where Ethan and I are both from, it's a completely crazy, different world. Nobody will reach out, nobody will help you.  And with this community, everybody embraces, everybody's warm, everybody's friendly, everybody's encouraging, everybody's supportive. And we've been blown away at the generosity and support that we've been getting. When we signed to 20/20, everybody was saying “Oh my god, that's like the coolest label.” And to be honest, we didn’t know what that was, being there and not in the dance world, per se. I guess we call our music ODM, organic dance music - it's just music that grooves. And if you call it dance, if you call it whatever, people want to put you in that box.

Would you each pick out one of your favorite songs on the album and tell us about it? 

Ethan: I'll pick “Different Kind of Life.“ It’s so interesting how it was a lightning in a bottle, what we started off with, into where it became. And then it was sort of a spirit, instrumentally, that we really liked. It had kind of a relentless but joyous feeling to it. And then we all came together on the lyrics and we really thought about that one. And that was one where it really made sense, the whole idea. Kind of like the buddhist idea of samsara, that you're always wishing you had something more than the life that you have and you're never quite satisfied enough with what you do have. 

Josh: There's so many, but if I was to really think about the song that, to me, defines the album, it would have to be “Fizzy.” What happened with that was I just had a demo of that piano part, basically, the first part of the song. I played a couple chords for Ethan and had that intro and a dummy melody that was similar, but with no words. And that's how it goes a lot of times - I had no idea where that song was going to go. And so you got the first part of the song and then it's pretty harmonically sophisticated. I didn't really care that it was challenging because I never thought of it as a single. 

It seems to me that the songwriting is at the front and center of ‘Sunshine Low.’ Am I right in saying that?

Josh: I would say on ‘Sunshine Low,’ certainly, but it is even a bit more of a stretching out and groove-based initial work that's also in this record. There was a new phase of that. 

Originally recorded for Colleen's weekly radio show Balearic Breakfast, an extended version of the interview can be heard via Mixcloud.