Bowlegged is the first single from Tommy Ashby’s new EP Restless Love. It’s a compelling song that brings into focus some of our own judgements as well as questioning how independent we truly are as individuals and as a society. How far do we truely go to fit in:
The world is filled with broken bodies
Bowlegs and bedsores
And if we de-evolve to crawl on all fours
How will I fit in?
So take my legs and bend my shins
Linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky refers to intentional ignorance where we intentionally don’t understand or perceive what is threatening to the doctrinal systems we advocate…in a true democracy we’d all have a greater role in determining our own fate – both personally, socially and politically. Something we seem to be growing in distance from day by day.
Tommy Ashby shared the following:
“The lyrical idea of Bowlegged is that people are often not happy with their lot; they feel like outsiders and have an overwhelming urge to fit in, even if what they are fitting into is absurd or at least not all that great. But as long as someone else is doing it too then they don’t feel so stupid”.
The single is accompanied by an animated lyric video by Marc Corrigan on which his illustrations unravel with the lyrics.
The animation is reminiscent of the scrolling art forms of the 19th century or the crankie many may have become familiar with through artists such as Appalachian duo Anna and Elizabeth.
Tommy’s childhood was always going to be musical. Travelling the country playing guitar in his father’s traditional blues band and raised on the Scottish pub singaround culture, his initial musical experiences were immersive and natural. His teens were spent pouring over his parents record collections of American songwriters such as Neil Young, Simon and Garfunkel, Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings and Jeff Buckley. The eclectic mix of American roots, blues and country, combined with his Scottish folk roots, all seeped into his music.
After acquiring a PhD focussed on studying and modelling the human perception of sound, Tommy cut his teeth behind the scenes as a session musician for the likes of Nina Nesbitt and Holly Macve, toured the UK and Europe as support act for Rhodes and Tom Speight as well as playing a number of headline sell-out shows in London this year including performing at events curated by Communion , Never Fade and the Southbank Centre.
His new EP, Restless Love, was recorded and mixed with Grammy award winner Sam Okell in his home studio near the wild North Cornwall coast. He says of the recording :
“We only had four days to get all the tracks down between touring so it was a pretty intense session. Most of the tracks were partly formed and all then all additional instruments were played by Sam or myself. The sound is really close to what I had envisaged and I feel a real personal connection with it.
“I also think the sound of the EP is a reflection of our drive down the north coast of Cornwall each morning, weaving through the bays and inlets. It’s a completely different landscape to the one I grew up in on the Scottish borders but it’s just as wild, with cliffs and sea and spray. Until a few years ago I had never been to Cornwall but now it just keeps pulling me back.
“On the motorway on the way home from the session I had a tyre blowout and spent most of the night sleeping and waiting at the side of the road. I ended up driving back into London as the sun rose with the EP playing and I still felt pretty good about it, so I think that’s a good sign!”
Restless Love is released on July 20th via Wow & Flutter Records / Absolute.
More here: http://www.tommyashby.com/