“Aish has a sense of how large a performance, song, and world can be” - Earmilk
AISH
(pronounced "Ash" /æʃ/)
San Francisco based singer, writer and composer, Aish, transforms his tumultuous childhood, estrangement from family, struggles with sexuality and his migration across continents, into grand landscapes of cinematic pop music constructed with layered vocals, strings, harp, metallophones and electronics. With the release of singles Promise Me and Migrant in 2017, Aish emerged with a distinctive compositional aesthetic combining classical chamber with contemporary electronic music, layered with intricate vocal arrangements. Aish's debut full length album, Mother, came out March 30th, 2018. Aish has collaborated with multidisciplinary artists including Beau Sorenson (Tune-Yards, DCFC, Superchunk, Thao), Rashaad Newsome
(Solange, The Smithsonian), Suzi Analogue,
Mess Kid, Boody and Qween Beat.
If you like: Björk, ANOHNI
Music Releases
Upcoming Releases (Not released yet)
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Video Releases
Mother
My album "Mother" is about mother. It’s about my attachment to her, how she shaped perception of my feelings as elemental as joy and sorrow, my relationship to femininity, our separation, and finding answers to questions she left. It’s about understanding motherhood through birthing my own music. “Chaos” is an empathic dialogue between the unborn child and mother. “Blackbird” is a conversation between mother and I, on how we dealt with our sadness. “Engagement” is not the Oedipus song. “Migrant” is why one separates, “Orcas” is what one does in solitude of separation. “Promise Me” is the sorted me, rewriting how mother would handle separation. “Oceanman” is an impressionist narrative by mother, of a blurry father. “Joy and Sorrow” is what mother meant to me.
Mothers are fundamental to shaping who we are. They introduce us to the very idea of attachment. They show up in big and little ways in attachments we form throughout our lives. The expanse and complexity of motherhood cannot simply be confined to reductive ideas like Mother’s Day.
I write and compose all my work. The juxtaposition of chamber and electronic composition is informed by the music of my childhood and my present, and a purpose to create music distinct from the current deluge of popular electronic music.
“An emotional journey of violence and recovery” - Vice
“Succeeds at shutting down the haters who say art and pop can’t be intertwined” - The Advocate
“Aish has a sense of how large a performance, song, and world can be” - Earmilk
“One of the more experimental and engaging pop artists around” - Tidal
“Expressive, fantastical beauty...its value is resounding” - Cool Hunting
“Modern-day, whimsical, trippy” - SFWeekly
“I am a musician [first]...I’m also a person of colour, gay, immigrant, who’s grown up on three continents. Those parts of my identity have gifted me a unique set of experiences that show up in my compositions and writing about the beauty in love and loss, identity, migration and belonging”
- Interview with HighClouds
“The place I came from, art was considered a luxury. We knew art was out there, we consumed it, but we didn't know how to reach it”
- Interview with The Bay Bridged
“Absolutely stunning" - The Revue
A very personal interview with the Bay Area Reporter
"Haunted is the wrong word," he said. "Ghosts haunt. Memories, experiences, and the love my mother and I shared don't haunt me, they are very much alive. They remind me of beauty, the shape of love and loss, and that's really the larger idea behind Mother and the work that I do."
Chaos
All this chaos inside
If it all comes loose, your careful construction
Is that what you’re afraid of? Is that what you’re afraid of?