Ally Ahern is much more than meets the eye. An edgy, yet refined visual aesthetic perfectly matches her keen ear for melody and storytelling.
Meshing her skills as a multi-instrumentalist, (drums, piano, guitar) vocalist and songwriter with modern production, she weaves her unique personality into her signature pop sound.
Her one of a kind voice soars over a dynamic roller coaster of synths and 808 beats. Her captivating vocals range from sweet and sultry to powerhouse, while her commanding stage presence and charisma mesmerize her audiences.
Aside from pop, Ahern is professionally trained in and opera, jazz, musical theatre, and sings a multitude of other genres.
In this interview spotlight, I chat with Ally about the harms of social media, challenges, motivations and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
I’m from Chicago and I make pop music… but with a bunch of flavors of other genres. I didn’t grow up listening to pop music at all and listened to pretty much everything besides it – so with those influences, I’ve kind of been left with a big soup of genres! Yay!
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?
As corny as it may sound – this path chose me. I am interested in a wide variety of other topics – I almost went to college for political science and always thought about going to law school when I was younger – I used to daydream about pursuing politics, being a lawyer, or being a psychologist even because those are all things that I’m very interested in. But, man, my music. I acknowledge that I have these other interests but I would be lying to myself if I did anything except music. I know with one hundred percent confidence that this is what I’m supposed to be doing. And as soon as I said to myself ok bish, here we go – all in, I’ve never really doubted it much. And I know I’m so lucky to have this passion in my life. To know what my “thing” is. That is what keeps me going. Just the way it makes me feel. Nothing else, and no one else can make me feel the way creating music can make me feel.
How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?
The upcoming projects I will be releasing feel more in tune with what I’ve been itching to do for some time. It’s not that I was ever afraid to say just what the heck is on my mind, I just feel that in the past year I’ve gained so much life experience and experience in this field that I’ve started to be able to access more, things I wasn’t ready to access before. Also, I know I am still nowhere near the ceiling. I know I still have so much growth to do as a writer, performer, and vocalist, but every day it’s all making more sense to me.
Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this oversaturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?
If I’m being 5000% honest, I think social media kind of does lot more harm than good. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of amazing influencers out there who are setting great examples and I am so here for that. But, on the other hand in this digital age, most people are portraying only their golden moments, and there is this illusion of perfection that just isn’t real. That’s what I have an issue with. People don’t usually do a livestream of them crying alone in their car or posts when they got rejected from a school, job, excetera. I mean, I’m not saying I do these specific things, and I’m not saying people should – but I love it when people are not afraid of looking different on social media, saying something that’s different, and shamelessly owning all their weird shit. Those are the types of accounts I make an effort to follow, and the type of artists that I’m drawn to. Like, life is mad weird and we all have some weird stuff going on. So can we all just chill with the one upping each other? I don’t know. So that’s more of an issue I face as a human rather than just an artist I guess, but to me, as a human I am an artist – I don’t really separate the two.
What was the last song you listened to?
Exit Music (For A Film) by Radiohead! I listened to it when I was landing on a plane in LA, amazing song to land on a plane in LA to. Highly recommend.
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
Vinyl! I collect them. There is something so wholesome to me about getting to my apartment after a long day, poppin on a record, doing some work and making dinner. I’m using mp3s every day too though. So gotta have those as well.
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
I use Apple Music. I also hop on Bandcamp now and then for sure.
Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?
Head over to my website www.allyahern.com! Or my instagam @ally.ahern. ☺
Anything else before we sign off?
I’m releasing new music that is tapping into a new sound in 2019! And I’m happy about it. I hope you are too.
