Juliette Ashby Playlist
Juliette Ashby is belting out lyrics born from the raptures and blues of life. We’re in North London, where she grew up, filming a short session for Huck.TV. She’s treating us to a stripped-back, a cappella taster of her self-penned album, Bittersweet, a mature DIY debut, steeped in jazzy huskiness and RnB bite, that’s she’s self-releasing via crowd-funding platform PledgeMusic this summer. It’s a pleasure to listen to – much like her stories.
“The first time I went to a studio was here in East Barnet, when I was eight, with my best friend,” she says, referring to the late Amy Winehouse. “I can speak to you about her and detach myself a little bit, but I’m not very good at talking. My music is my therapy, I don’t know anything else. It’s the only way I can express myself.”
With the support of her family and talented best friend, Juliette nurtured a technical stronghold on her vocal chords – evidenced by her delivery of tracks like ‘Over and Over’ and ‘No Regrets’, which she sings from the gut. As well as counting Bob Marley, Stephen Marley and Erykah Badu as “major influences”, Juliette finds inspiration in all eras and corners of the globe. These are just some of her old-school influences and new-age inspirations.
Bonnie Raitt
“I used to idolise her, down to what she looked like. She’s a genius. Nick of Time was the first album that I learned back to back, when I was seven years old.”
Stevie Wonder
“This was the first concert I went to when I was six weeks old, apparently. I don’t remember it, but I was taken by my mum.”
Aliens Vs. Robots
“If someone told me to listen to a band called that, I’d be like ‘Hmm, okay.’ But I saw them perform at Willie Nelson’s chapel on his ranch – they’re very hippy, spiritual, a little bit psychedelic but with funk. They blew me away and I couldn’t stop watching them.”
Read more in Huck 44 – The Tommy Guerrero Issue.
You might like
Introducing our new issue of Huck Magazine: It Starts With Us
Huck 84 — For our second 20th anniversary issue, we spotlight 20 people and groups providing the world with a hopeful future.
“Magazines are cultural artefacts”: magCulture’s Jeremy Leslie on the enduring importance of print
We love magazines — Despite the ever creeping digitalisation of the world and culture, physical objects are taking on different, yet vital, roles in culture today. Ella Glossop chats to one of London’s biggest proponents of the art about why we need to support independent publications.
“I didn’t care if I got sacked”: Sleazenation’s Scott King in conversation with Radge’s Meg McWilliams
Radgenation — For our 20th Anniversary Issue, Huck’s editor Josh Jones sits down with the legendary art director and the founder of a new magazine from England’s northeast to talk about taking risks, crafting singular covers and disrupting the middle class dominance of the creative industries.
In photos: The newsagents keeping print alive
Save the stands — With Huck 83 hitting shelves around the world, we met a few people who continue to stock print magazines, defying an enduringly tough climate for physical media and the high street.
Huck’s 20th Anniversary Issue, Wu-Tang Clan is here
Life is a Journey — Fronted by the legendary Wu-Tang Clan’s spiritual leader RZA, we explore the space in between beginnings and endings, and the things we learn along the way.
Tech once promised connection. Print magazines are delivering it
Touch paper — After years of retrenchment in the journalism and media industry, physical magazines are making a comeback. In Real Life Media founder Megan Wray Schertler diagnoses the state of the industry, while explaining the radical history of print and why we need it today.
