Feature: Asha Jefferies Is Unleashed on Triumphant Debut Album 'Ego Ride'

Australian indie pop artist Asha Jefferies rises like a beautiful phoenix from the ashes on her debut album ‘Ego Ride,’ a triumphant and bold record of self-discovery, transformation, and homecoming.

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Stream: “Brand New Bitch” – Asha Jefferies

I’m in love and I’m over boys and I’m wearing tank tops and I’m talking to George about how I’m in love and I’m over boys…

Singer/songwriter Asha Jefferies is riding pretty high these days.

And it’s not just because she’s just released her debut album – though that certainly adds to the celebration. Rather, the Australian singer/songwriter has recently been feeling more at home in her body and comfortable in her own skin. It’s a sense of belonging and self-assurance she’d been missing for quite some time; a series of breakthroughs and revelations brought her to a painful tipping point, and on the other side of it all, she found herself anew.

It’s a powerful story of self-discovery, and one borne out in vivid detail on Ego Ride, the indie pop artist’s long-awaited debut LP. From confessing she sometimes feels “like a stranger in myself, in my body” to feeling someone new “coming alive from the inside” and boldly declaring herself a “brand new bitch,” Asha Jefferies is reborn in ten songs that capture her triumphant and unassailable homecoming.

And while the music itself is emotive and exhilarating, it’s what it represents – that empowered inner awakening it captures – that leaves us truly inspired and in awe. Out of her own innermost reckonings and aching reflections, Asha Jefferies rises like a beautiful phoenix from the ashes – confident, composed, and riding high as she unveils and unpacks a transformative, life-altering journey.

Ego Ride - Asha Jefferies — Ego Ride – Asha Jefferies

I lost feeling in my feet 4 years ago
Sank into the bedsheets
Sometimes those thoughts
don’t know where to run
You were there you had no idea
Wanted to love a woman
while you were loving a child

Breathe in, take the photo,
you’re a brand new bitch time to let go

Released April 12, 2024 via Nettwerk Music Group, Ego Ride is a collection so bold and self-assured, you’d be forgiven for forgetting it’s the artist’s debut. And perhaps it’s just as well – 2019’s debut EP Hold Yourself Together and 2021’s follow-up The Pinnacle were admittedly shorter collections, but both presented Asha Jefferies as a tour de force – a quality that holds especially true throughout Ego Ride‘s run.

Produced by fellow Brisbanite Sam Cromack (of indie rock band Ball Park Music), Ego Ride is an intimate and expansive collection of songs dwelling in life’s emotional deep end and learning to embrace change.

“It is a story written and dedicated to my younger self, that the meter of your world will keep on running and there is hope to be had,” Jefferies tells Atwood Magazine. “Ego Ride is a story of triumph, hope, grief, loss, queer love, and empowerment. I started writing it when I was 22, and I’m about to turn 25 next week! It is essentially about the ride of early adulthood and feeling at home within yourself and your life, really.”

“My vision going in was just to be honest as possible – in my songwriting, in the way that we played and produced the songs. It sounds incredibly simple to say, but I think the best gift you can give yourself as a creative is to enjoy the process. I learnt so much about my relationship to music making this album which feels like a really valuable thing. I guess my main intention was to just dive into the process and let the album become whatever it wanted to be.”

Collaborating together with Cromack and her bandmates, Jefferies approached her songs with an open mind and a willingness to experiment, allowing each one to reveal itself over time and slowly come into its own; the resulting collection is a diverse smorgasbord of sounds and styles that feels cohesive despite its vast array, with Jefferies blending elements from psychedelia, indie rock, and folktronica into her indie pop anthems, piano ballads, and songs that don’t fit into any one “box.” Furthermore, the tracks were recorded live together in one room – a quality that adds to the album’s inherent warmth and connective tissue.

**“For me as a songwriter, Ego Ride feels like a homecoming,” Jefferies beams.**

“And perhaps my past work has felt like the route you take on your way to the homecoming, but Ego Ride feels like the destination. I think it has come down to trusting myself to be honest within my songwriting and being inspired by the creatives around me that do it so triumphantly.”

Smiling all the while, Jefferies candidly describing her album as triumphant, hopeful, and transformative. The title “Ego Ride” comes from the song of the same name, which closes the album on an undeniably cathartic, spiritually cleansing high note.

“The song ‘Ego Ride’ was the last song I wrote for the album, and it felt like it tied everything together nicely,” Jefferies reflects. “I think it is so easy to attach your identity to your surroundings, and ‘Ego Ride’ is a story of realising you are more than just the people, places, and beliefs you attach yourself to. I’ve come to use the phrase ‘Ego Ride’ when I find myself falling into narratives (about my life) that keep me stuck or limited. ‘Ego Ride’ is a reminder that our identities are ever-evolving.”

Ego ride
She held me by my hand
And helped me sleep at night
She called by my name
But never called on time
I’m sorry I just left
I’m so thankful for my legs
I had to give up to start again

Ego ride
I tried not to fight it
Ego ride
and I know you didn’t buy it
Ego ride
I’m coming back to real life
Ego ride

As the album’s cathartic closing track, “Ego Ride” is an irresistible, smile-inducing cherry on top – yet it’s just one of the record’s many highlights. From the feverish, brutally honest enchantment “Keep My Shit Together” and the poignant, achingly vulnerable “Baby Don’t Fight It” to the hopeful slow-burner “Spinning” and the exhilarating, impassioned anthem “Brand New Bitch,” Ego Ride hits hard and leaves a lasting, memorable mark; how could it not, when the artist herself is so beautifully empowered and unleashed?

“I feel close to all of these songs, but in particular ‘Spinning’ is a special one for me,” Jefferies says. “I’ve never written an outwardly hopeful song like ‘Spinning’ before, I felt so genuinely hopeful and grateful for my life and the people in it. It felt like I was able to capture this beautiful feeling of gratitude for life, that is sometimes hard to remember.”

There’s a candle burning somewhere
Adn you’ll look right into the flame
And you’ll flutter around a new age of love
That drives you sane

You’ll get so damn good at parking
And you’ll ask for what you need
When they kiss you like they mean it
You can take a second to breathe

The meter just keeps on running
And this tiny world, keeps on spinning
The meter just keeps on running
And this tiny world, keeps on spinning

– “Spinning,” Asha Jefferies

One of Jefferies’ personal favorite lyrics comes from the fourth track, “Golden Hour”: Nothing persists like a love that doesn’t exist, anymore. “It was when I was going through a very icy and persistent heartbreak that felt like it followed me around wherever I went,” she explains. “This line captures the feeling of having past memories hold or haunt you in a beautiful way.”

Further lyrical highlights can be found in “Keep My Shit Together” (for a long time, I planned to name this article “there’s nothing sexy about feeling alone”), “Tank Tops” (“it had me all by surprise, ‘cause she stayed in my bed for the whole night, body’s wrapped around something other than the phone line”) and “Reply” (“Your silence is the steepest sigh, and I’m trying to remember when the moment felt right to tell you all I’ve been missing is us at night, but is there anything worse than saying something you don’t mean just for a reply?”)

Wherever you press play, Ego Ride reads like a diary – and it is this unfiltered, unflinching lyricism that makes the album so special for both artist and listeners alike.

**For Asha Jefferies, Ego Ride is so much more than just her debut album.**

It’s her triumph; her homecoming; her fresh restart – a bold new beginning for the mind, the body, and the spirit.

“Through creating Ego Ride, I’ve learnt so much about the power of community, the importance of honesty, accepting change, and the beautiful persistence that life will keep evolving and we will keep moving through it,” Jefferies shares. “I hope listeners feel a pocket of acceptance, connection and belonging within it!”

Experience the full record via our below stream, and peek inside Asha Jefferies’ Ego Ride with Atwood Magazine as she takes us track-by-track through the music and lyrics of her debut album!

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:: stream/purchase Ego Ride here ::

:: connect with Asha Jefferies here ::

Stream: ‘Ego Ride’ – Asha Jefferies

:: Inside Ego Ride ::

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Stranger

Stranger opens up the album channeling a built up question – how are you to know and share yourself with someone if you’re never being given the space to explore or question it? The song speaks to being lost and trapped inside of a relationship and tackles themes around codependency, identity, voice and desire for freedom.

Keep My Shit Together

This song was written one hot and sweaty day on my piano in December. I was feeling stuck and existential which inspired me to make fun of myself. The goal was to bring lightness to hot and heavy stressful feelings around Christmas time. We recorded this in mid-December 2022, aircon cranking and all in organised matching white tank tops.

Baby Don’t Fight It

Baby Don’t Fight It was the first song we recorded with Sam back in December 2021. I remember pinching myself driving to the studio with Kaleah (drummer), having listened to Ball Park Music since I was a young teen. The day in the studio was so effortless and magical, I think we all knew there’d be more of it to come. This song has a pretty stripped back band arrangement which speaks to the song’s story – it’s about accepting the light and dark parts of a relationship and not fighting any emotion that comes up. I’d like to see it as a really sad birthday card in song format, missing, hating and celebrating someone all at the same time.

Golden Hour

This was the first song I wrote for the album in September 2021! It feels like a lifetime ago, where I was writing just to make sense of heartbreak and life changing so rapidly. I remember showing it to Sam when I came into the studio by myself to talk about making an album. It always felt like a half-written, oddly structured song until the band put new life into it. My favourite section will always be the free, open-falling outro where the song finally gets its relief and closure of having to let go of the past.

Tank Tops

I could write what Tank Tops is about forever. It’s a song that means so many things to me – it’s personal, it’s about my identity and the community around me. It’s a song about entering a new phase in my life and how my queer identity has taught me to love.

Spinning

I’ve never written a song like Spinning before and it is so special to me. It is hopeful and tender and attempts to showcase the gratitude I have for my life, hopefully in a not-too-cheesy kind of way. I remember playing on the piano after a band rehearsal at Prawn Studio by myself one night in May 2022. Alone at the studio where we were making the album, it gave me a moment to reflect on how stoked a younger version of myself would be if they saw me now. Time can feel so slow and stiff and then one day you wake up and you’re living a totally different life where you can feel heartache ending and love beginning.

Brand New Bitch

Brand New Bitch was inspired by Haley Blais’ lyricism in her song ‘Coolest F***ing Bitch In Town.’ How tough but melancholic the song is feels almost humorous and I regularly feel the tug to become a better, newer version of myself.

Reply

I wrote this song during a thunderstorm in the shipping container I teach music lessons in. It sounded like a blizzard on the roof and I was reflecting on moments that I responded to too strongly or not strongly enough.

Cruise Control

To be in cruise control, is to ride steady and smoothly through the storms of rough climate, harsh roads, lame parties and undesired romantic gestures. It’s a phrase I have kept close, after a lesson learnt on testing my boundaries and finding the confidence to trust my gut. The body always wins and I’ve learnt to listen. I would rather feel safe within my body than have somebody like me and I would rather be myself than try to utilise a sense of false esteem. It’s a growing up type of anthem, cultivating comfort in my own skin and exercising what feels right and what doesn’t.

Ego Ride

Ego Ride was the last song I wrote for the album in March 2023. I had been saying the album was finished even though it didn’t feel like it. When I wrote it, it felt like the perfect wrap up song, tying all of the stories of the album together without meaning to. It speaks to self-doubt and being able to see when your ego is driving. Each time the song’s dynamics rise, it feels like I’m popping the bubble of a spiral and coming back into myself. Sam and I had so much fun adding a pulse to this song as well as the subtle vocoder, which really makes the song breathe.

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