Daily Inspiration: Meet Ashley Nova

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashley Nova.

Hi Ashley, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My name’s Ashley Nova, I wasn’t really interested in music at all until I got into high school, when I got into a lot of emo and alternative music and finally decided to pick up a bass guitar and learn how to play my favorite songs. From there, I fell absolutely in love with music and wanted to be able to perform and write my own. Through high school I could never find people who wanted to play similar styles of music as me, by then I had gotten really into punk and indie scenes, but I was a really shy kid so connecting with other musicians in my area was very difficult. I had just gotten into a band called Car Seat Headrest and found out that most of their music was made by just one person, so I decided to try doing it all myself! That’s how Dead Boyfriend was born, and I had a lot of fun just writing songs and producing them by myself in my bedroom. DIY culture has always inspired me and I love the sound that a lot of bedroom, lofi, and indie artists create in their limited spaces. Over four albums, for three years, I slowly expanded my sound and range of influences, as well as the equipment I used to record and the overall quality of the sound I created. For my most recent album, Strangers Forever, I was fortunate enough to get new equipment and recording gear with some grant money I received from Youth On Record through their fellowship, and I also used that money to pay my friend, Destino, to mix and master the album as opposed to just blindly mixing the music myself. This resulted in my most personal album to date, and one that I am most proud of!: Strangers Forever.
I love to create music, and I never plan on making music for anything other than my pure artistic drive to create. I also love to change genres, and plan on switching it up a lot in the future. 🙂

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
My biggest struggle as a musician is finding people to collaborate with. Creating music by myself is fun, and I like the total creative control, but when I get writer’s block then everything just seems to come to a halt, Now, I have bandmates to bounce ideas off of, and we recently started a project that was based off of our guitarist, Jamie’s, ideas and experiences in a rural New York village. I’m so excited to get started on that! Also, jumping into the Denver music scene without any connections is rather difficult, especially when I didn’t have a band. The Denver music scene is luckily very welcoming and friendly, so even an artist as small as I am have had the chance to share my music and even make money for performing in Denver!

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m an artist, a musician, and I dabble in almost anything creative that comes my way. I just love to create! My artist’s name is Ashley Nova, and my band/musician’s name is Dead Boyfriend. I’m a bassist, pianist, singer, guitarist, drummer, and I also dabble in ukelele, dulcimer guitar, and melodica. I really love combining a lot of different genres, mainly folk, singer songwriter, punk, emo, indie, and even dark cabaret music. My specialty would probably be crafting abstract, non-linear songs that are primarily based around piano or bass guitar, and using abstract lyricism to convey a lot of my feelings and past experiences. I’ve done a lot of shows with Youth On Record before, and have had my latest album reviewed on the Denver Music Community Podcast, but if I’m being honest I’m still not very well known in the Denver music community. I’m also an artist! I do it mostly as a hobby, but all of my album artwork is done by me, and I’ve been drawing longer than I’ve been doing music. I’ve done a handful of art for other musician friends of mine, such as Juicebox of Paradise’s latest album ‘Lavender Lemonade’; i did the cover! And recently I did local hyperpop artist Destino’s merch designs.

I think the thing that sets me apart from other musicians is that I’m into a lot of very specific sub genres, such as punk cabaret, steampunk, folk punk, and I bring a lot of those unique elements into my music. I also try to learn any new instrument I can get my hands on, which leads to some interesting musical combinations, such as including melodica, dulcimer guitar, and saxophone on my last album.

Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
The thing that has helped me get involved the most was definitely joining Youth On Record, I joined their FEMpowered program and their Fellowship and have met so many amazing musicians through them, a lot of us are still friends to this day and collaborate on projects together. I’ve also gotten a few paid gigs through them and met legendary Denver musicians in the process. Definitely finding a place with like-minded artists is SO important.

Contact Info:

• Email: deadboyfriend666@gmail.com
• Website: https://deadboyfriend666.carrd.co/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mydeadboyfriend/
• Facebook: https://www.instagram.com/deathissexy/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/deadbfco
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsmjmU2C7ascopVVgm5VuLg
• Other: https://deadboyfriend.bandcamp.com/

Image Credits
Thomas Tanner