Laundry, a bit of crochet, and breathing life and lore into a world constructed entirely from the recesses of your ever-expanding creative mind. That’s just another day in the life for industrial-pop icon, aural Artificer, and Dungeons and Dragons fan Ashnikko.
Ashnikko entered the internet zeitgeist with the viral popularity of 2019’s ‘STUPID (feat. Yung Baby Tate)’ which first introduced the blue-haired hurricane to people’s algorithms on TikTok. After carefully cultivating a dedicated fanbase (they call themselves Demidevils, taking the name from Ashhnikko’s 2021 mixtape), she’s spent the last few years making moves to keep the audience on their toes. From spooky cheerleaders in the forest to collaborating with iconic vocaloid Hatsune Miku, Ashnikko’s constantly subverting expectations and making way for the next big project to blow fans out of the water.
Days before the release of their debut album, WEEDKILLER, Ashnikko spoke to Junkee about the love that’s gone into the project. She’s ready to share this labour of love with the world, and they walk me through this new chapter of a discography that’s already brimming with rich storytelling and unapologetic sincerity. “I’m kind of riding a high from the ‘Cheerleader’ music video right now,” they explain.
“I feel super proud of that music video just because it turned out exactly how I imagined it! It’s rare that a music video is a copy/paste of your brain, and I loved collaborating with different creative directors and film directors to get their take on my creative world. With Joanna Nordahl who directed ‘Cheerleader’, it felt like she was reading my mind. The energy on set was feral, wolf pack, howling at the moon — which was a dream.”
An Ashnikko song is typically a cocktail of industrial sounds, Arabic scales, and jaw-dropping lyricism with delivery about as subtle as a lobotomy — something Ashnikko isn’t afraid to do to a bitch, according to the album’s title track. Like a spider spinning silk, Ashnikko dances with melodic finesse, taking twists and turns that are striking and inspired. There’s no better way to achieve this than by stepping outside the confines of Western music. “I just think the Arabic scales are so beautiful, it’s so acrobatic,” she says. Taking surprising turns and spins are all part of creating a sonic palette that constantly encourages fans to reconsider what they truly know about Ashnikko’s music.
Historically, blasting Ashnikko at the park could result in confrontation from the local WASP mums, but WEEDKILLER takes the focus away from sexual assertion. Don’t get me wrong — it’s very fun to listen to tracks about “cunnilingus on my couch” and “nipples through the t-shirt”. On WEEDKILLER, though, Ashnikko sharpens her gaze further, weaving in political commentary in a time where it’s needed more than ever.
The Weird And Wonderful World Of Ashnikko’s WEEDKILLER
WEEDKILLER is a love letter to creative exploration. You can feel Ashnikko’s fingerprints and careful construction within each moment. “WEEDKILLER is a body of work that I have sat down and created every single aspect of — from the visual side, to the merch, to the sounds that were used in the production, to the lyrical content,” she explains.
Its sonic landscape is dense and theatrical, influenced in part by the sweeping musical atmospheres of the Dune soundtrack. “I just love how that film was scored. I was trying to approach the sonic world like we were scoring a film.”
The grandiose experience isn’t limited to the music itself, as Ashnikko weaves an armoury of emotional weaponry into the fabric of the album. A stand out for me is ‘Possession Of A Weapon’, a track that reflects on the overturning of Roe V. Wade. It’s lyricism like “It’s just flesh, I can be grotesque/Move my body like chess” that has Ashnikko standing tall as a provocateur of justified retribution. Its message deftly balances both aggravation and exasperation. “I really really love that song. It’s really special to me, it means a lot to me. I feel like I got to unveil a new side of my musical self in that song. When people tell me that they love the lyrics and that they feel that song, I do feel very seen.”
The world of WEEDKILLER goes well beyond a traditional album release, and the project has blossomed into a cross-medium artistic exploration complete with lore, a comic, and RPG nerdy goodness. Plenty of artists, I’m sure, envision extraordinary ideas for their releases that just aren’t realistic — financially or otherwise — however the sheer expanse of what WEEDKILLER has become is a testament to what’s possible for those determined enough to shoot for the stars. “There’s a comic based on the short story for DC. I’m fleshing it out into more of a graphic novel as well.”
Being Part Of Ashnikko’s In Crowd
As a listener, it feels so special to be invited into the sacred world built by an artist you enjoy and admire, and that feeling is usually a partly abstract concept. Ashnikko’s WEEDKILLER era feels like the most literal interpretation of what that intimate connectivity feels like; she’s created a world with so many layers. Ashnikko promises that those who want to truly explore the era will have plenty to enjoy — but there’s also space for casual listeners, too. “You can get really into the lore of it, or you can listen passively if you want! There are options for everyone. We also wrote a DnD campaign, which I’m excited about.”
Something feral happened to me when they mentioned this. I couldn’t help but feel my brain short-circuit as a surge of class options descended over me. Should I build a forest nymph goblin to traverse the Wastewoods, or would building some sort of cyborg climate-war deserter be a fun angle when navigating the Husk timeline?
Indulging in the world Ashnikko has been constructing for the last few years reminds me of just how fucking cool some people are. To create a framework for your community to explore your ideas, with the underlying freedom of being fully yourself within that world, is a special thing for any artist. It’s clear that Ashnikko’s truly proud of the universe they’ve built, and continue to build, for their fans.
It’s one thing to drop a genre-defying, magic-infused, industrial-pop album that cleverly conveys the complex frustration around the climate catastrophe. It’s another thing entirely to do that and build a world of transcendental beauty among such destructive emotions. The sci-fi/fantasy genre has long been known as a deceivingly unassuming backdrop that disarms audiences yet encourages them to think deeply about the world around them. There is no one ‘right’ way to consume WEEDKILLER, but its messages of climate responsibility, personal agency, and the objectification of women are folded into the dystopian fae world set within the thickets of Wastewood.
“I think that the most important thing is that people are able to use the songs as a vehicle to tell their own stories. That’s my favourite thing about putting out music — and also listening to music — I use them as a way to think about my own life. I hope people feel that with this album.”
Ashnikko’s Quest For Authenticity
Living in a country that’s often left out of ‘world tour’ announcements, Australian fans have learned the hard way not to expect too much from international stars. While the internet certainly connects us to the rest of the world (with wires or maybe The Cloud??), the listener-artist relationship feels especially one-sided. Live shows are just so few and far between.
Despite this, Ashnikko’s determination to connect with fans prevails. When they visited recently for their first ever Australian shows in April of this year, connecting with their Aussie fans came with a greater sense of purpose. “Australia is so far away! I don’t have a grasp of how many people listen to my music, so actually going down there and putting some faces to names, and seeing people from my Discord, and actually meeting and seeing people was really beautiful.”
If you’re someone who finds yourself in parasocial relationships with whoever comes across your Explore page, Ashnikko may become your new favourite act, or perhaps even your next totally unhealthy obsession (this is not advice). I often wonder how people can find the time to invest in their audiences in between the demanding nature of having an endless creative to-do list, and the whole being a human being thing.
This feels especially perplexing when considering the sheer volume of Ashnikko’s creative enterprises. With all that in mind, Ashnikko’s dedication to their fanbase is eternally refreshing, especially in a pop landscape where authenticity is in constant flux as artists navigate that tricky balance between online sincerity and promotion. I can’t even find time to prioritise my family’s Sunday lunches, yet Ashnikko is single-handedly investing in a community that has found belonging and solace through their music. “The internet can be a bit of a cesspit,” they note, “but I really do try to talk to the people who are actually, genuinely supporting me”.
“Just from my experience in the past, I just know that being creative for other people, or putting out music that I think other people are going to like, or that my label is going to like — people pleasing doesn’t really work with my audience.”
Ashnikko knows that the way to truly promote sincerity is by acting sincerely and trusting your gut. “I think that the stuff that people connect to most is the stuff that I connect to most. The stuff that comes from the deepest recesses of my silly little brain is the stuff that people tend to gravitate towards the most. It’s good to know that I should trust my own intuition, I think that goes for all creatives.”
Whether it’s an online book club, or the 12k-member strong Ashnikko World Discord server, you can easily find yourself lost (and found) in the evocative whimsy that has captivated countless Demidevils. When you venture into the universe of Ashnikko, you know you’re entering a safe space.
Ella Sterland is a musician and writer. Her musical projects are Dreaming Soda and Bares, and you can find her celebrating female and non-binary musicians on her platform ‘Record the Resonance’.
Image Credit: Vasso Vu