At just 22, Nashville-based singer-songwriter ASHMOOR is carving out a distinctive space between 80s pop nostalgia, alternative R&B, and contemporary indie music. With his latest single “GIVING IT UP,” he explores the contradictions of romantic attraction through shimmering synths, infectious melodies, and deeply personal songwriting. MUNDANE speaks with the rising artist about growing up in Kentucky and Tennessee, discovering music beyond his surroundings, working through writer’s block, and the emotional world behind his forthcoming debut album, LSD.
There’s something particularly compelling about music that sounds like a memory you haven’t quite lived yet.
The familiar warmth of an 80s synthesizer, the effortless bounce of a New Jack Swing rhythm, the intimacy of an imperfect vocal recording: these are sounds that carry decades of cultural associations, yet in the hands of a new generation of artists, they can become something entirely contemporary.
For 22-year-old singer-songwriter ASHMOOR, that intersection between nostalgia and reinvention has become the foundation of his emerging musical identity.
Based in Nashville, Tennessee, with roots in Knoxville and Bowling Green, Kentucky, ASHMOOR is developing a sound that moves fluidly between indie pop, alternative R&B, dream pop, and the melodic sophistication of late-20th-century popular music.
His latest single, “GIVING IT UP,” offers a particularly vivid introduction to that world.
Built around delicate piano chords, glimmering synthesizers, and an infectious, 80s-inspired drum groove, the track initially feels like an uncomplicated celebration of romance.
But beneath its buoyant production lies a more conflicted emotional narrative.
The song explores the experience of being irresistibly drawn to someone while simultaneously trying to convince yourself that getting involved would be a mistake.
It’s about wanting to surrender to a feeling while instinctively protecting yourself from the possibility of heartbreak.
“It’s romantic, but there’s also some hesitation,” ASHMOOR explains. “Like you’re already falling and trying to stop yourself.”
That tension between emotional vulnerability and musical exuberance is central to his approach.
Rather than allowing the production to mirror the sadness or uncertainty of the lyrics, ASHMOOR embraces the contrast.
The result is a song that feels joyful on the surface but becomes increasingly complicated the closer you listen.
And with his debut album, LSD, scheduled for January, “GIVING IT UP” represents another step toward establishing a musical identity that is as emotionally intuitive as it is stylistically adventurous.
The Art of Wanting Someone You Shouldn’t
Romantic attraction rarely arrives with the kind of clarity we might prefer.
Sometimes we recognize the potential for a meaningful connection immediately.
Other times, we find ourselves resisting feelings that seem impossible to ignore.
“GIVING IT UP” exists within that second experience.
The song captures the internal negotiations that happen when desire begins to challenge self-preservation.
ASHMOOR describes the track as being about wanting someone while making a deliberate effort not to want them anymore.
It’s an emotional contradiction that feels especially familiar in contemporary relationships, where vulnerability can often be mistaken for a loss of control.
Rather than offering a dramatic account of heartbreak, the song explores the moments before a relationship has even fully developed.
The anticipation.
The hesitation.
The awareness that allowing yourself to care about someone means accepting the possibility of being hurt.
Musically, however, ASHMOOR approaches those feelings with a sense of lightness.
The production draws from tropical pop, 80s nostalgia, and the relaxed atmosphere of 90s-inspired indie music.
Bright synthesizers and rhythmic percussion create an inviting, almost carefree environment, while the lyrics reveal the uncertainty underneath.
The contrast gives the song its emotional complexity.
It’s possible to dance to “GIVING IT UP” without immediately recognizing the vulnerability at its center.
But once that tension becomes apparent, the music takes on a different meaning.
The cheerful exterior begins to feel like an emotional defense mechanism of its own.
And perhaps that’s precisely why the track works.
A Song Born From Writer’s Block
Despite its polished melodic identity, “GIVING IT UP” emerged from an unexpectedly spontaneous creative moment.
ASHMOOR and his producer, Jonie, were approaching the final stages of completing LSD when the singer found himself struggling with writer’s block.
After working on the album’s material, he had reached a point where new ideas weren’t arriving easily.
Then Jonie began playing an old upright piano in his living room.
ASHMOOR started humming.
And the foundation of “GIVING IT UP” began to take shape.
The moment reflects the instinctive quality that runs through much of his songwriting.
Rather than beginning with a carefully developed concept or an elaborate production plan, the song emerged through the simple interaction between a piano melody and a spontaneous vocal idea.
At the time, ASHMOOR had been listening extensively to New Edition, the influential R&B group whose work helped shape the evolution of contemporary pop and New Jack Swing.
That influence naturally found its way into the track’s rhythmic identity.
The result combines the infectious movement of late-80s and early-90s R&B with the hazier, more intimate textures of modern indie pop.
For ASHMOOR, the creative process often involves allowing different musical influences to coexist without forcing them into a predetermined category.
“GIVING IT UP” is a clear example.
Its rhythmic foundation feels familiar, but the surrounding production introduces subtle electronic flourishes, layered harmonies, and contemporary vocal treatments that prevent the song from becoming a straightforward exercise in nostalgia.
Instead, it transforms the past into something personal.
Growing Up Somewhere Between Kentucky and the Music He Wanted to Hear
ASHMOOR’s fascination with musical discovery began long before he started releasing his own songs.
Raised between Knoxville, Tennessee, and Ashmoor Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky, he grew up in an environment where access to the music that interested him wasn’t always straightforward.
His mother regularly played artists such as Michael Jackson and Sheryl Crow around the house, introducing him to the melodic and emotional possibilities of popular music.
But beyond those familiar sounds, he often felt compelled to search for something different.
Growing up in a conservative area, he recalls finding it difficult to access the wider range of musical styles and cultural influences that fascinated him.
That limitation became a source of curiosity.
Rather than accepting the music immediately available to him, ASHMOOR began actively searching for artists and recordings that expanded his understanding of sound.
One childhood memory captures that determination particularly well.
After asking for money to buy school lunch, he used it instead to purchase Bobby Brown’s My Prerogative album.
It’s a small act of rebellion, but one that reveals something important about his relationship with music.
Discovery wasn’t simply a passive experience.
It was something he actively pursued, even when it required going against expectations.
That desire to explore unfamiliar sounds eventually became central to his creative identity.
The music he couldn’t easily access growing up helped shape the music he would later want to make.
And the tension between his geographical roots and his musical imagination remains an important part of his story.
From Michael Jackson to Dijon: Building a Sound Without Boundaries
ASHMOOR’s musical influences span an unusually broad range of eras and aesthetics.
Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Prince, Tears for Fears, The 1975, and Dijon all occupy important places within his creative vocabulary.
But rather than attempting to recreate any single artist’s sound, he approaches those influences as individual elements that can inform his own work.
From Michael Jackson and Prince, he draws an appreciation for melody, rhythm, and the ability to create music that feels immediately engaging.
Both artists demonstrated how technical sophistication and popular accessibility could coexist.
Their recordings often relied on intricate arrangements and distinctive production choices without sacrificing the emotional directness of a memorable hook.
The 1975 offer a different kind of inspiration.
ASHMOOR admires the band’s ability to create atmospheric productions that feel connected to specific emotional states.
Their music frequently blends nostalgic references with contemporary sonic experimentation, creating a relationship between past and present that resonates with his own approach.
Dijon, meanwhile, represents the appeal of intimacy and imperfection.
His recordings can feel loose, spontaneous, and almost documentary in their immediacy, preserving the sense that real musicians are interacting within a physical space.
For ASHMOOR, these different approaches aren’t contradictory.
They’re complementary.
He wants his music to feel accessible without becoming predictable.
Strong melodies remain essential, but he also looks for opportunities to introduce something unexpected through production, arrangement, or songwriting.
And importantly, he doesn’t pretend to have completely defined his artistic identity yet.
At 22, he sees that uncertainty as part of the creative process.
The goal isn’t necessarily to arrive at a fixed sound as quickly as possible.
It’s to continue discovering what his music can become.
Four Singles, One Expanding Musical Identity
“GIVING IT UP” arrives as the fourth single leading up to ASHMOOR’s debut album, LSD.
The release follows “JACKIE’S BACK,” which has surpassed 200,000 streams, alongside “EBONY” and “LET’S ALL GET MARRIED.”
Together, the singles introduce different dimensions of his songwriting and production.
Although they share a recognizable emotional sensibility, ASHMOOR has deliberately explored a variety of musical styles throughout the project.
Indie pop, singer-songwriter traditions, alternative pop, and R&B all appear within the album’s broader sonic landscape.
For him, that diversity doesn’t undermine the project’s cohesion.
Instead, it reflects the range of influences and emotions that inform his creative perspective.
He describes himself as continually discovering new sounds that inspire him to experiment.
That curiosity has helped shape an album that feels connected through its themes and artistic personality rather than restricted to a single genre.
The approach is particularly relevant for a generation of musicians whose listening habits rarely follow traditional industry categories.
An artist can grow up equally fascinated by 80s pop, 90s R&B, contemporary indie rock, and experimental production without feeling obligated to choose between them.
ASHMOOR embraces that freedom.
And with LSD, he is beginning to establish a creative framework capable of accommodating those different influences.
‘LSD’: Love, Confusion, and the Search for Emotional Clarity
At the center of ASHMOOR’s forthcoming debut album is a deceptively simple question:
What happens when we don’t fully understand what we want?
For the singer, LSD explores relationships, attraction, and the emotional situations that arise when desire and certainty fail to align.
Much of the material draws from real experiences.
But rather than transforming those experiences into definitive lessons, ASHMOOR approaches songwriting as a way of examining feelings that remain unresolved.
That distinction gives the project an appealing sense of openness.
The songs aren’t necessarily designed to provide answers.
They’re attempts to understand experiences that can be difficult to articulate.
“GIVING IT UP” introduces that perspective particularly effectively.
Its lyrics capture the contradiction of being attracted to someone while resisting the vulnerability that attraction requires.
Meanwhile, its upbeat production suggests the excitement and possibility that accompany those feelings.
The tension between the two becomes a defining characteristic of the album’s emotional world.
For ASHMOOR, romantic uncertainty isn’t simply a subject for sad songs.
It can also be playful, nostalgic, euphoric, and occasionally confusing.
That complexity allows him to explore relationships without reducing them to familiar narratives of love and heartbreak.
And as his debut approaches, it offers an intriguing indication of the artist he is becoming.
When a Personal Project Finds an Audience
Although ASHMOOR is still at an early stage in his career, his music has already begun reaching listeners beyond his immediate surroundings.
With growing streaming numbers and early support from outlets including PERFECTLY IMPERFECT, SOUNDFYND, On The Radar Radio, No Country for New Nashville, and Kayvan’s House, he is gradually building an audience around his distinctive approach to pop songwriting.
For an artist who grew up actively searching for music outside the cultural environment immediately available to him, that response carries particular significance.
He remembers being surprised by the number of people who began listening during the first month of his releases.
The experience felt almost surreal.
Despite the enormous scale of the music industry, listeners were discovering and connecting with songs that began as personal creative experiments.
His reaction was immediate: he called his mother.
It’s a charming detail that captures the emotional reality behind the numbers.
Streaming milestones can become abstract measurements of success, but for an emerging artist, they also represent individual people choosing to spend time with something you’ve created.
For ASHMOOR, that connection is part of what makes the process meaningful.
And as LSD approaches, his ambitions remain grounded in the same curiosity that first inspired him to explore music as a child.
He wants to make the kind of record his younger self would have loved discovering.
We spoke with ASHMOOR about the creation of “GIVING IT UP,” his upbringing in Kentucky and Tennessee, the artists who shaped his musical imagination, and the personal experiences behind his forthcoming debut album.
In Conversation With ASHMOOR
You’ve mentioned that “GIVING IT UP” is about trying not to want someone you feel strongly drawn to. Was there a specific moment or experience that sparked the idea for this song?
My producer, Jonie, and I were finishing up the album. I couldn’t really think of anything and was in a writer’s block.
He then started playing his old upright in his living room and I started humming the melody.
I was listening to a lot of New Edition at the time, so I was really into the Jack Swing of it all.
Raised between Knoxville, Tennessee, and Ashmoor Park in Kentucky, how have your roots and those specific environments shaped your musical identity and sonic perspective?
Where I’m from there’s definitely less of an accessibility to get a hold of the music I grew up listening to.
Sure, my mom would play Michael Jackson and Sheryl Crow in the kitchen every day, but getting anything else in a conservative area is tough.
I remember whenever I asked for school lunch money and instead bought the My Prerogative album by Bobby Brown with it.
I think the want of wanting to know more about the culture and sounds that I didn’t usually hear is why I wanted to know more.
Your sound draws from a rich mix of influences, ranging from Michael Jackson and Prince to The 1975 and Dijon. How do you integrate these diverse sounds into something that feels uniquely yours?
I think it comes down to taking inspiration from what I love about each artist without trying to recreate any one of them.
Michael Jackson and Prince have such an incredible understanding of melody, rhythm, and how to make a song feel immediate.
The 1975 have a way of making production feel atmospheric and emotionally specific, and I love how Dijon can make a recording feel loose, intimate, and almost like you’re in the room with him.
I take little pieces of those worlds and bring them into the music I’m making.
Ultimately, I want the songs to have strong melodies and feel accessible, but I also want there to be something a little unexpected in the production and/or the writing.
I’m still figuring out what my sound is, and I think that’s part of the fun.
“GIVING IT UP” follows successful releases like “JACKIE’S BACK,” “EBONY,” and “LET’S ALL GET MARRIED.” How do you feel your songwriting and sound have evolved across these releases leading up to the new single?
I feel I’m branching out into newer sounds every day that are getting me inspired to make new things every day.
The album is very cohesive; however, there are a lot of different subgenres in it. Anywhere from indie pop, singer-songwriter, or alternative pop/R&B.
Your debut full-length project, LSD, is set to arrive in January. What core themes or narratives weave through the album, and how does “GIVING IT UP” set the stage for it?
LSD explores relationships, attraction, and the situations we all find ourselves in when we don’t fully understand what we want.
A lot of the album comes from real experiences and trying to make sense of them without necessarily having all the answers.
“GIVING IT UP” introduces those themes.
It’s about being attracted to someone but not wanting to give your heart away too easily.
Sonically, it has a bright, effortless feel to me, drawing from the pop music I grew up loving and the indie sounds that inspire me today.
I think that contrast between the upbeat production and the emotions underneath is a big part of what LSD is about.
With support building across both sides of the Atlantic, how has it felt seeing your music resonate with such a rapidly growing international audience?
It’s definitely really cool.
I didn’t think even with the world being so big and this being so much smaller in comparison, people would swarm to it and believe in it.
After the first month and seeing how many people were streaming, I called my mom, haha.
For sure has been wild.
Looking ahead to the release of LSD in January, what do you hope listeners take away from this upcoming debut album?
I went into this project wanting to make something that I would want to listen to while I was growing up.
Honestly, anyone who leaves with that feeling makes my life, even if they listen to one single or the whole album.
I hope people enjoy what they are hearing and stick around for the foundation I’m trying to build for ASHMOOR.
Making Music for the Person You Used to Be
Perhaps the most revealing aspect of ASHMOOR’s story is the relationship between the music he makes today and the music he struggled to discover growing up.
As a child in Kentucky and Tennessee, he was fascinated by sounds that existed beyond his immediate surroundings.
He searched for recordings, absorbed influences, and developed an understanding of music that wasn’t limited by geography or genre.
Years later, those experiences have become the foundation of his own artistic identity.
The influence of Michael Jackson and Prince can be heard in his appreciation for melody and rhythm.
The atmospheric sensibility of The 1975 informs his interest in production as a vehicle for emotion.
And the intimacy of artists like Dijon encourages him to preserve something human and unpredictable within his recordings.
But what makes ASHMOOR interesting isn’t simply the combination of those references.
It’s the personal perspective through which he interprets them.
“GIVING IT UP” demonstrates how familiar musical elements can become the foundation for something emotionally specific.
The bright synthesizers and buoyant rhythms evoke the optimism of nostalgic pop, while the lyrics reveal a more complicated relationship with desire and vulnerability.
That contradiction feels particularly appropriate for an artist whose debut album explores the uncertainty of not fully understanding what we want.
At 22, ASHMOOR isn’t presenting himself as someone who has already arrived at a definitive creative identity.
Instead, he seems genuinely interested in the process of discovering one.
And that openness may be one of his greatest strengths.
Rather than attempting to reproduce the music of his influences, he is using their work as a starting point for his own experimentation.
The result is a growing catalog that feels simultaneously familiar and unpredictable.
With LSD approaching, ASHMOOR has the opportunity to introduce listeners to a more complete version of that musical world.
But his ambitions remain refreshingly personal.
He wants to create something that would have excited the younger version of himself—the kid searching for new sounds, spending his lunch money on records, and imagining a world beyond the music immediately available to him.
And perhaps that’s the most meaningful measure of artistic success.
Not simply reaching a larger audience, but creating the kind of music that once made you want to become an artist in the first place.
For ASHMOOR, “GIVING IT UP” is another step in that journey.
And if the single is any indication, LSD promises to be a debut shaped by curiosity, emotional honesty, and the freedom to explore music without boundaries.
“GIVING IT UP” is available now on major streaming platforms. ASHMOOR’s debut album, LSD, is scheduled for release in January 2027.
