PERFORMING AT 21SOHO

Presented by BBC Introducing

Ashaine White strives to be ‘alternative’ in the purest sense of the word. Putting it simply, “I want my music to represent me being myself” she says. To her, as a young Black woman in music, that mindset isn’t defined by a specific hairstyle, or the makeup she wears or even restricting the sonics of the music she creates to fit neatly within any one subculture. Instead, her dream is to connect people to themselves through her music, and do so by existing as freely and authentically as she possibly can.

Born in Hackney and raised in Enfield with her mother and two siblings, White identifies as a ‘North Londoner girly’ through and through: “It’s really informed who I am today as a person.” Her mum made sure she went to a ‘good school’ and for most of her childhood she considered herself academic. But she has forever been a performer, even nabbing a solo with her choir at the Royal Albert Hall at just 8 years old. “Any chance I could get, I’d sing,” she laughs. “I didn’t know I could make money from music, which I think was actually really pure.” From assemblies to school musicals to her own gigs as a teenager, it was only when she took a gap year to attend a music college that the possibilities for her future and the true potential of her musical abilities sprawled out tenfold in front of her. 

Reared on a musical diet of everything from the reggae and Lover’s Rock of her Jamaican heritage to the pop trappings of afterschool MTV Base sessions or bedroom dance parties to the original soundtracks of Cheetah Girls and Bratz Dolls. At college, she studied the technical intricacies of jazz vocalists like Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone played a huge role in the growth of her own voice. But arguably, it was the contagion of her older sister’s emo and indie music obsession that became the most definitive influence for the 26-year-old songwriter. “It just felt like me,” she says of the likes of Paramore, Fall Out Boy, Panic! At the Disco and Arctic Monkeys who went on to score her very own teenage growing pains and fuel her love of all things guitar.

Initially self-taught at 14 years old, it was during Covid that she honed her command of it into a storytelling tool for her own music: “Guitar connected me with my voice.” And with her partner and producer Gibbi, birthed her singular sound coined amongst its fans as ‘grunge soul’. Though the label initially came from someone else, it perfectly captures the alchemy of DIY, rock-infused spirit with the soulful introspection of her lyricism. “I’ve just gone with intuition and things that feel good to me… Gibbi is a really big part of that because he forces me to just do rather than think,” she says. The echoes of that approach reverberate through the music she makes to create something that feels raw and instinctual.

Her upcoming EP ‘Cause for Concern’ taps into the essence of it even further, with the title as a playful nod to the rich inner world she pulls from creatively. Crediting her Gemini placement for the gaping distance between her bubbly, chatty exterior and the moodiness of her inner child, she says, “I’m so dramatic sometimes but really everything’s okay. Like I will be fine but also the world’s ending? So I like how tongue in cheek it is.” 

That delicate blend of angst and optimism manifests in the project’s fuzzy-edged chords and velveteen vocals, equal parts hard and soft in its delivery. Single ‘White Flag’ is an unflinching confessional about surrendering to a love that’s doomed. Her voice drapes breathily over the live instrumentation as it swells and then eventually thrashes: ‘You say you won’t be the one to break okay, what a fucking nightmare, I don’t know what else to say.’  ‘All My Wrongs’ feels widescreen and thick with tension in its bold drumline, sultry electric guitar and anthemic chorus. “It’s about ignoring your problems and diving into self medication and being like ‘I could go to therapy, I could unravel this but if I just do this thing, all my wrongs will disappear and no one can see them,” she explains. ‘Brace Yourself’ is haunting in its simplicity. White sings gently but with cutting clarity as she hits you where it hurts as she sings on ‘all the same old mistakes you’re still making, put you right in your place.’ A call to action to break patterns and embrace change, she boils it down to “if you hate your job as a barista and you’re being a bitch to everyone you’re serving coffee to, fuck it, brace yourself babe and jump. Get out and try something new.”

From the effortless silken riffs to the vulnerable lyricism to the dark, swirling undercurrent of the musicality, Ashaine White’s music is a freeform amalgamation of all her broadest loves and identities. But ultimately, she just wants to be the kind of artist she would have loved as a young Black girl growing up in Enfield – someone being 100% herself, no matter what the world tells her she needs to be. “I think it’s truly important to have an alternative mindset to the mainstream mindset. And in my opinion, that is the boxes they try to put us in,” she says. Whether that’s pigeonholing at the hands of the music industry, oppressive beauty standards or any other kind of societal demands, White is determined to remain unsubscribed. “I just want to exist as myself so brazenly that when people come to my show or listen to my music, they can do nothing else but just exist as themselves. No pretence, no hat or cloak or all of these things that we put on to [try and] make sure people like us.”