Asha Jefferies

EGO RIDE - the debut album by Australian frog enthusiast Asha Jefferies - is a self-portrait of the songwriter in motion. “I think travel and transit are so transformative,” she says. “When I listen to music, I’m not still - I’m walking, or I’m driving.” Like filmmaker Greta Gerwig - forcing the camera to keep pace as she dances along New York City streets in Frances Ha - Jefferies harnesses the momentum of kinetic energy to move from scene to scene, to recover from her stumbles quickly. “It feels like I’m always writing about getting from one place to another.”

Across the album’s ten tracks, Jefferies revisits two years of words and actions on loop - choices to speak or to stay silent, moments of stepping into or retreating from change. On first listen, its titular track seems to lay out the beats of her escape from a failed relationship: “I had to give up to start again”. In fact, Jefferies is breaking free from herself. “I realised that a lot of the narratives throughout the album are tied to my ego - whether that’s moments where I felt on top of the world, or totally crumbled,” she says. “Writing brings comfort and closure and acceptance to everything I’m feeling.”

Out 12th April 2024 through Nettwerk Music Group, EGO RIDE - created in collaboration with Ball Park Music’s Sam Cromack - will speak to an audience of deeply-feeling listeners searching for the courage to take a step of faith, without knowing where it will lead.