Sitting on the floor of the Los Angeles home where she’s been riding out the pandemic, her signature blue hair pulled back in a ponytail, Ashnikko is attempting to explain her sound. The 24-year-old, born Ashton Casey, has been called everything from pop to rap to rock to alternative — but none seem right to her. The only label she wants to put on her music is “feel-good,” she says, smiling.
Born in North Carolina, Ashnikko spent much of her childhood on the move — as a teenager, she bounced between Estonia and Latvia before eventually moving to London by herself in 2014 at just 18. “I went to public school in a language I didn't speak, and was expected to graduate from that school,” she says, before sardonically adding, “Surprisingly, I didn't graduate high school.”