New Reality: On the Road with SRSQ

Kennedy Ashlyn walks us through her recent West Coast mini-tour with a photo diary.
New Reality: On the Road with SRSQ

Kennedy Ashlyn walks us through her recent West Coast mini-tour with a photo diary.

Words: Mike LeSuer

photos by Kennedy Ashlyn

December 05, 2018

SRSQ is a solo project born of confusion and grief, and Unreality, Kennedy Ashlyn’s first record since Them Are Us Too’s tragic end, paradoxically conveys both emotions fluently and ambiently. The record deviates from the lurching electronics of Ashlyn’s previous project to narrow in on a brand of noirish dream pop as indebted to 4AD’s trailblazing ’80s roster as it is the anchoring programmed drums of modern acts like Beach House, all with a level of vocal theatricality on par with Kate Bush. It feels somehow intentional and completely unsure of itself.

As an opportunity for creative rebirth, Ashlyn’s first solo tour offered a new perspective on familiar faces and places. After spending the first half of November playing “special pockets of the West Coast that called out to [her],” a photo diary proved the best way to document the eerie experience of revisiting these locations within a different context. “I’m trying to be a more diligent documentarian as I tour solo,” she says. “These places all feel a little haunted to me, so it’s nice to look at them in a new way.”

You can browse through Ashlyn’s words and images below. Unreality is out now via Dais Records.