Maddie Ashman

Maddie Ashman comes from a family of scientists, however music has always been her main love. The singer-songwriter and cellist talks to us about her new EP Apparently, touring with Tom Rosenthal and how she writes.

When did you know you wanted to be a musician?

I think very early on. I started guitar when I was 6, and then I started the cello because I’d heard it and wanted to try it myself, then the same happened with the piano and the electric guitar, I was always curious from a young age. Through my teens I’d skip a lot of classes to go and practice. I’ve never looked back, and there’s never really been anything else!

Are there any other musicians in your family?

My parents are both scientists, but they love music and my dad plays piano. I grew up in a very supportive household. I am the first musician in the family, but funnily enough my younger sister is also now a musician as well!

Were you ever interested in science at all?

I think I was quite against it, but more recently I’ve been doing a lot of intonation composition, which is basically a type of microtonal composition that looks at the physics of sound, frequencies, and how they interact with each other. This has really got me into science, and I’m experimenting with a lot of ratios and physics, and I’m really enjoying it.

When did you begin writing your own songs and releasing them?

I was genuinely writing songs from about 7 years old and making backing tracks for them! My first proper EP was released in 2019 - I’d been sitting on loads of songs. I’d been touring with Tom Rosenthal, playing cello for him, and obviously he knows a lot about the pop industry and was super supportive, helping me figure it all out - how to release, how to distribute.

How did you meet Tom?

It was an Instagram message! I think there’s a lot to be said for having your stuff online, it doesn’t have to be your best but having it out there for people to find - my Instagram profile, I didn’t realise at the time, was going to act as a bit of a portfolio. One of my friends messaged me and told me Tom was looking for a cellist who sings, and actually there isn’t many of us! I’ve been playing with him since late 2018.

You’ve done some film scoring work too - how did you get involved with that?

In 2017, when I was in college, there was a group of us drama students who wanted to put on a play and we needed someone to write the music for it, so I took it upon myself to write the music for this two and a half-hour play! The following year I wrote 70 minutes of music for a feature film, and it’s funny, like that at that age you don’t really question that that’s an insane amount of work, I just signed up excited to do it. I’ve worked on a number of short films since, adding soundtracks. It’s been a really fun way to experiment with music and work with visuals, which I love.

How does the idea for a track come to you?

It’s not the best method, but I generally get waves of inspiration, and because I work from home I’m quite privileged in that I can just run with it. I’ve always got paper in my bag and my voice notes on hand too. I’ll sometimes set little challenges for myself, like 6am and I Care came about because during the pandemic I was like “I want to write a song every week on the cello”, and I did! Probably not for the full time, but for like four months. That was fun, and definitely provided lots of moments of inspiration.

How many of those songs have been released, or will be?

I’ve put together a 5-track cello pop EP called Apparently, and I’ve also put together a live cello set EP that I’ll start doing for gigs. I think I might release some of them down the line, but these things take time!

Going back to the topic of film, what are some of your favourites?

Some I’ve watched recently that have stayed with me are There Will Be Blood - mainly for the soundtrack, Jonny Greenwood really nailed that one - and Moonrise Kingdom, which is a really beautiful film.

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Words: Scott Bates

Photos: Amelia May