From being the director of YAMO, to a huge part of the LGBTQ+ community, to writing and composing her own music, Asher White truly has one of the most diverse palettes of interests in the school. With a mix of Alternative Indie and strange sounds, White’s music definitely stands out in all its uniqueness. Through her many Soundcloud playlists, White expresses her struggles through the lyrics of her songs. Let’s take a deeper look into one of the most complex minds in the school.

1.    What do you love most about making music?

I really approach it from a collage standpoint where I’m putting together different sounds that I like and creating something new.

2. How do you make your music and with which instruments?

I try to change up my technique every time I’m doing something because otherwise I feel like I’ll just be doing the same thing. The instruments I generally tend to lean towards are the piano, banjo, weird sounds and guitar, etc.

3. Who is your inspiration for music and why?

Recently I’ve been really influenced by Alice Coltrane; a jazz musician, because she was really interested in using space and texture and focusing on a lot of repetition. A lot of her music is about creating a very intense and beautiful atmosphere that you can emerge yourself into.

4. Do you have any habits or places you go around Evanston  when writing/composing music?

If I need to write or figure something out in a song or just take inspiration, I’ll try to walk as far north as I can before I get tired or sleepy or hungry.

5. Where do you get inspiration from?

In terms of music, I’ll get really fixated on the sound of the train or the sound of a dog barking or individual spaces and sounds that interrupt my day, and then I think about how those impact my mood.

6. Where are you planning to go with the music you make?

I’m trying to keep pushing myself and creating things that people can connect with. Recently I’ve been putting out music that is meaningful to me and not meaningful to other people.

7. What have been some challenges that have affected your music?

I’m really bad at writing lyrics. I will get stuck pretty consistently on how to communicate what I’m thinking into actual words. Also, all of my guitars are really out of tune because I bought them for 20 bucks off of Ebay.

8. How does your identity shape what you write about in your music?

I remember someone asked me last year why I didn’t write about trans topics in my music, and I was just scared because then my music becomes very intensely political and personal. Then I was like screw it, I have a responsibility to be sharing this experience and hoping that someone else will connect with it and be honest. It comes out in lyrics now, I tend to focus more on the body and feeling dissociated from the body.