The Ashley Hundred

Calgary’s music scene is undergoing a magnificent musical uprising as local bands are coming into their own with innovative sounds, capturing the attention of lucky listeners far and wide. The Ashley Hundred is one of these outstanding acts that are stamping their brand new sound on a not-so-new genre.

By bridging the soundscapes of traditional acoustic folk and new age sonic ambiance, The Ashley Hundred has successfully created a fresh branch of music which falls somewhere between The Fleet Foxes or The Avett Brothers and DIIV or Beach Fossils. The band fondly refers to this unique sound as “folk-adelic,” which perfectly captures its one-of-a-kind nature and the uplifting feeling their charming tunes ignite within listeners. The creative geniuses behind this vibrant sound are: Brett Cassidy (banjo, lap steel, vocals), Chad Dalley (drums), Andrew Franks (guitar, keys, vocals), Carson Stewart (guitar, keys, vocals) and Jordan Moe (bass, vocals).

Beginning their musical careers in the most humble of ways, these five young men started playing traditional acoustic folk music for fun in 2012, using their basements or parks and forests around Calgary as their stage. Stewart explains that, after exploring their folk capabilities as nothing more than a hobby, the guys began to see potential in taking their music more seriously. “We started off playing for fun, just experimenting with our sound and playing in random places. Then, when we realized we had something special, things just kind of took off.”

Two years later, the band is set to release their debut EP, Postcards From The Moon, this month. The EP instantly captures the attention of listeners with soaring vocals, insane banjo riffs and modern psych-pop elements. It’s this perfect merriment of juxtaposing sounds that makes their music stand out and, when listening to the lyrical wisdom and instrumental mastery that the record possesses, it is simply astounding that none of these guys were born before 1992.

When asked what influence such an extensive soundscape, the band explains that they are individually influenced by a wide array of genres, from old school folk to progressive rock to modern electronic. “We each enjoy different types of music,” Cassidy says, “but then we also listen to some of the same stuff. It’s like a crazy Venn diagram of five different music tastes that sometimes overlap. All these different sounds influence our music.”

If these guys weren’t already cool and smart enough as is, they also came up with a unique band name that has an eclectic, historical significance. In 1822, General William Ashley sent out the following ad: “To Enterprising Young Men: The Subscriber wishes to engage One Hundred men to ascend the River Missouri to its source to be employed for one, two, or three years.” This ode to the past successfully summarizes the great adventure these talented men are on and will surely follow them along the incredible musical trajectory they’ve established by creating an entirely new branch of folk within Calgary’s expansively vibrant music scene.

The Ashley Hundred will release their debut EP, Postcards from the Moon, on March 29 at the Palomino.

By Kayla Beattie - BeatRoute (AB)

Like Local Natives did on Gorilla Manor, Calgary’s The Ashley Hundred shows a deft hand at creating pristine, warm, stream of consciousness indie rock. Flowing throughout this year’s six track album Postcards from the Moon are gorgeously loose-structured, LA-ready soundscapes. Sun-bleached crystalline guitar, banjo, and vocals reminiscent of Taylor Rice and co. make each song contain a glowing beauty. And taken as a whole it makes for a blissfully decompressed, undeniably successful album.

Picking favourites from a solid collection of songs is challenging, and tends to change the more an album matures with the listener. I will therefore only recommend the most immediate upon first listen. And those would be Future Visions and Cold Weather Heart.

Future Visions is rich in uplifting and catchy riffs. Piano and banjo elate the listener as Andrew Franks’ voice stretches across the canvas. The song, like all of their work, ebbs and flows, providing minor sea changes throughout, ensuring its short three minute life still feels like a satisfying journey of music. Cold Weather Heart captures you immediately with its sparkling guitar riff, sounding a little like the sunny and echoing aesthetic achieved on Paul Simon’s Graceland (Crazy Love, Vol. II, Under African Skies). It is a euphoric sound, followed happily by the always-enjoyable banjo courtesy of Brett Cassidy. The jaunty bass work of Jordan Moe provides a welcomed kick of energy to compliment the calm of Franks and Carson Stewart singing in unison (think Fleet Foxes), and the song becomes a brilliant closer to a triumphant album.

But these are only two songs. The Ashley Hundred’s Postcards from the Moon is best experienced as a whole, and I highly recommend you head over to their Bandcamp page and do so. It is a stunning debut. - IMVERYAPE

Brett Cassidy of psych-folk band the Ashley Hundred doesn’t have a lot of free time to spare these days.

“I finished my last exam and left on tour the next day,” says Cassidy, who completed the marketing program at Mount Royal University while juggling his duties as the band’s manager and banjo player.

Cassidy, along with bandmates Chad Dalley, Andrew Franks, Jordan Moe and Carson Stewart, went to the same high school, though their ages span across three grades. The Calgary-based five-piece bonded over shared musical ideals during some acoustic jam sessions in 2012. In 2013, the Ashley Hundred took third place at the Calgary Folk Fest Songwriting Contest, which Cassidy cites as a “huge motivation.”

“We had no intention of ever touring or making albums when we first started,” Cassidy says while hanging out by the harbour in Toronto before the group’s next show. “We had just been writing these folky songs and wanted to perform them. [Touring] is something I’ve always wanted to do, but never imagined myself doing.”

When the group started, Mumford and Sons and the Avett Brothers served as inspiration for its sound.

“A lot of bands were stripping it down to the bare bones: acoustic guitar, minimal drumming, mandolins and banjos,” Cassidy explains. “At the time, that was what we were really connecting with and identifying with, but, it didn’t take us very long to realize that’s not really what we wanted to do.”

The band experimented with new sounds and reverb before falling into its own style, a blend of traditional folk and psychedlic rock. As the Ashley Hundred’s sound changed and opportunities to play live started rolling in, its equipment list expanded to include amps, pedals, a keyboard, a lap steel and another electric guitar.

“We realized that we were not the same band that we started out as, but I think we’ll kind of always have those organic elements, like I am a banjo player, that’s what I do,” Cassidy says. “I couldn’t imagine not having a banjo in the band or not having some of the folk aspects like acoustic guitar [and] piano.”

As for the name, the band stumbled upon the Ashley Hundred through a story about General William Ashley, who in 1822 recruited 100 “enterprising young men” to work. Mountain man Hugh Glass responded to the ad, embarked on the adventure and fought a bear—an inspiring story that resonated with the band. Cassidy is an extra in the upcoming film The Revenant, based on the group’s namesake story and starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

“I saw the call for that and was like ‘I need to do this,'” says Cassidy, who appears in one scene as a lookout. “I didn’t meet Leo, but I got my hair and makeup done next to Tom Hardy.”

The Ashley Hundred released its EP Postcards from the Moon in 2014 and plans to follow up with a split LP alongside friends and fellow Calgary band 36? this August.

“They actually approached us to do it after the first show we played together. [Front man] Taylor Cochrane had the plan to make a split, and was looking for a band that has similar values in songwriting and production,” says Cassidy.

Of the largely crowd-funded album, Cassidy says it is “very humbling to get to know that people are so willing to support our art.” - Vue Weekly

If, as The Ashley Hundred bassist Jordan Moe noted, “a penguin and a lobster mashed together is a Plobster,” then the music of Calgary indie rock / dream pop band the Ashley Hundred is Said The Whale mashed together with parts of the Cure and U2 with a touch of steel guitar and banjo

They returned to the Owl Acoustic Lounge, April 30 to play a show with local indie rock band the Utilities for a good sized listening audience of approximately 50 people

By the second song their waves of delay laded guitar, keyboards, smooth ’70s R and B style bass had about 10 of the audience members dancing in the corner of the stage. And then there were catchy banjo and spooky steel guitar adding extra layers of sound over top of their music.
“ This is a nice spot you’ve got,” grinned banjo player/ steel guitar player Brett Cassidy

There was a lot going on in their songs featuring waves of sound, sonic textures, multiple time changes and that addictive banjo. Moe’s smooth, sultry bass kept the audience hypnotized. Andrew Frank and Carson Stewart effortlessly traded lead vocals as well as instruments, often mid song while drummer Chad Dalley held it all together.

— By Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor - LA Beat

A little over a year ago, five lads from our fair city released their precocious first album. Featured on several YYC Best-Of lists, including our own, The Ashley Hundred created a collection of folk-based songs that relegated themselves deeply into the minds and hearts of listeners. Since then they have been busy making a name for themselves with every audience they meet. These guys can write a melody like no one else, and are putting a fresh spin on an earthy genre, using a decidedly atypical approach. With an infusion of spacey melancholy, Postcards From The Moon was a stunning debut.

To follow up their first release, the have paired with Peak Performance Project 2014 Finalists 36? for a split LP which will be released later this year. IMVERYAPE is proud to premiere the first single, which is a song that has been a favourite with live audiences for months. Finally transferred to a recorded medium, it shines, having been mastered to perfection. Falling Up is a cascading psychedelic exploration with sunny vocals and a Beatles-esque penchant for rippling waves of sound throughout. With a driving, dynamic rhythm backing it, the listener embarks on a fabled, Alice-in-Wonderland sort of adventure. It is as though one is transformed from cloud gazing to journeying through secret worlds within those distant skyscapes. With the song culminating in a frenetic amalgam of curiously captivating sounds, even including a singing saw, The Ashley Hundred have created a dreamlike sonic portal to other dimensions.

The ability to create such mystically woven atmosphere and call up powerful imagery is certainly an indication that the sky is not even the limit for this bright young Calgary band. - IMVERYAPE

CALGARY — Dichotomy is no stranger to Calgary indie darlings 36? Guitarist Scott White describes their sound as “controlled chaos,” and if you’ve ever heard their music or seen them play, you could easily understand why. Birthed from the tortured, radical mind of the multi-talented Taylor Cochrane, the band’s sound is an extension of consciousness that schizophrenically genre-hops. Encompassing everything from punk, jazz, pop, to psyche-rock, the band’s style is constantly evolving, sometimes even within the span of a song.

“There is a little something for everybody,” explains drummer Ryan Kusz. Keeping everything together despite the manic blend while simultaneously realizing a magnetic hold on audiences is due to a combination of Cochrane’s astonishing song writing ability, the band’s adept musicianship and Cochrane’s wildly scintillating stage presence.

Third place winners in the last Peak Performance Project, 36? has been hard at work touring, creating, writing and recording. With their latest EP Tiger Tail only a couple months old, they have already lined up a handful of new video releases and a 12-inch LP split release with local psyche-folk up-and-comers The Ashley Hundred.

When fate, and maybe pizza, brought together 36? and The Ashley Hundred, no one could have expected the odd symbiosis that would be their combined musical endeavour.

“We met Taylor in the back of his van, buying a 36? CD at Pizza Bob’s after one of their shows,” recalls Brett Cassidy of The Ashley Hundred. “One of the first conversations I had with him, I could tell we looked at music the same way, even if it came out very differently. We have the same artistic values.”

A short time after playing their first show together in Lethbridge, Cochrane admitted that 36? had been in search of a like-minded band to share an album with, and offered TAH the spot.

When Ashley Hundred came onto the scene in 2014, they quickly developed a following with music that seems equally inspired by American indie rock acts Local Natives and Grizzly Bear. Their first release Postcards From The Moon was precocious and promising, a slow-fi psychedelic indie folk release with gentle vocals that cascaded over mellow tunes. But over the past year, the group has looked to refine their sound, and with the songs from their forthcoming release, they have displayed not just refinement but a considerable blossoming of ability. Herein waits a sonic stew of frenzied banjo, burgeoning ambient soundscapes, deftly delivered bass and drums plucked from a Western-spaghetti film.

“Our first EP was us figuring out what we wanted to sound like. A lot of the songs were inspired by the bands that influence us. On this new album, we had already discovered our sound, and it gave us a lot more of a chance to explore within that,” describes Cassidy.

“Going into the album, we wanted to match the calibre of 36?’s musical abilities. It pushed us as a band to work really hard and experiment,” adds drummer Chad Dalley.

Cochrane describes the 36? half of the split album as being his first “really personal” endeavour.“It came from a time where I was working constantly at this job I hated, was incredibly depressed and thinking about death all the time, and it compelled me to write really dark shit. All the songs have to do with death, and the inescapably of it,” he elaborates. “Nothing is entirely certain and we are just projections of our senses. We make up the world in our minds, and we are always truly alone in that you can’t share your thoughts with anyone.”

The dark nature of the album is accented by some of the heaviest songs 36? has released, but is tied together by the shared psychedelic influence between both bands. The standout track from the album is a “mystic voodoo jam” called “Kaleidoscope.” With layers of chanting, droning bass, and eerie shakers throughout, the song is described as having a “weird chaotic effect” that could make the listener feel “completely crazy,” and “fall in love with noise.”

Cochrane quips that comparatively, The Ashley Hundred’s side of the split is “like a dream,” to 36?’s “nightmare.”

While The Ashley Hundred members were similarly affected by overwhelming sadness due to the death of close friends Josh Hunter and Zachariah Rathwell in April 2014, their side of the split is light-hearted and life-affirming. “Oh, Oxygen” affirms the beauty-of-nature while the beautifully intricate “Suspended Together” is punctuated by horns (Cochrane describes it as his “favourite”). “Falling Up” even received a StoryHive film funding grant and the accompanying video (to be released August 4th) is deliciously trippy and cosmic, representing the overall vibe well.

The 36? And The Ashley Hundred Split 12-inch is a project made in indie heaven. With both ends of the spectrum included, the light and dark nature both challenges listeners and then gives reprieve, but most of all highlights two of Calgary’s finest groups of musicians. With their artistic powers combined, they could rule the world… and outer space as well.

Catch 36? and The Ashley Hundred for their LP release on August 21st at the Nite Owl.
Check out The Ashley Hundred’s video premiere for “Falling Up” on August 4th.
Check out 36?’s video premiere for “Old Bones” on August 10th. - Beatroute (AB)