The reawakening of Ashler’s blossoming career
From humble beginnings in Rockville Soweto to 7 years in the United States and everything in between. Ashler reveals everything on her return to the music scene.
Ashler is ready to take on 2021 with a bang. The 31-year-old singer/songwriter has been hard at work in the studio and recently released an album titled Full Bloom, a work she said, is for the people.
“I designed the album with people in mind. I wanted something that people could relate to and mostly I wanted it to be an appreciation of us and our culture, the black South African culture. It’s a bit of love, a bit of Amapiano, and a bit of Kasi,” Ashler explained.
Despite spending even years in the United States, Mathulare Ashler Mathikge, simply known as Ashler is Sowetan through-and-through. She was born and raised in Soweto, an upbringing time she said, heavily influenced her decision to pursue music.
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“Yoh we grew up around the time of TS Records, bo Mzekezeke, bo Brown Dash. We loved it because it was a presentation of Kasi, we truly believed in the kasi culture. We felt represented and we wanted to be a part of that, and that’s what lit the spark for me,” she said.
Even though she was born into a musical family, with essentially all her close family members being involved in music one way or another, you may be surprised to know that her family was not at all keen on then 16-year-old Ashler pursuing music.
“I think it was 2004 or 5, but I was still in high school. They wanted me deep in the books so I’d lie and sneak out to go record music, even though we had very poor resources, it was literally just a little studio on top of some vetkoek tuckshop, but the passion from everyone involved was there,” she humorously recalled.
Still, though, Ashler did not completely neglect her books, her mother’s insistence on education is what motivated her to study further, and get her Mixed Farming tertiary qualification. A musical epiphany would find her in between that time though, through a student exchange program to the United States.
“When I got to the States it was the same thing, but on a much bigger scale. People like Soulja Boy were blowing up, MySpace was big, they were promoting themselves through the internet and that period was so important to my education as an artist. I suddenly found myself in the same spaces and all these big stars, I got to witness the rise of trap music at close range” she told Soweto Urban.
On her highlight so far, an accidental meeting with Wizkid while in the United States, according to Ashler, changed her entire way of thinking. She had been called in as songwriter for an African artist, who had just won the BET Best International Act but had no idea it would be the Nigerian superstar in the studio.
“I was in complete awe because I was such a big fan of his music and writing,” she recalled.
“At the time I was working as a personal assistant. Wizkid is sitting next to me wearing a Rolex, my boss is on my neck about a deadline and I’m thinking ‘what am I doing here in Atlanta when this kid just came from Nigeria and he’s sitting here wearing a watch worth my year’s salary?’ And so it got me thinking differently. I thought why don’t I go home and do this thing.”
Ashler returned to South Africa in 2014 and completed her studies, adjusted to motherhood as a mother of one, before making a return to music. Her 8-song album, Full Bloom is currently available on streaming platforms and if early reviews are anything to go by, it promises to be the reawakening of her blossoming career.
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