Five Seconds of Summer’s Ashton Irwin Sets Solo LP ‘Superbloom,’ Drops ‘Skinny Skinny’

Five Seconds of Summer’s Ashton Irwin is going it alone with Superbloom, his debut solo album.

The Aussie singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist cut the LP at his L.A. home in February, as the health crisis created some unexpected downtime.

Irwin grabbed the opportunity to push himself, as he embarked on a deep dive into his own life and experiences.

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It is with a great explosion of joy and with my entire soul that I am proudly announcing to you all that I am releasing my first solo record. The album explores my inner philosophies and feelings about the walk of life I have found myself on. I’m ridiculously excited to share this with you, it feels like this record has been over a decade in the making. It brings me the greatest joy of all that I am in a band that allows me to create freely inside and outside of it. I can’t wait for you to hear it. You can pre-order my debut solo album ‘Superbloom’ out October 23rd everywhere tonight. Pre-save now from the link in my profile. The first single “Skinny Skinny” is out everywhere tonight at 9pm PT. We must fight against a common darkness that shadows our ability to live truthfully, to live without self doubt, and without self destruction and love ourselves for what we are. When writing “Skinny Skinny” I first thought of myself, and many other young peoples struggles with body image and particularly body dysmorphia. It’s something I’ve never confronted in a creative form and I am feeling strong in saying “Skinny Skinny” goes directly to that painful place in my mind.

Публикация от Ashton Irwin (@ashtonirwin) 23 Сен 2020 в 12:00 PDT

The result, a statement explains, is a “deeply personal, evocative and uncompromising” album, its 10 tracks exploring his childhood, alcoholism, depression, body dysmorphia, death, addiction, despair and hope.

“I had to reach a certain level of lyrical maturity in order to write about something I actually cared about,” he explains. “I think it’s always important as an artist to have a mission statement, like, ‘why do you make music? Why do you write the lyrics you write?’”

Superbloom is due to drop Oct. 23. The first track from it is “Skinny Skinny,” a smart slice of folk-pop inspired by a conversation he had with his teenage brother on body image.

“Skinny Skinny” arrived Thursday and can be streamed in full below.

Irwin got the thumbs up from his bandmates. “I wasn’t scared because I’d told myself, ‘trust yourself, you’re proud of this record and you know these guys are your best mates and they will f—ing get it,'” he explains. Playing the album to the lads “was awesome, I felt stoked to show them”.

The Sydney pop-rock outfit smashed records as each of their first three albums bowed at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Their latest, CALM, opened at No. 2 on the national albums chart in April of this year.

‘Superbloom’ tracklist

Scar

Have U Found What Ur Looking For

Skinny Skinny

Greyhound

Matter Of Time

Sunshine

The Sweetness

I’m To Blame

Drive
Perfect Lie