ifitbeyourwill Podcast
“ifitbeyourwill" Podcasts is on a mission to talk to amazing indie artists from around the world! Join us for cozy, conversational episodes where you'll hear from talented and charismatic singer-songwriters, bands from all walks of life talk about their musical process & journey. Let's celebrate being music lovers!
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ifitbeyourwill Podcast
ifitbeyourwill S05E11 • Owen Ashworth of Advance Base
Owen Ashworth returns to the podcast to discuss his latest Advance Base album "Horrible Occurrences" and the beautifully human stories woven throughout its tracks. Rather than rehashing his origin story (covered in our previous episode), we dive deep into his current creative approach and the emotional weight of performing these vulnerable new songs.
The conversation takes us into Owen's refreshingly authentic touring life—traveling solo in his Subaru Forester, staying with old friends or in characterful motels, and creating space to experience the towns he visits. "I really love traveling... gas stations and motels and diners and seeing the sites," he shares, describing a touring routine built around personal comfort rather than business optimization. This DIY ethic extends to his performances, where he typically sells his own merchandise and makes himself available to connect with listeners.
What emerges is a fascinating portrait of songwriting as a long-term pursuit of meaning. Owen reveals that some songs on "Horrible Occurrences" began as fragments written 15 years ago, only finding completion when new life perspectives illuminated their purpose. The fictional town of Richmond serves as a unifying setting—a deliberate creative choice that allowed him to build "a community where all these stories were fitting in with each other" despite spanning different times and experiences.
Perhaps most compelling is Owen's candid discussion about the vulnerability required to perform these songs. "These shows have felt very heavy," he admits, describing how the minimalist arrangements leave him emotionally spent. Yet he finds a meditative quality in performance, where the music itself carries both him and listeners through difficult emotional territory.
As one of indie music's most thoughtful storytellers, Owen continues to find beauty in everyday human experiences—even the painful ones. Check out "Horrible Occurrences" for its developed stories and beautiful reflections, and catch Advance Base live if you can for a uniquely intimate musical experience.
Growing up in Richmond you were anarchic and shy. You were anarchic and shy, tried to steal some tampons that you were too scared to buy, say chase, the organ manager Said in his faithful draw that was how you got your picture on the wall.
Speaker 3:Welcome everyone to another episode of the podcast. I love having returning guests, artists, and today, the first recording that I had with Advanced Bass. I have Owen Ashworth here of Advanced Space and we had such a great chat about how it all started, so we're not going to talk about his origin story. You can go back and listen to that first, where we talk all about where it started and Owen recording on answering machines and like just great stories that he told. We're really going to focus in on what's he's doing nowadays and his latest record he just put out at the end of 2024, called horrible occurrences just amazing, solid songwriting, um, done with advanced bassist flair. Um, and I was just mentioning to owen, as we we hopped on here, how this record is a beautiful record book, I would say, just because the storytelling is just so um, deep and reflective and it's experiences that all humans, I think, can relate to. Um. So, owen, thanks so much for putting this record out. Number one and number two, thanks for coming back and chatting about it oh, my pleasure.
Speaker 4:Really appreciate it.
Speaker 3:Thank you for having me yeah, and and you guests uh, not guests, you audience out there, um, um, owen's first band was casio tone for the painfully alone, which again was, you know, just a solid creation outlet for owen and evolved into advanced bass and he's put out a ton of record singles and we're going to focus in on those, but particularly this newest release and his touring. And because I think Owen, based on some of the things I've been reading, that the touring you kind of went back to basics in the sense that you hit the land on wheels and touring from place to place in a van or some vehicle, um, and it's very low fi touring, you went back to, I think very under the radar.
Speaker 4:uh, uh, I travel in a subaru forester either on my own or, you know, sometimes I'm traveling with another solo musician, but yeah it's, I really love traveling. I really love just gas stations and motels and diners and seeing the sites and, uh, I try to build in time for for, uh, just really getting to enjoy the towns.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you know the just the landscapes I'm visiting, so it, so, it's I, the way I tour it's. It's taken years to kind of figure out the things that I find most just totally enjoyable from traveling. So I really travel with like comfort and you know my own peculiar interests in mind. But yeah, it's not very well set up as a business venture but just, you know, mostly for my own pleasure, very DIY operation, amazing.
Speaker 3:And Owen, what's a day in the life on tour with Advanced Space? Like what does a day feel and look like? Like what's your? How does it lay out? What's the timeline of that? Okay, does a day feel? And?
Speaker 4:look like like what's your? How does it lay out? What's the timeline of that? Okay, uh, yeah, well, I, I, I, if I have friends in the town that I'm comfortable staying with, I probably it's split, probably pretty close to 50 50 between staying with old friends who, uh, um, at this point in my life I'm not, I'm not part, I'm not going out and getting wild after shows. I'm going back to a good friend's house and we're probably having a little herbal tea and talking about our pets or our children or just catching up. So it's a chance to see old friends. I've got friends across North America who, from years of touring I have these really special relations with people I only see a couple times a year. But touring is very social for me. So if I'm not staying with a good friend, I'm usually staying in, um, uh, uh, uh, mid price hotel.
Speaker 4:I try to find um independent or just kind of like off the beaten path, kind of weird Like I love. I really love old Americana, so just kind of like really old fashioned hotels and motels really appeal to me and that's part of the sightseeing, part of the experience. So I'm usually up by 8 AM and it's usually a good hour of getting on the wifi and keeping up with a good hour of getting on the Wi-Fi and keeping up with label business. I run a Rendell Records and the job doesn't stop when I'm traveling so I usually have some admin to do in the morning or just check in with the stuff I need to do for tour.
Speaker 4:I usually travel with oatmeal and coffee in the car, so I have a simple breakfast for myself, or maybe I'll get eggs at a local diner and then try to take a walk, um, check in, call home, talk to my wife and kids, um, um, depending on how long the drive is, I could be spending most of the day in the car.
Speaker 4:I try not to drive any more than six hours in a day, if I can manage it. So in the car I'm listening to, sometimes an audiobook or or some music, or just enjoying the silence, um and uh, yeah, I mean usually arriving in the town where I need to play by, you know, mid or late afternoon, and if there's time to, just to check out something in the town, I love going to bookstores or, uh, um, record stores or, uh, just getting the flavor for the place where I'm visiting, um, and then you know it's sound check and the evening is just hanging out. The venue, venue, typically, but I like the rhythm of it. I sometimes can feel a little disappointing if the drive is too short, because I kind of end up with extra time that I don't really know what to do with.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:It sounds like a nice routine, though I love it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a real momentum to it where I just I feel like you know, the road is rising up to meet me and you arrive in a town and people I was talking to my friend, david Bazan, who's another touring musician, but you know, it's a real privilege to arrive in a place and everyone is anticipating your arrival, everyone's excited to see you and it's kind of like having a birthday party every night in some ways, I mean it is real work, but I think that you have to remember that it's not normal to just arrive at a bar and people are paying money and thrilled that you're there.
Speaker 3:Right, right. Well, I know, when I came to see you in Montreal, that you, you know you hang out with the crowd. You're there. I mean, I ran into you, we spoke for a little bit, like you're a part of the whole evening. You know, it's not like you're sitting in the back behind the stage. You're there, you're present, which I I found was really special to be able to have that connection with you I appreciate that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean, I'm usually selling my own merchandise. You know, as I'm touring on my own, I'm doing everything myself um but yeah, I mean, I really appreciated, as a young person, going to see musicians and I I just seeing artists as real people and being able to just for them to be available to ask a question to and um, I think that's a really valuable thing. I like to to know the people who are showing up for shows.
Speaker 4:That's a really important, just to remind that there are actual people like receiving this music I'm putting out. It's really gratifying, and just to know how the music is affecting people. Yeah, those are special relationships.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely Absolutely. And do you still kind of get like before you head on stage, like what are your feelings, like how do you kind of get your mindset ready to go through your set? Is there things that you do to kind of psych yourself up or or relax yourself?
Speaker 4:or sometimes I need to take a little walk or, uh, just drink some tea if my voice is feeling rough, but usually it's just I need a couple of minutes to myself just to get in the right frame of mind. Mm, hmm, uh. But one thing I really like about touring and you know, basically getting into the ritual of of having a set and doing this live performance is how kind of uh, automatic it can kind of become and it becomes. It's very kind of like meditative ritual where there's this, you know, an hour every night where it's the most at ease, I feel all day it's just being in the music. It's a really special experience to be able to play these songs for an audience.
Speaker 4:It's my goal with making music these days, which is not how it was when I was younger, but I'm actively trying to lower my heart rate and just try to find this like calm and just try to be as steady and deliberate about every, every lyric I'm, I'm singing or you know all the piano playing I'm doing so. It's very like very meditative process for me. So it's I find it when I, when it goes right, it's very like calming and kind of centering amazing, amazing.
Speaker 3:So the the latest record came out, uh, just at the end of 2024, like december, some early december it came out. Yeah, um, horrible occurrences. Now, where is richmond? Now I know that the setting of a lot of this record is is this a fictional town or like pieces from all the places you visited kind of meld together? Can you kind of paint that picture for us all in a little bit about the setting of this record?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean there are a lot of memories in this record and it's kind of an amalgam of a lot of different places. It's kind of an amalgam of a lot of different places, but I think a lot about the location of the songs I'm writing and you know, I think part of it comes out of traveling and touring as much as I do and kind of imagining the lives of people in various cities I visit and you know, reflecting on my own histories in these places, I've lived in a number of different cities, uh, through the years, um, but richmond is just one of those town names there are. Almost every state in the us has a richmond.
Speaker 4:I know there are some in canada too you said and I just chose it because the first song I wrote on the record of the year lived in Richmond. It was about a different city, and so I didn't necessarily want to put this song on the actual place because it's a story. It happened so long ago that I'm a little foggy on some of the details ago that I'm a little foggy on some of the details. I really wanted to make an effort to kind of separate it from any kind of true account to just more of you know. It's a song and at its core I'm trying to tell a story with it, more so than trying to be true to the actual details.
Speaker 4:So, I think a very generic name of a town that has the same cadence as the actual place I was writing about. And Richmond just kind of became the stand-in and like the location for all these stories and I tried to just kind of build a community where all of these stories were fitting in with each other, even though, you know, some are very fictionalized, some are about completely different people from you know decades apart. But I basically tried to build this little community between these songs and I like the idea of kind of just building out a history of a specific place right, right, and how did you assemble this record like?
Speaker 3:are these songs that, like it was um I mean, the last record that came out was in 2018 um, animal companion. Were these songs that were recorded after that? Or were these some songs or older songs that you kind of had in your database and pulled back out? Or are these all relatively new songs that you came up with?
Speaker 4:There are some songs on this record that I started writing, you know, 15 years ago. You had the initial seed Right and that's not uncommon. The way I write I I just have a lot of kind of unfinished ideas floating around and sometimes it just takes a new life experience or a new perspective to suddenly kind of figure out what what I was getting at or like. There's a lot of kind of like subliminal, kind of subconscious element to my writing where I'm trying to just figure out what the songs are about for a big part of the process. But yeah, there's a song called how you got your picture on the wall on the record that I remember starting that song in like the late 90s.
Speaker 4:I had the initial idea for a song about someone getting caught shoplifting, but the larger context of the story didn't really click with me until revisiting. Actually, to tell you the truth, I had shoplifted from a Walgreens in San Francisco in the late 90s and never felt very good about it, but it kind of got stuck in my head and years and years later I ended up revisiting that same Walgreens and being back in that space. I remembered the song that I had started writing and years later, having a different perspective, I knew what I wanted to do with the song.
Speaker 4:So all of the songs it's a long-winded way of saying that it's a lot of these songs are a long time coming, but I they, they weren't ready until I kind of put them in context with each other.
Speaker 3:Um, right but, yeah, they all are. Like every song is kind of its own individual little story with like beautiful detail and like the simplicity of life almost is put on display. Now, obviously there's there's always those dark undertones that tend to to surface. But I've I've been really finding some hope in a lot of the lyrics that you know I mean it's everyday kind of stories that have affected you. But I'm I'm finding my access points all over the place where it's like these are human songs. You know, these are songs that that I've experienced before and you've experienced, and you've just had this great way of you know placing them together. You found the flow of these songs and I guess sometimes it takes a while for those characters in the setting to like percolate forward. I mean it could take years, right?
Speaker 4:characters. A lot of these are recollections people have had from years before. So I think survival and even just the idea of even the worst moment of someone's life is there's a point you can look back and remember that like you got through it or, you know, maybe you learned something from the experience. So, yeah, there's a lot of like there are some dark stories on this record, but I I think ultimately it's just about like these are the memories and experiences that add up to someone's life.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 4:And you know you keep going. Yeah, totally.
Speaker 3:And when you're touring with this record, are you playing most of the songs off of it or do you mix them all up? Still, like you find the flow of your set list?
Speaker 4:To be honest, like the first handful of shows I was playing after the record came out it's mostly the new record and I found it just a little too heavy to just keep performing the record. Like a lot of these songs all together, I mean it's these are heavy songs and they're also they're they're very kind of minimally arranged. I'm just playing like piano and singing them. So they feel very vulnerable and, um, they're just very lyric, heavy and I was finding it really kind of emotionally exhausting too, especially when these songs were still, like, really fresh and I hadn't formed them much. Um, I've been mixing up the set and just bringing in more songs from like earlier in the catalog and just trying to find a different context for some of the songs, just like pairing them up against older songs, which is always fun. I think that's part of the fun of putting together a set is just finding connections between new songs and old songs and kind of building a new context for them. Yeah, these shows have felt very heavy.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I've been more emotionally spent at the end of the show, especially at the end of the tour, than in past years.
Speaker 3:I can feel that too. I read through all the lyrics, um, as I was listening to the record because I wanted to see them, um, and there are. I mean there's, there's, there's sadness in there and tragedy, and I guess the silver lining I was poking at a bit is that when you can offload some of this, um life experiences that this connects to, yeah, and you can kind of like get it out of your brain a little bit or reflect on a little bit more to make sense of it in some way, like I find that your songs open those doors up, um, to feeling, you know, like it's okay. You know we need to deal with these emotions and, and when you had said something, too, that was really fascinating, that, um, they're because of the vulnerability of the songs.
Speaker 3:I always find it fascinating that artists can put their most vulnerable thoughts and feelings on a page and then sing them out to a crowd of people that you, you don't know, like, how do you go about? How do you manage that? Like it just seems like it would be so hard. You know, like I write a lot of stuff down in journals and, you know, oftentimes it's stuff that you need to get out Right. It's pain and it's, you know, I don't. People don't tend to write about, you know, rainbows and sunshine all that often. How do you, how do you deal with that? How do you manage the vulnerability of the songs that you deliver?
Speaker 4:that's. That's something I've been kind of wrestling with. To be honest, yeah, these songs in particular have felt oh, it's, it's, it's. It feels like more emotional labor to get up and sing these songs in front of people and just to and even to finish a song and and to know the weight of the like people receiving them. Um, to have talked to people at shows and know what the songs have meant to them has has been really uh, uh encouraging. And to know, you know, the songs are being received Well, it means a lot, um. But yeah, I mean, I there, especially when a song is really new, it can feel just really vulnerable, kind of tough to get through, and I'm often just kind of relying on the structure of the music itself to kind of carry the message.
Speaker 4:I think a lot of these songs just to tell these stories would be a lot more difficult than you know. I'm kind of getting lost in the music a little bit. That's kind of carrying through and I think it's kind of the spoonful of sugar that's going along with, you know, the tougher elements of the of the stories. Um, but yeah, I know, I think that meditative quality of music where I just kind of feel like it becomes a little automatic and I'm kind of being carried through like the songs. I feel like I'm on like a log flume or something like. Once the songs get started, I'm just kind of on the ride along with everyone else and I kind of just kind of go to this other place and just let the song carry me where it's going to carry me. Um, interesting, but it's tough, yeah, I feel. I feel like after a therapy session or something, totally it's mentally exhausted?
Speaker 3:Yeah, totally. I see that. I see that, and how has it been going? Are all the artists that you're touring with, are they from Arendelle Records as well? Are those the artists on your label, or are you touring with other artists as well, because I know the tour you're going on on you?
Speaker 4:have a few different artists that are joining you for the ride. Almost all the canadian shows are with eliza and the emmy, who are wonderful uh singer and songwriter and cellist from uh toronto, who I've just been a fan of for as long as I've known of Eliza's music and we played actually we played Little Kid's record release show in Toronto last year together and I just. Eliza's an amazing performer.
Speaker 2:I was like we need to do more shows together.
Speaker 4:I just feel like it's a really good match and we get along very well. So yeah, eliza is on a label called Tin Angel. I haven't released Eliza's records.
Speaker 4:But, there are some like Lisa Eliza and Kristen Dalen, who I'm playing my American East Coast dates with after Eliza. Yeah, they've both released records with the rindle I mean a lot of what a rindle is this label I run? It's this community of artists that I that I've mostly met on the road. Like lisa lies playing in maine for the first time. Uh, chris and dalen I met in philadelphia where she's a singer, songwriter. So I've kind of really built the label around this community of other, you know, touring musicians.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:No, they're great.
Speaker 3:It's a great roster you have. I mean there is really, really great. I mean I love little kid and I think that you have this Canadian connection that you know with Nick also and Kenny, like so many great Canadian artists that you've been able to, you know, welcome into the label and showcase, which is so great. Is it hard to do both? You know, being a singer-songwriter and also running a label. You kind of mentioned it a bit when you talked about your routine in the morning and stuff. Is it hard to manage both? Or is the roster set right now where you have the maximum amount of artists that you can physically deal with?
Speaker 4:Well, I mean it's, it's really, it's, it's my job. So there are, and along with any job there, you know there's. There is some drudgery to it but, I find it incredibly rewarding to you know, be helping artists. I love release their records. Um, and you know ebbs and flows. I've released 80 something records at this point since 2011 and some of those artists have been, you know, are still going strong. Lisa liza, I've released like five records for yeah, yeah some artists are just like it'll be a one-off.
Speaker 4:Or some of these artists have moved on to bigger labels which is wonderful to see uh and some artists you know. They put out one record and that was. That was all they. That was it. That was kind of their full output, so um yeah, it's a fluctuation finding new artists to work with, and but I kind of have to move at my own pace. I can't really take on more than you know. A half dozen or so albums a year right um with all the touring I do.
Speaker 4:But you know, when I'm home from tour I'm kind of in full label mode and so scheduling my year just to make sure that I'm home to meet the fedex truck when the record jackets show up that's a consideration I have to make. When I'm, you know, planning, you know like I'm gonna be in pittsburgh, I can't put up, I can't put out the record on that day. Yeah, it's all. I'm still trying to figure out the balance, but uh, it's all very rewarding very cool, very cool.
Speaker 3:So, oh, and as we kind of bring this to a close again, thanks for this second time coming on. I mean, we could just talk for hours and hours, um, but I do want to respect your time. What, what's 2025 looking like for you? The label tours, can you whatever you can share?
Speaker 4:uh, for the listeners, we'd love to know what's what's on coming down the pipe well, this uh canadian tour and then east coast tour in uh in may is kind of going to be the last long one for me for a while. I'm going to be doing just probably shorter, more kind of like brief regional trips here and there for the rest of the year and kind of just moving more heavily into label mode. I'm getting ready to release an album for a really great Chicago band called moon type. That's coming end of May and Greg Jamie is a rental artist I've worked with in the past. There's new albums on the way, there's another Lisa Liza release on the way. I have about a dozen different artists that I you know. We're trying to figure out the schedule for the rest of this year and then moving into the next year, so just just filling out the calendar is is is the the next big step after this tour but yeah, rindle's gonna be.
Speaker 4:There's gonna be more rindle stuff happening into 2026 and probably a little less touring. I've been hitting it a little harder just with the new record, yeah, the last six months, just making sure I'm, you know.
Speaker 3:It's out there.
Speaker 4:It's getting out there to the people.
Speaker 3:Totally and the songwriting continues on Like Advanced. Bass is still observing, reflecting on songs and pulling out database sounds from 15 years ago. That might spark something new. Like that's ongoing, as always.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, something new like that's ongoing, as always. Yeah, yeah, just yeah, just right now, still kind of feeling out what the kind of the themes for the next record will be. I've got a few odds and ends here, but uh, it's, it's this. It's still a very amorphous state for the next, uh, next release, but okay awesome, awesome.
Speaker 3:Well, that's great to hear, and I hope that this last tour is all that you want it to be and that you also get some rest a little bit after this. Um, recharge your batteries a bit, but you're a busy man, um, doing some amazing stuff out there. Uh, please go and if you can check out an in advance space show. Go and see it, they're always special and get this record, guys. Horrible Occurrences the title sounds daunting, but it's.
Speaker 3:I love this record I love this record, I think it's like I've been waiting for this record to come out from you and I mentioned before that I got listening to it a bit later. I've only been listening to it for a month, but it's been on steady replay. The stories are just so developed and beautiful and the music and, but it's heavy. Like Owen was saying, don't put this on at a dance party, but reflective moments.
Speaker 4:That's right. That's right. Don't put this on at a dance party, but reflective moments Absolutely Good music for a walk.
Speaker 3:That's right. That's right. It'll set the pace, a good pace, for you. Well, owen, thank you again and I look forward to seeing your show in Montreal, and I'd love to have you back on any time. Just reach out and any artists from Orindal that want to come on and talk about their music.
Speaker 4:I'm more than happy to support what you do. Yeah, I love what you're doing. I really appreciate you having me back.
Speaker 3:Cool, cool. Well, you have yourself a good one. Thanks so much.
Speaker 4:Take care.
Speaker 2:The year I lived in Richmond there was a killer on the loose. Four women slain in my neighborhood. It was all over the news. Four women slain in my neighborhood. It was all over the news. Well, Deborah Lee Hill moved to Richmond Around about the same time as me. She was a peculiar one, strong and sound-tied. I'd see her at the bar occasionally. The summer was hot that year in Richmond.
Speaker 2:Deborah didn't have an AC. She slept with her second story Bad June winter, just to catch a little breeze. She woke one night to an intruder climbing in her window from a tree. The debris up and ran for a kitchen knife. The devil up in the rain For a kitchen knife Stabbed him in his chest repeatedly. Ooh, ooh, ooh Ooh. The coroner came to take the body. Deborah packed up all her things. She left in her pickup truck soon as morning came. She'd sing it all. She cared to sing. The rest of the year I lived in Richmond. They talked about the murders on TV. Any child could tell you how that killer died Under the knife of depravation.
Speaker 1:Ooh, Ooh Ooh Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh you.
