Get Stuck on Maddie Ashman’s Sweet New Single “Toffee”
Image courtesy of Maddie Ashman.
Start your summer by chewing on Maddie Ashman’s “Toffee,” a genre-fluid track that walks the line between pop, classical, rock, and electronic. The song opens with Ashman’s sugary, clear voice overlaying buzzy harmonies and chimes that expand and build bit by bit. The lyrics hint at emotional confusion, caught somewhere between happiness and anxiety—“Like toffee thought that you’d be sweet / but how you linger stuck in my teeth / sugar coated words swallow them whole and smile / it’s not that hard.” Something bitter lurks underneath the sweetness and explodes in the song’s intense, textured drop like syrupy, overwhelming emotions finally breaking through a calm exterior shell.
What might at first sound like an electric guitar scrape is actually a cello played with Ashman’s characteristic microtonal tuning scheme that uses notes between the traditional Western 12-note chromatic scale. The resulting harmonic tension is haunting and ethereal, both captivating in its unexpectedness and vaguely familiar at the same time. Ashman has stated her unusual approach to composition “mirrors the lyrical theme of exploring what’s unsaid, unconventional, what it is to be a woman, holding things we can’t speak about because of shame or repression.”
Her songwriting blends the best elements of her dynamic genre influences and evolves them beyond their current boundaries. Ashman’s novel sound is entirely her own and poises her as one of the rare artists that will be instantly recognizable from a song’s first notes. Although microtonality is a niche trend within music right now, unconventionality is just another pronunciation of innovation. Microtonality is an underground trend that is set to gain traction, spearheaded by the memorable and catchy “Toffee” that is sure to stick to your summer playlists. You heard it here first—we’re in for a microtonal renaissance.
Although “Toffee” is the first single from Ashman to be released across streaming platforms, she has a lengthy repertoire of collaborations and features with artists—“Universal Angel” and “Mercy” with Guava, “the song i always forget about” and “postcard from London” with Oscar Anton, “Nuclear Fusion” and “Scarborough Fair” with Tolgahan Çoğulu, “Everything I Need” with Strangers on a Bench, “Sunflower” with Gianni Bee, and “Estrela” with Ciaran Austin.
“Toffee” can be purchased on Ashman’s Bandcamp profile along with a few of her other projects, including the ‘Otherworld’ EP that further explores her talents as a microtonal composer. If you’re in the UK this summer, find Maddie Ashman’s upcoming shows here, and listen to “Toffee” at the link below.
