Salt Ashes, in profile

A note before you read: the web address of this page refers to an interview. This site did not conduct that interview and does not reproduce it, and no interview has been invented here. What follows is a short profile of the artist written from published music press, with every point sourced below.

Salt Ashes is the music project of the singer and songwriter Veiga Sanchez. Record of the Day, a UK music-industry publication, describes the act as hailing from Brighton, and a 2022 interview with Revamp Magazine explains the link: the name was created in Brighton after the artist studied at the Brighton Institute of Modern Music. By the time of that interview the artist was based in London.

The sound

The music sits in the upbeat dance-pop and synth-pop space. Revamp Magazine reports that the original direction was closer to pop-rock before settling into a dance-pop sound, and Record of the Day summed up one release as “brooding yet vibrant empowering synth-pop”. In the Revamp interview the artist’s writing is described as usually darker in tone than the bright production suggests.

A short release history

The published record is patchy, as it often is for independent artists, but the sources give these markers:

The two sources differ on the start date: Record of the Day mentions a 2013 track released while the act was unsigned, while Revamp’s interview dates the first single to 2015. Both are listed here rather than choosing one.

“Go All Out”

Record of the Day called “Go All Out” the act’s “boldest and most compelling yet”, praising its beat, synth melodies and chorus. The single’s video was directed by Lucrecia Taormina, whose credits the publication lists as including Little Boots and Cuckoolander, and it took visual inspiration from Tim Burton’s 1988 film Beetlejuice. It premiered on the Roton Music YouTube channel. The same feature notes support for the track from outlets including The Line of Best Fit and EQ Music.

Collaborators

The first album was produced by Daniel Fridholm, whom the Revamp interview describes as a late friend and producer, and whose disco-leaning sound carried into later work. The 2022 single “Didn’t See It Coming” was produced by Dimitri Tikovoi, described by Revamp as Grammy-nominated. In that interview, the song was presented as drawing on real events and as lighter in tone than much of the earlier writing.

Live

The sources record London shows over the years: Record of the Day listed late-2018 dates at Tileyard Studios and at the Natural History Museum ice rink, as part of an acoustic line-up, and Revamp’s 2022 piece mentioned a headline show in London that September.

Where to go next

For the artist’s own words, read the Revamp Magazine interview linked below; for the industry view of the 2018 releases, Record of the Day’s feature is the most detailed source. This profile will not be updated with invented news: if the sources do not say it, it is not here.