Biography
Kennedy Ashlyn, previously a member of the California-based darkwave duo Them Are Us Too, persisted in crafting lush, mournful electronic pop after the sudden loss of her close friend and creative partner Cash Askew. Under the solo name SRSQ she issued her debut album Unreality through Dais in 2018, then delivered the brighter and more hopeful Ever Crashing four years later.
From an early age Ashlyn experimented with lo-fi noise-pop before moving into solo performances that featured both guitar and keyboards. In 2013 Cash Askew attended one of these shows, after which the pair quickly formed a collaboration. Them Are Us Too soon cultivated a loyal audience within goth, darkwave, and dream-pop circles, where Ashlyn’s soaring multi-octave voice drew frequent comparisons to Elizabeth Fraser and Kate Bush. The duo’s first full-length, Remain, appeared on Dais Records in 2015. Askew, then only twenty-two, was among the thirty-six people killed when fire engulfed the Ghost Ship warehouse in Oakland in December 2016. Their second album, Amends, was released posthumously the following June.
Four months after that posthumous release, Ashlyn issued Unreality, her grief-stricken yet ultimately uplifting SRSQ debut, again via Dais. The ethereal single “Temporal Love” followed in 2019. She devoted the next three years to constructing the expansive successor to Unreality, layering as many as one hundred instrumental tracks on individual songs; Ever Crashing emerged in 2022.
From an early age Ashlyn experimented with lo-fi noise-pop before moving into solo performances that featured both guitar and keyboards. In 2013 Cash Askew attended one of these shows, after which the pair quickly formed a collaboration. Them Are Us Too soon cultivated a loyal audience within goth, darkwave, and dream-pop circles, where Ashlyn’s soaring multi-octave voice drew frequent comparisons to Elizabeth Fraser and Kate Bush. The duo’s first full-length, Remain, appeared on Dais Records in 2015. Askew, then only twenty-two, was among the thirty-six people killed when fire engulfed the Ghost Ship warehouse in Oakland in December 2016. Their second album, Amends, was released posthumously the following June.
Four months after that posthumous release, Ashlyn issued Unreality, her grief-stricken yet ultimately uplifting SRSQ debut, again via Dais. The ethereal single “Temporal Love” followed in 2019. She devoted the next three years to constructing the expansive successor to Unreality, layering as many as one hundred instrumental tracks on individual songs; Ever Crashing emerged in 2022.
Albums
Singles
