We recently connected with Ashley Anngora and have shared our conversation below.

Ashley, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

I think about this question a lot. Sometimes I do wish I started sooner, because ageism can be a huge issue in a creative field – especially for women – and I often struggle with a sense of feeling like I’m behind. However, for me, I think I’m entering my creative career at the perfect time in my life. When I was younger, I don’t think I had the maturity, drive, or means to properly invest in a creative career or make meaningful art. I was very focused on my personal life, going out, as well as succeeding in my 9-5 corporate job and found it difficult to set aside time to do anything else. I also did not have a strong sense of direction, and anytime I did sit down to try to create art or write, I felt lost or ended up writing a few pages that would inevitably get deleted.

As I got older, I started to yearn more and more for a creative outlet and even uprooted myself from Philadelphia to Los Angeles to be in a better environment to focus on my creativity. I started to surround myself with people who also had creative outlets, became interested in topics that inspired meaningful creativity, and spent less time going out on the weekends. I eventually moved up in my career at my day job which then gave me the means to purchase the equipment I wanted, new music to play out, and travel to DJ gigs so I could build relationships with people. Could this have been achievable when I was younger? Yes, and many have done it in their own right – but given where I am in my life, my priorities now, and who I am as a person, this seems like the right time for me.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I always loved music, but never knew how to get involved in the industry or thought that I could be an artist. In 2019, I uprooted myself from Philadelphia to Los Angeles because I thought that would be a better environment for me to explore my creative side. When I got there, I happened to meet a group of friends in the electronic music scene that were also DJs. Through them, I learned more about the art of DJing and shortly after fell in love with house music at a Dom Dolla set at Coachella, After learning more and more about house music, I woke up and decided I wanted to try DJing. I bought a controller, began learning how to play through YouTube videos and the help of my friends, and now have booked gigs around the LA area and beyond.

My go-to genre as a DJ is definitely tech-house, but I do dabble in other areas of house including minimal, bass house, progressive/melodic, and a bit of techno to keep my mixes fresh. As I continue to up level my skills, I have been trying to learn more about mixing in other genres – including trap, dubstep, UK garage, and drum and bass – to add a bit of spice here and there.

As a next step in my career, I plan to begin producing music. I am in the early stages of learning how to do this, but hope to make music that will inspire change, while still invoking feeling in others as they dance. My focus will be on house to start, but we will see where this journey brings me as I continue to learn more about the other genres of music. My goal would be for people to take something away from my sound and be able to relate to it in a way that they haven’t with other types of music out there.

Eventually, I would love to throw events to highlight up and coming artists. I think with trending sounds and an emphasis of follower count, it is really hard for newer artists with a “different” sound or music to break through the noise. One day, I hope to able to give those artists a platform to have their music heard by the masses.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I think there are two major things society can do for artists in today’s world: (1) support them by purchasing their art and (2) showing up for smaller artists without focusing on their follower count or social media presence. While it may seem intuitive to support an artist by buying their art (whether that be a concert ticket or an actual body of work), I’ve seen it become harder and harder for people to invest in artists today. With streaming services like Spotify and increased prices of concert and festival tickets, many people are more inclined to stream music instead of purchasing a song or skip buying a ticket to see a smaller, local artist. What some may not know is artists make very little money off streaming, and sometimes lose money on concerts because of the cost of production and crew – so while ticket costs or merch might seem expensive, any bit helps.

With follower counts, I think it is important for people to understand how difficult it can be to build a following online. Artists not only have to find time to create their art, but they also have to manage bookings and promote themselves online, while catering to an algorithm with content that may or may not get picked up. Sometimes they may get followers, but that doesn’t always equate to fans. I’ve seen successful artists that have sold out shows have few followers on social media, and alternatively lesser known public artists with thousands of followers online that don’t draw a crowd to their events. Be careful with what you see on the internet and don’t base your support solely off what you see online – everyone is doing the best they can, especially when they are just starting out. If you want to support someone online, follow them and engage with their content: some promotors and venues put weight on that, though I hope in the future there is less emphasis on that and trending sounds.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

My very first DJ gig, I had no idea what I was in for. I was playing a DJ set in Laguna Beach and spent hours practicing it – I even went to my friend’s house and practiced on his full CDJ set-up, which I thought was the same equipment the club had. I googled the mixer I thought they would have, watched YouTube videos, made sure my cues were set-up correctly – I essentially did everything I thought I could to over prepare. But I learned that there will always be something you cannot prepare for. I showed up almost an hour early and there was a band on before me that ended up playing late. Because of that, I had no time for sound check, and realized the CDJ set-up was an older model than I had anticipated. The headphones I brought with me weren’t working with their mixer, and I was lucky the DJ playing after me came early to support and let me borrow his – even though his pair was broken and I could barely hear out of them. Because the CDJs were a much older model I had a harder time beat matching, and the set I had practiced just didn’t sound quite right on the blasting club volume of the speakers. I didn’t cue some special transitions correctly for the CDJ models. and ended up botching a couple of them – though overall, I did the best I could for my first club set. I had around 20 friends show up to support me, and because I was the opener not many others were there beyond that. I took that as a huge learning experience and knew what to practice for the next time. The club owners ended up asking me back, and I had a killer set the second time around. I learned to grow from my mistakes, and this resiliency will make me a better DJ overall.

Contact Info:

• Website: linktr.ee/ashleyanngora
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/ashleyanngora
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/ashleyanngora
• Other: www.soundcloud.com/ashleyanngora www.tiktok.com/@ashleyanngora

Image Credits
Erica Elan Kelvin Cheng Anthony Morales (Outer Dimension Studios) Jose Ruelas