Ashley Mehta, San Jose State alumna and Bay Area-based artist, is basking in vulnerability with her latest single “When I Ride.”
Mehta, a Filipino Indian American artist who started releasing music in 2017, is known for her R&B and electronic songs but is stripping back lyrically and musically with her song that was released on Oct. 15.
When I Ride makes you feel like you’re driving through the late night with your friends.
It’s the kind of confidence booster that makes you want to scream the lyrics at every single person who has ever made you feel inferior.
She sings “and I move to the side, when I move call you mine” over an addictive melody revealing a high pitched voice.
Her previous singles such as “Feel It Still” were more based on the general feelings that come with dating including jumping into a relationship and being disappointed.
With When I Ride, Mehta adds her own personal narrative to the lyrics and unpacks her inexperience with dating.
“When it comes to the lyrics, [When I Ride] is also one of my most honest songs because I talk a lot about how I've never been in a full relationship before,” Mehta said in a Zoom call. “I kind of put those [thoughts] into my lyrics so it was a cool song to write because it just laid out my whole experience.”
When I Ride is produced by long-time collaborator Rommel Serrano, a DJ and producer known by the stage name Rommii.
Serrano is also a former SJSU student who graduated from Los Angeles music school Icon Collective in 2020.
Both Serrano and Mehta collaborated on Zoom to produce When I Ride, similarly like they did for “FEELS LIKE THAT,”which also released earlier his year.
“Ashley and Rommii have been making music for a minute and this is their best song so far. I feel like they’re only getting started,” software engineering senior Ananta Subhesh Hari said.
He uses an 808 clap beat on the track which creates imitations of acoustic percussion and makes the song move.
The infectious melody is repeated in the background as Mehta’s vocals float over the minimalist production.
“[Mehta’s] vocal is the dominant thing [in the track] but the cool thing about [When I Ride] is that when I produced it, I was thinking ‘there's not really a song with just bass and a vocal, let alone a pop R&B song,’ ” Serrano said. “I guess it's a risky song because it's experimental.”
Serrano said he feels as though he has to adapt his own production quality to match Mehta’s talent.
He said when producing for her, he tries to push her to try different types of sounds.
“I [am] not shy in those sessions like I'm very comfortable to mess up. It's nice to have someone else [there] as well [to] be like ‘okay wait this is good’ or ‘you can do better,’ ” Mehta said.
Both Serrano and Mehta said they’re always looking for ways to make their music sound distinct.
“I always tell Ashley [Mehta] that she [has] no genre because as an artist, I really try to push her to try different things. Whether it's an EDM track or a reggaeton track or a hip-hop track,” Serrano said.“Ashley [Mehta]'s not scared of [stepping out of her comfort zone]. If anything I feel she's like the female Drake in a way where she's just so versatile.”
Serrano said the partnership between him and Mehta pushes each other's musical boundaries and expectations.
“The biggest goal for me as an artist is to be as unique as I can and so I totally came to realize that me and [Serrano] were kind of on the same page of like ‘let's find something that no one's heard before but at the same time that fits very well,’ ” Mehta said.
Mehta and Serrano said they’re both fans of songs that make people want to scream the lyrics at the top of their lungs while dancing their hearts out.
Serrano said movement is extremely important to them which is why he’s frequently inspired by Bay Area sounds.
“There's a lot of tempo that the Bay Area likes to use like 90 BPM to 100 BPM, which is very dancey and it makes your hips move very easily,” Serrano said. “The tempos and the rhythms that they use [have] really groovy baselines.”
Mehta said when creating music she often thinks of how she’ll perform songs live when she is creating music.
“Let's see if we can envision this in front of an audience and picture myself and visualize myself performing it,” she said.
Aside from thinking about the performance aspect of songs, Mehta and Serrano said they also consider the way people might feel when they listen to the track.
Mehta freestyled most of the lyrics in When I Ride, taking up a style of songwriting that resembles singer-songwriter SZA’S music.
SZA first came to fame with her 2017 album, “CTRL,” which critics applauded for its vulnerability.
Similarly, you can hear the honesty in When I Ride.
Mehta’s lyrics are unfiltered and come straight from her heart.
Mehta said it’s really important for her to work with people who will give her space to be vulnerable.
Serrano is that person for Mehta. She said they’re best friends who end up talking about their lives whenever they’re in the studio together.
When I Ride is just a taste of the vulnerability that Mehta hopes to continue developing.
She’s ready to make her mark on the world, not by following the cookie-cutter popstar path but by shaping her own presence in the industry.
