Some of life’s most fascinating things were made from just raw materials. Computers were built from a mishmash of steel, glass and sand. And even mankind itself, when God crazily-enough made Adam from dust. But how was Kane Acosta made? Self-made “contemporary relic psychedelic indie” artist, the young musician coins the name Ashes to Amber, transforming the scraps of life into something golden. He picked up the guitar at 8-years-old, and somehow knew in his prepubescent age that he was destined to be a lyrical sensation.
Now, Kane breathes his spunky, “just-being-me” attitude into his electric guitar and catchy-cool lyrics. And he brings his Orange County skater roots to the academic setting, pursuing a degree in music industry at USC’s Thornton School of Music, putting the “beach kid” in the book scene. Kane utilizes the high-brow education to his advantage, continuing to develop his sound in the classroom and with EDM-beat maker band partner, TJ, who he met his freshman year. The unlikely pair is comparable to Skrillex and Justin Bieber’s “Where Are Ü Now”—so wrong, it’s right.
Together, the two have dreamt up over sixteen songs in 2020, and a few of those catchy tunes will be released each month from here on out. When COVID-19 wasn’t doing a “slamo-wamo” on everyone’s plans, Kane was selling out venues in downtown Los Angeles and having the bouncer aghast while the crowd moshed their hearts out. Now that’s some amber energy.
So, how did a coastal kid ride the wave of life and end up king of the indie scene? In an interview with SHEESH!, Kane Acosta tells all about what it’s really like to emerge from ashes into amber.
In the beginning, there was day and night, vegetation, a whole bunch of animals, but not Kane Acosta (yet). Kane quite literally built himself out of the ashes, as he is the only one in his family to ever unearth musical paradise, except for attending the occasional concert in Orange County with his dad. While growing up and just being a kid, “I wasn’t able to get it out for twenty years,” he states, referring to the expression of his musical abilities. But after an acceptance to USC came his way, Kane discovered his passion for lyrical expression and his own new-wave genre, fit for a surf-rock skater dude right out of sunny SoCal.
As for college itself, Kane has South Central right at his disposal. “It’s the homeland[…] it’s an adventure every single day,” he voices. The glitz, the glamor, the thousand dollars worth of equipment—oh, and the homework that consists of “reading contracts.” So, maybe it’s still school at the end of the day, but Kane and Philly-native TJ churn out beats like butter whenever an opportunity presents itself. “We have 16-24 songs in the bank,” excites Kane. The main idea is to drop a few songs each month, constantly keeping the audience on their toes. As for January, the “contemporary relic” artist already released the pair’s EP, “Going Down,” equipped with beach-pop novelty. Only a month into 2021, and Ashes to Amber is going for gold. But we might be getting ahead of ourselves here.
Ring around the rosie…ashes, ashes, we all fall down? Well, no—at least not in Kane Acosta’s case. While the budding star admits he faced his fair share of gloomy days, he grows out of the rocky ground. Over time, Kane mimics a “reverse fire,” rendering ashes into amber. “It’s going from nothing to something,” he emphasizes. And what did Kane do with all those ashes? He dispersed it into his sappy and soulful lyrics. While IRIS, the ultimate pop psalm, juices the pair some streams, Kane and TJ prefer some of their more creative pieces with an artistic edge. Of what’s been released thus far, Kane praises “Madonna Airs” of his Miss Future EP, claiming it transcends mental comprehension.
“It’s mind blowing,” he laughs. While the two put terrific amounts of time and effort into their music, both know not to think too hard about the process and trust that something witty and wonderful will come out of it. For instance, Ashes to Amber’s single, “Sadie, KT-22,” combines the nostalgia of puppy love with—get this—a chair lift in Lake Tahoe. As strange as it is genius, we can’t help but obsess over the imaginative lyrical touch Kane adds to his music.
And where does the young creative pick his lyrical inspiration from? He harvests the sounds from the trees of Mac Miller and “the old boys,” referring to the original blues artists that defined the 60’s and 70’s. In particular, Kane fancies the soulful sounds of Jimi Hendrix, Albert King, and Elmore James, just to name a few. As for the songwriting itself, he mimics the deep pop roots of John Mayer. “He’s not very upfront about how ingrained in his music he is,” Kane explains. For Kane Acosta, the more unique the singer-songwriter, the better.
The “unique” notion directly relates to the people Ashes to Amber dreams of collaborating with. While the psychedelic pop duo prefers jamming “just-the-two-of-us” style, Kane himself fantasizes about building beats with velvet underground glam-rock legend, Lou Reed. “He is such an unorthodox person—I want to be like ‘what is good with you!’” Kane pronounces. The young artist praises Reed’s one notion of “pissing people off” anyway he could. However, Kane prefers to keep everyone in the industry happy and not burn any bridges. After all, his persona is the whole “just a beachy guy with a guitar” get-up.
Speaking of the beach, Kane likes to mellow out seaside when he has free time. An avid surfer since he was a youngster, you can find Kane hanging 10 on the SoCal coastline. And we can’t forget the influence all that salt and sand has on his songs. When describing his personal music style, he explains: “If you were in the middle of the beach in the winter time; it’s as equally sad as it is happy.” Well, maybe the fog and the wind and the melancholy vibe of “winter at the beach” isn’t really your thing. No worries, because Kane loves to hit the ski slopes as well—a musically-inclined man with mountains on the mind. Just like his father, Kane claims to have inherited the “70s adventure guy” personality traits, and it seems like he is living up to the name!
But we can’t forget about Kane’s ascent from ashes to amber. The muli-faceted musician is metamorphosing at an alarming rate, with plenty of new music in store for us “contemporary relic” fans, as well as a promising Youtube account and maybe even a few TikToks. With limited access to performing at all his fave places during the pandemic—Hotel Cafe and The Love Song Bar, ad exemplum—Kane looks forward to broadcasting Ashes to Amber on all forms of social media to feed everyone’s beachy pop fix. Oh, and his messages to his fans? “Stay groovy,” he signs off.
And luckily, we can groove all we want to, with a little help from Ashes to Amber’s Spotify and Apple Music. Be sure to stop in on their Instagram for fun and funky monthly song release updates!
Check out Painting a Picture of Electric-Soul Artist, William Bolton and What is Co-Stanza? for more interviews with groovy musicians.
