PHOTOGRAPHY Reece Owen Sweeney
CREATIVE DIRECTION Tori West
CGI Ryan Vautier
PRODUCTION Chiara Maculan
STYLING Suzie Walsh
MUA Erika Freedman
HAIR Claire Moore
NAILS Angel My Linh
PHOTO ASSISTANT Kamila Banks
FASHION ASSISTANT Roksi Zityniuk
MUA ASSISTANT Natasha Tereshko
COVER IMAGE Ashnikko wears Top ALEXANDER MCQUEEN via THE ARC, Shorts SAMANTA VIRGINIO, Boots NATACHA MARRO, Hat DORQUE, Necklaces D’HEYGERE.
American singer, songwriter, rapper, and producer Ashnikko is learning to find beauty in the grotesque on her latest album, Smoochies. Growing up in Greensboro, North Carolina, before bouncing across Estonia and Latvia as a kid, she’s always carried a mystifying blend of Southern roots and Eastern European surrealism, a collision that bleeds into her hybrid of hyperpop, rock, and punk.
When we catch up after Halloweekend, Ash is curled up in bed, still recovering. She’s reading The Priory of the Orange Tree, listening to Lily Allen and Hayley Williams, hiking when she can, and pulling tarot cards when she can’t. “When you do a lot of things, you know yourself better,” she says. “You learn how you respond to different art, different chaos. It’s all part of it.”
There’s a glint in her voice when she talks about rebirth, a distinct mix of delight and danger that has always pulsed through her work. “I think I entered an era of mischief,” she says, half-laughing. Smoochies is the sound of that mischief made flesh. It’s Ashnikko at her most curious, poking around the shadows of her own desire and finding something unexpectedly beautiful there. “I love going through different phases of my life,” she says. “It’s fun to reinvent. That’s the whole point of being alive.”
When you do a lot of things, you know yourself better. You learn how you respond to different art, different chaos. It’s all part of it.
Jacket BALENCIAGA via PYRN ARCHIVE, Leggings ELISSA POPPY, Shoes MARGIELA via PYRN ARCHIVE, Hat MEG DENNIS, Socks STYLIST’S OWN
Where her previous album, WEEDKILLER, burned everything to the ground with its sharply apocalyptic sound, Smoochies feels warmer and more human, but no less experimental and exciting. It’s an album that begs not to be understood so much as felt. “It’s like a fever dream,” she grins.
Perfectly embodied in glitchy hyperpop track ‘Trinkets’, where the artist likens her male conquest to collectable knick-knacks, the ‘Smoochie Girl’ persona was born from a need to explore herself without irony or armour. “She’s mischievous, gleeful, messy, vulgar, sensual,” Ashnikko says. “Creating these archetypes lets me look inside myself more honestly.” Through ‘Smoochie Girl,’ she gave herself permission to play, to write from instinct instead of structure, to see what happens when she drops performance entirely. “I wanted to ask what my sexuality looks like without performance. What it feels like when it’s just me, in my room, poking around in the recesses of my mind.”
The result feels shameless and deeply private, like reading someone’s diary while they watch you, smirking. “As you get older, you give less of a fuck,” she says, without hesitation. “It’s easier to look at yourself – your flaws, your family, the gifts and curses you’ve inherited.” That clarity runs through every track. She sounds less like she’s hiding behind character and more like she’s learning to see the person underneath. “I see myself very clearly now,” Ashnikko admits. “Knowing myself makes the music softer, even when it’s loud.”
As you get older, you give less of a fuck. It’s easier to look at yourself – your flaws, your family, the gifts and curses you’ve inherited. I see myself very clearly now. Knowing myself makes the music softer, even when it’s loud.
Knitted vest, blouse & shorts KENZO, Shoes BALENCIAGA via PYRN ARCHIVE, Gloves ELISSA POPPY, Glasses, belt & stockings STYLIST’S OWN
Sonically, Smoochies mirrors that unruly honesty. It’s an intricate tapestry of club chaos, twangy country, and raw hip-hop stitched together with reckless precision. “I’m a very inconsistent person,” she says. “I can’t focus long enough on one genre to commit.” But that inconsistency feels like freedom. The songs mutate and shapeshift, reaching for something stranger and more alive.
That restless spirit comes into focus immediately on the record’s opening run. The pounding yet vulnerably romantic title track, ‘Smoochie Girl’, dives headfirst into the tug-of-war between her lovergirl instincts and her experiments with casual sex. A few songs later, she detonates the mood entirely with the powerful, “scrotum-crushing” beat of ‘Chichinya’, a feral burst of attitude inspired by her dog Wednesday’s nickname when she misbehaves. On ‘Wet Like’, her collaboration with Swedish artist COBRAH, the two artists trade power, balancing sensuality and parody. “She’s such a powerful, sensual musician,” Ashnikko says. “It’s nice to make music with your peers – especially when they inspire you.”
What makes Smoochies feel so refreshing is how little it cares for the algorithm. “The social media zeitgeist is a beast you can’t chain your validation to,” she says. “Once you let platforms like TikTok dictate your art, that’s dangerous territory. It should just be a gallery wall where you hang your work.” It’s a defiant stance in a moment when virality rules social capital, but for Ashnikko, art made for approval is already dead. “I have a really strong core fan base,” she says. “I feel secure in that. I’ve surrendered to the unknown, and I’m having a great time.”
The social media zeitgeist is a beast you can’t chain your validation to. Once you let platforms like TikTok dictate your art, that’s dangerous territory. It should just be a gallery wall where you hang your work.
That looseness spills into how she imagines her upcoming 2026 world tour. “I want people to feel like they’re stepping into a fever dream,” she says. “Uneasy at times, but still tethered, like there’s this strange, communal pulse holding us together.”
For listeners exploring their own queerness, Ashnikko hopes the record feels like a breath of air. “Expansive and fluid,” she says. “That’s how I live; my gender, my sexuality, my music. I love to play, to uncover new truths about myself. I hope this album gives others that permission too.”
She’s in no rush to reinvent again. “I think this Smoochie Girl archetype is one I’ll hold onto for a while,” she says. “I’m back in the studio next week.” For an artist so known for metamorphosis, that pause feels radical. This time, her rebellion comes in staying put and lingering in her own skin a little longer.
Smoochies is a record that refuses neat categorisation. It’s a messy, magnetic collision of desire, absurdity, and self-discovery. It’s Ashnikko at her most unguarded, peeling back the layers of artifice to reveal the tenderness and humour pulsing beneath the character. Each track feels like an act of reclamation, a reminder that beauty can live inside the grotesque, and that growth doesn’t always look graceful. In embracing her contradictions, Ashnikko has created something that feels alive, unpredictably human, and entirely her own.
Ashnikko’s Smoochies is available to stream on Spotify & Apple Music now. Tickets are available for the Smoochies 2026 World Tour here.
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