“To me, the greatest music ever made started with an acoustic guitar and a voice. Bringing chords and lyrics together has the power to capture your soul completely.”
Seventeen year old singer/songwriter/guitarist Caitlin Ashleigh discovered she herself held the power to create music at the age of twelve, after attending a Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) concert in her home town of Melbourne. She describes hearing Waters live as a “defining experience” in her young life, one that spurred her into experimenting and creating music of her own. Caitlin, who had been enthralled by music and singing since the age of five, soon became equally as drawn to the guitar. Her first “real” guitar, a Maton 808 Tommy Emmanuel, fast became a life line in her teenage years, as she began penning the chords and lyrics to what would become her eponymous debut album “Caitlin Ashleigh”.
At the age of sixteen, Caitlin had written more than an albums worth of songs and began the search for a producer to turn her demos into her debut album. A fan of the music of David Bowie and Morrisey, Caitlin reached out to legendary producer Tony Visconti in the hope he would appreciate her old soul approach to creating music. Her instincts were dead on. Caitlin travelled to New York City to record in Stratosphere studios, where she and Visconti worked to create an album embodying the vintage influences, honest, artful lyrics and modern flare that Caitlin’s music deserved. The end result is something magical, genre-defying and instantly relatable to people of all ages.
Throughout her musical career Caitlin has been awarded with several songwriting and performance awards, including being chosen to perform at the Cafe 939 Songwriter’s Showcase while attending a summer course at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Her song “Sometimes” was selected as a finalist in the pop category of the Song Of The Year International Songwriting Contest, an honour usually reserved for established adult songwriters.
As Caitlin continues to grow and expand as an artist, experimenting with the piano, the ukulele and the harmonica, the guitar will always hold a special place in her heart. “From the first time I picked up a guitar, I fell in love with it. You can create just about any kind of music you want on an acoustic guitar, it’s the perfect instrument.”
