A lot has happened since the last time Ashley Altadonna put out an album. As Altadonna’s band, New Blind Nationals, was coming to an end in 2004, she shifted focus to filmmaking, she started dating the woman who would one day become her wife, and a she succinctly puts it, she “changed [her] gender.” Understandably, music took a back seat as the singer-guitarist once known as Kyle transitioned into life as Ashley. A dozen years later, Altadonna’s new band, The Glacial Speed, is on the cusp of releasing its debut album.
Entitled New Wilderness, the record documents Altadonna’s exploration of the unfamiliar aspects of gender, adulthood, and relationships that were both gained and lost over the past 12 years. Before The Glacial Speed releases the album, Milwaukee Record asked Altadonna about her hiatus, how time and personal growth impacted her songwriting, and whether we’re to expect another lengthy delay between releases.
Milwaukee Record: It seems as if The Glacial Speed is a fairly accurate name in terms of your output. This is your first release and you’ve been a band for over two years. What was the reason for the gradual pace of releasing of material?
Ashley Altadonna: Part of it, I think was intentional. When we started this band back in 2014, we were at a different place in our lives, all being in our thirties versus my previous band, New Blind Nationals, we were in our early 20s. Our bass player has kids. We all have full-time jobs now. There was definitely an intention to take things a little bit slower, not play as many shows, and to make it more enjoyable for us as performers. Now, did I intend for it to take two years? No.
MR: The wait is also adding onto another lengthy hiatus. For more than a decade that you went away from music. What are some of the reasons?
AA: So in 2004, my life did this total 180 where I was finishing up film school at UWM, I went from being single to dating the person I eventually ended up marrying, living alone to living with roommates, and I changed my gender. All these things happened, and my band broke up as well. [With] all those things kind of coming together at that moment, I needed to take some time to really focus on what was going on with my transition and going with that. I also started focusing more on my film projects at that time, and that sort of took off for a couple of years.
Then two years ago, [New Blind Nationals bassist] Mike [Carey] asked to get together to play. We’d meet up in my living room and work on a few things I had started writing here and there over the last 10 years.
MR: It seems as if you’ve had a mountain of either new and exciting experiences and either physically or mentally arduous things you had to focus on. When you eventually returned to it, was it like riding a bike and you were able to get right back into it? Or was there a learning curve?
AA: I would say it more like riding a bike, honestly. I feel like a switch got flipped. I was really looking at those experiences over the past 10 years and what that change was like. And I was trying to encapsulate all that into the idea of this record, which is essentially going out into the unknown. Part of that is the unknown of transitioning from one gender to another, and all the new experiences that came along with that. But it’s also the experiences of adulthood and moving from your twenties into your thirties or forties.
Also, a lot of it had to do with when I moved to Milwaukee in 2000. I moved up here with a group of friends from my hometown, and I’m the only one that stayed here. So I looked back at the whole process of making Milwaukee my new home. And with transitioning, there were friendships I lost in that.
MR: So a lot of the record is stuff that’s identifiable to everyone, not necessarily just those going through gender confirmation. But did you feel that when it came time to write, there were maybe a few songs that were inside of you the whole time that you couldn’t get out before, but now you have this new vessel or level of personal comfort to allow them to?
AA: For sure. Again, a couple of the songs I’d started around the time I was in the Nationals. It wasn’t until this band happened that they became more fully formed and the direction that I wanted to take them in. I would definitely say I had fragments, but I had to figure out how to put them all together. And feeling like I have the freedom to be a little bit more relaxed and had the comfort to try some slightly different things musically, like playing a little more acoustic stuff and not just noisy rock stuff.
MR: In what ways do you feel you’ve grown or improved as a songwriter? In between your early twenties and mid-to-late thirties, it seems you have a lot more to say, just in general. Do you find that you have more to say and more behind you words to give the songs more significance?
AA: I’d say I probably improved as a songwriter and musically. I feel like the lyrics that I’m writing now definitely have a lot more personal meaning to me. I feel like I have a lot more that I wanted to say, and perhaps it’s because I have 10 years of experiences behind this record. I was given that time to think about what I wanted to do.
MR: Are you afraid that it will take another 10 years for the well to replenish or have you hit a rhythm?
AA: Like I said, I feel the switch has been flipped. I’ve written five or six more songs that could easily go on another record, so I would think that as long as I get to keep being in this band and working with these guys, that muscle will continue to be used. I don’t think it would take another decade. At the same time, putting out this record, I felt I needed to work on more songs. Perhaps it’s because I had so much going on with my gender transition and working jobs and making movies and doing these other things that it distracted me from songwriting. Now that I feel a little more settled in my life, the songwriting has become a lot easier.
The Glacial Speed will digitally release New Wilderness Sunday, January 1. The band will play WMSE’s “Local/Live” on January 17 and will perform at Company Brewing as part of Riverwest FemFest January 22. Stream two tracks off New Wilderness below.