Them Are Us Too was formed in the Bay Area by friends Kennedy Ashlyn and Cash Askew in 2012 after meeting at school. They quickly gained a cult following as word spread about their youthful, innocent and fresh take on the revered 80s dream pop and shoegaze sound. Kennedy Ashlyn’s voice was immediately compared to Elizabeth Fraser and Kate Bush, while Cash Askew’s washes of intricate guitar felt akin to Robin Guthrie and Kevin Shields. Tragically, Cash Askew passed away in the Ghost Ship fire in Oakland in December of 2016, sending a shockwave of loss through our community. While Kennedy Ashlyn would eventually emerge as a solo artist through her project SRSQ, there were unfinished Them Are Us Too recordings and demos that Kennedy and those close to Cash felt deserved be heard in her memory. Kennedy returned to the studio with producer Joshua Eustis (Telefon Tel Aviv), Sunny Haire (Cash’s stepfather), Matia Simovich (INHALT), and Anya Dross (Cash’s girlfriend) to complete unfinished demos and sketches, write new compositions, and honor Cash Askew. The result is “Amends”, a collection of songs that would have been the second Them Are Us Too record, an amendment to a catalogue cut short.
