ASA 808's new album Boy, crush is a very personal inner journey as well as a call to fight and free ourselves from toxic masculinity. In eight tracks that subtly merge electronica, ambient, breakbeat and house, the Berlin-based artist processes their own quest for gender identity. Out on vinyl and digital via the TOYS Berlin imprint, the album proposes new, softer and more diverse forms of gender fluidity.
ASA 808 invites listeners to expand their views of the gender spectrum. The title Boy, crush plays with the term "boy crush" and is meant as an encouragement for all men to collectively crush manhood with all its toxic traits and consequences: "Toxic masculinity has kept our grandmothers and mothers small and brought deviant boys into line. It took me a long time to unlearn so much sexism and queerphobia, and find my inner queer child again to let it grow, bloom and shine. I dream of a world in which men emasculate themselves and choose to embrace softness, weakness, vulnerability, solidarity, consideration, mindfulness, self-reflectiveness and nonviolence", explains the non-binary producer and DJ who discovered their gender-nonconforming side at an early age.
"I loved to dress up and dance when I was a kid. I loved everything that glittered and sparkled. My best friends were girls. I often felt like boys' nights were a downward spiral and tried to refuse my socialization as a man. Still today, it seems to me that so many toxic behaviors are linked to hegemonic ideas of masculinity. We're all suffering from them, whether we're men or not, whether we want it or not, some obviously more than others." To free ourselves from the restraints of patriarchy, ASA 808 always saw the dancefloor as a potential space for emancipation where everyone should feel included and safe.
While the introverted ambient tracks on the album were recorded during the pandemic, the more energetic tracks emerged when life returned to the city and clubs reopened. "Everyone was hungry for culture and there was a very exciting and blissful energy in the air", recalls ASA, who released previously on George FitzGerald's MakeMusic imprint and developed a special connection to the capital's nightlife through their own TOYS fundraiser parties.