Making it Pop

Jesse Ranson and Ash Topp are new arrivals on the local music scene, having released their first single in July 2021. We ask about their journey so far.

Sometime during his primary school years, growing up in Hinds, Jesse Ranson picked up a guitar and started learning to play. His love for playing music grew from there and by 16 he was writing his own material.

Home-schooled during his high school years while his parents travelled America, Jesse didn’t have the advantage of school music facilities, but made the most of ‘my bedroom, my guitar and my brain’. At 16, he jumped straight into studying music at Ara.

‘Music has always been my biggest drive and the biggest thing in my life. I knew I wanted to take this all the way … I’ve tried to surround myself with as many like-minded creative types as I can over the last few years and met and played with some incredible people. I think I truly honed my creative side the most spending hours upon hours in the studio writing and creating with Ash.’

Jesse and Ash met at Ara Music Arts while studying in the same level-four certificate course before completing their bachelor degrees. ‘He told my parents the first time he met them that “I’m gonna make your son famous” and we’ve been attached at the hip ever since.’

The pair spent nearly two years preparing for their first release and making sure that first shot counted. Both had been in the same band at Ara, with Ash on drums. Jesse had been writing lots of music with an acoustic vibe and then bringing it to the band. Ultimately though, they realised the band wasn’t really what they wanted to be doing. Instead they decided to go it alone as a creative team of two, diving headfirst into pop to develop the sound they wanted.

‘We’re now at a point where creating comes quite easy to us and we know what we want and how to achieve it and if we don’t, we know how to get there. But there’s always going to be more blood, sweat and tears when you’re putting everything you have into something you love; we’re just getting better and better at handling it. The up sides destroy the downs every time.’

For Ash, who was born and grew up in Christchurch, a flair for music production has developed naturally alongside wanting to create the best-sounding music possible with Jesse. ‘My favourite to date has to be ‘ Hey My Mind ’,’ says Ash. ‘It was a special song to make and really opened the door in terms of sound and production. What I enjoy most about producing songs for Jesse is sitting down and talking through the concept for a song and the ideas that spark from those conversations.’

At the time of writing, they had just released the final single of their first 5-track EP and were hard at work on their second EP. Releasing music means getting it out across every major platform. Their music can be found just about anywhere including YouTube , Spotify , Apple Music , Amazon Music and other smaller platforms. ‘We have big plans for 2022 as we will be releasing our first full album,’ says Jesse. ‘We’re also getting the live show written and ready to get rehearsals on the way.’

Jesse started out writing in the indie/folk/acoustic genre but says the songs now definitely fit into the pop market. ‘I wanted to be making the music I listen to every day and the sound/vibe that my favourite artists create. So we worked really hard to find that sound while also making it our own.’

The song ideas come out of ‘just living and surviving life’. Jesse is a fan of taking a sad concept and turning it into a banger of an upbeat song. ‘I like to write about the complicated wasteland that is the human mind and I like to write about things that people can relate to and things we all struggle with.’

Both Ash and Jesse create original songs, sometimes starting with a simple voice recording of a melody or a groove on the phone. Then they dive into Logic Pro X or Ableton to build and develop the material. Much of the instrumentation is digitally derived but they still love to use real instruments like guitar, bass, keys and percussion too.

‘We have two of our best friends playing bass and guitar for us and we use them very often. Everything that has been released thus far has been recorded in Ash’s bedroom studio that we’ve built up over time.’

Gigging has not been the main focus over summer as they have been shoulder-deep writing for their new album, but expect to see more of them in 2022. ‘We’re finally releasing music and 2021 was our kick-off; we’re never gonna stop and 2022 better look out!’

Listen to Jesse and Ash’s latest single ‘Hey My Mind’ here .