Pinkshift: From Chaos To Clarity
A year ago, PINKSHIFT set the world on fire. One Nation, a single kindled by the rising political climate and the decisions made by those at the top level, set ablaze a manifesto of change for young punks in America, some of those who may be voting for the first time. The message was clear, to make sure their generation was represented, intending to move forward with their firecracker band of skate-park punk, hope and togetherness.
The band went back to their Baltimore roots to find a sense of community for the music video, as vocalist Ashrita Kumar explains One Nation’s significance a year on. “It’s like a surf rock song for like 10 seconds. It’s supposed to be this joyous gathering of truth and justice in a world that doesn’t really afford us that, we have to create that as people and speakers of humanity.”
“Power is in numbers. Power is in community. Power is communication and togetherness and an inherent sense of knowing. This is who I am, and like, you can’t shake that.”
Fighting fire with fire is not an option here, and PINKSHIFT knows that. Unity is the only way forward. Out from the charred rubble of One Nation, their recently released record Earthkeeper, is providing the calm after the storm, a shining moment of clarity that makes sense in the current cold-blooded chaos of the world. The record speaks for an entire generation of young people caught up in a world that is complex and hard to understand. Whilst the lyrics are personal, mainly taken from Ashrita’s diary, alongside guitarist Paul Vallejo and Myron Houngbedji, they capture a moment in time that is so grounded in a conscious desire to have peace and inspire a true sense of self.
Authenticity runs deep in this album’s veins. “My songs are about me,” Ashrita giggles before continuing. “Every song that PINKSHIFT has put out has been about that journey of feeling validated. Feeling like I can move forward, feeling progress, feeling like I can be loud and I can be proud of myself. I can express myself so freely in this space. And so I think inherently, just because that’s who I am, that’s in every single song that we write.”
Whilst the record is personal, a cathartic expression of Ashrita’s self-proclaimed “ugly emotions”, it amplifies the importance of bands like PINKSHIFT in the global touring scene. Self validation for their fans being in those safe spaces is the reason they exist. For Ashrita, this is through their experiences as both a POC and non-binary person. “I think we live at the inner level of kinship at the intersection of many identities. And so I think in that way, just even more broad than just being like queer fronted, we have this energy, I think that attracts like our crowd of people like us, and they see themselves in us too. And it’s this space of just like, really feeling, like, so proud of yourself, regardless of what anybody will do about yourself.”
Both Paul and Ashrita, who both join us from Baltimore, feel empowered by their music and by their local DIY community who welcome and support each other. Paul explains, “with PINKSHIFT, I feel seen as like a person of colour, as a first gen immigrant, I’ve been afforded luxuries and spaces to feel supported. It feels like a privilege to also do that to my friends.”
Together, Paul and Ashrita’s relationship as bandmates is electrifying, a clear-cut example of two people trying to get the best out of each other. After meeting each other as students at John Hopkins University, they found a way to creatively click together and provide songs that champion both the rage and the emotion of being in the moment. From lockdown to touring with MANNEQUIN PUSSY, THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM and L S DUNES. “They’re all so nice and they’re in our corner. It makes us feel like we have got people out here, but that definitely influenced the record, because it influenced us as people.”
Earthkeeper, their second record and the first since the intensity of the pandemic, sees PINKSHIFT in their element. Out of the starting blocks, the band has developed a mature and empowering sound, the kind that lingers with you after listening and echoes in your mind. Through the references to spiritualism, Ashrita‘s understanding of Hindu mythology has a greater desire to keep the world at peace, inspired by a trip to see some redwoods and being in nature.
Protecting the earth is such an important concept on the record, as Ashrita explains. “It’s witnessing nature for her creative grandeur and just capacity for creation. Always, I feel like nature is like the closest thing you can get to God. Like God might not exist, but like trees do, and there is a natural force that dictates how this world exists in equilibrium.”
“And I feel like that could be like the highest power that we could all have to worry about.”
Earthkeeper is out now via Hopeless Records. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS124 here:
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