Published Oct 16, 2026 | 9:00am
"Doesn’t the album kind of taste like cacio e pepe?" asks Ashelyn Rae Willson, connecting from her introverted pop star alter-ego handle on Finsta. At 33 years old, the acclaimed singer-songwriter is preparing to release her highly anticipated fourth solo album, The Girl of Your Dreams. Describing the record as "comfort food, but peppery, spicy," Willson offers listeners a cinematic narrative arc that spans the disorienting highs of love-bombing, the sting of betrayal by a former friend, and the grounding reality of finding an imperfectly perfect love—the kind she calls "morbid."
"The heart of it really is this unraveling of the illusion of the dream girl," she explains. During our Zoom call, Ashe pauses briefly to reapply her lipstick on camera, noting half-jokingly that monthly vitamin IV drips have become her secret weapon against the grueling pace of her life. The past year has been a whirlwind of personal and professional milestones. Willson married music artist and drummer John Canada last year, around the same time she dropped The Dream, an album created with her supergroup The Favors alongside Finneas, her longtime collaborator and the celebrated producer and brother to Billie Eilish.
For many fans, Ashe’s name became synonymous with raw, emotional vulnerability back in 2019 with her gut-wrenching sleeper hit "Moral of the Story," which documented her divorce and was later re-released featuring Niall Horan. The track served as a comforting soundtrack for a generation of young adults navigating turbulent relationships. Listening to her latest work, one is immediately captivated by a rich sonic palette: the timeless storytelling sensibility of Carole King, the whimsical romance of soaring orchestral strings, and a sharp, witty lyricism forged through painful personal growth. The very concept of being "a dream girl"—an idealized image projected onto women by partners and society alike—is playfully turned on its head and thoroughly deconstructed across the album’s 11 tracks. It is, as Willson points out, an archetype that ultimately "is something to outgrow."
The Creative Process and Sensory Worldbuilding
When discussing how she brought the sonic and visual universe of The Girl of Your Dreams to life, Willson points to a deeply tactile and sensory approach to songwriting.
"I started with a bulletin board, a physical back-to-school bulletin board that had all these different fabrics and textures on it, leather and plaid, an entire color palette," she shares. "I wanted to be able to look at this bulletin board as we were working on the record and get tactile with it. I knew what I wanted it to smell like. There were crushed rose petals on the bulletin board and old keys, that smell of monkey bars or iron."
This commitment to sensory worldbuilding extended even to her daily studio routine. "I was burning a specific candle every time we worked on this record. I’m such a sensory person. I had pictures of what I thought the album might taste like. So there’s a picture of cacio e pepe pasta on there."
Cinematic influences also loomed large over the project. When asked about specific artistic inspirations or classic films that guided her vision, Willson points directly to the master of suspense. "Alfred Hitchcock is my favorite, all-time favorite. I kept thinking of Dial M for Murder or To Catch a Thief, and I thought that was a real time of Hollywood that I grew up loving, and I haven’t seen really captured. I thought, if we could nail a bit of Grace Kelly in Hitchcock, that’s so honoring who I am and what has inspired me."
Raising the Bar and Challenging Relationship Narratives
The conversation naturally shifts toward the themes of modern romance, particularly the track "Lasso the Moon," which evokes the intoxicating feeling of falling for someone who makes you feel like the impossible is within reach.
"Like they could get you the moon, you know?" the interviewer notes, admitting to a desire to throw on a pair of cowboy boots and dance on the moon forever.
Willson responds with characteristic candor: "Can I lasso it for myself? Yes. Do I want to? No. So thanks. Go get that for me. I’m so over this narrative of, ‘but he’s a good guy.’ The bar is on the floor, girls."
Elaborating on the current dating landscape, Willson expresses disbelief at what women are often expected to tolerate. "What a time we’re living in right now! I’ve had friends who are truly impeccable women who do not see it, don’t own it, and then settle for the guy who does the bare minimum because ‘a guy who doesn’t violate you is now a good guy.’ You get the car door opened for you once, and you’re like, ‘I’m gonna marry him.’ He needs to keep opening the door and doing a hell of a lot more than that. He needs to go get the moon, and until he does, we’re not accepting anything less."
The conversation touches on the phenomenon of "Stop The Wedding!" stories shared by fans who see reflections of their own doubts in her music. Willson admits the emotional weight of these accounts. "It’s a wee bit emotional in that I wish I had this song back when I married the wrong guy. There’s so much good that came from making a bad choice, but there was a lot of bad that came from making a bad choice. I don’t know that I would have done things differently, but if I had this song… maybe."
She adds that hearing from listeners has been deeply rewarding. "I’ve seen so many comments from people that are saying, ‘This has made me rethink my relationship, or better yet, this has made me love my person more.’ I’m taking even more ownership in this relationship I have because this is right, and I would never stop the wedding. That’s really cool."
Deconstructing Past Trauma and Finding Real Partnership
Reflecting on her current marriage, Willson is quick to clarify that The Girl of Your Dreams is not a naive, overly saccharine celebration of romance. Instead, it reflects a hard-won maturity.
"I didn’t set out to make a love album about how I’m just ‘la la la, so happy now and everything’s good.’ The relationship I have with my husband is the first time I’ve been in a relationship where he’s a whole person and I’m a whole person, and then we come together and create this other thing," she says. "We’re not broken. I’m not looking to him to fix something. Too many people go into relationships viewing themselves as broken and looking for the guy or whomever to fix the thing. Or broken marriages that have a baby as if the baby’s gonna fix it. Ahhh! Stop the baby, stop the child! And I’ve been that before: the broken half to someone else’s broken half. It does not make a whole. It makes this toxic other thing."
This self-awareness enabled Willson to address darker experiences from her past, including manipulation and psychological games. "Well, it was the deconstruction of the girl of your dreams and who she is, and who he views me to be, or fans view me to be, or the world views. There was a real deconstruction of that, and you can hear that on the record. I really came at these songs from a bird’s-eye view, from a million miles away from a lot of trauma and hardship and manipulation."
Discussing her track "Love Bomb," she notes how contemporary terminology has caught up to experiences that were once difficult to name. "The term love bomb is a little bit newer in the lexicon, and it wasn’t a term I was hearing when I was being love bombed. I wrote it not from an injured, angry place, but out of an awakening."
Recognizing manipulation in real-time is notoriously difficult, a reality Willson acknowledges with empathy for her listeners. "You can’t see the forest from the trees. That’s why we need our friends, even if we don’t want to hear it. Now I have this song, and we can just slip it onto a playlist for some good subliminal messaging."
For women struggling to trust their instincts when faced with red flags, Willson hopes her music offers validation. "We learn to trust our women’s intuition more as we get older, if we’re willing to tune into it. It has taken me a while to be able to label it or name it. But the ick? That’s a female guttural instinct. Listen to that. It’s not just you. I think maybe this song could help in the service of that intuition, hopefully." When pressed on her own pet peeves, she doesn’t hesitate: "Well, the guy posting a gym mirror selfie is pretty gross to me. Which, by the way, stop that."
Looking Toward the Future
The themes of permanence and mortality weave through the album as well, notably on the track "Funeral," which explores the profound weight of choosing the person who will ultimately speak at your memorial service.
"I finally found that person, and I resolved myself of feeling that it didn’t exist for me," Willson reflects. "It was special to meet my now husband John, and to feel this enduring, lasting, imperfect, but real love. A real lasting love is morbid. Love that lasts means that you’re picking the person who’s going to bury you. What a lucky journey to have. That’s a journey my grandparents are on, and I have watched them go through so many trials and tribulations to that last season of their lives. When I listen to ‘Funeral,’ I think of them now."
She notes with a smile that her husband set a high bar during their own nuptials. "My husband had incredible vows, so I sort of thought, ‘Wow, well, if these are his vows, then his speech at my funeral is going to be pretty classy.’"
That appreciation for music and performance remains a daily fixture in their household. "My sweet man sits down at the piano at the end of a long day and he’ll just start singing a song. He loves Billy Joel. He’ll start singing, ‘She’s Always A Woman To Me,’ and I’ve never dated anyone else who can sing, let alone marry. He’s got a pretty, lovely, velvety voice."
