Being a Creative ‘Genre Bender’

Hi, I'm Dhruti Shah. And this is my podcast Have You Thought About. Thank you for joining us for Season Two. I'm a writer and I love to find out about what passions people are pursuing. And also what makes them tick. This podcast is for those that are reckoning and tired of being told you can really only have one focus or just one thing that makes you you.

In each edition, I'm going to chat with someone who breaks these lines and who's managed to fit things together in their life or profession that you might not think of as an obvious match. You're about to hear me chatting with Ace Ambrose, a multidisciplinary creative, musician, and self-proclaimed geek.

Ace you've had quite an interesting journey on becoming a musician.

I knew since I was little that I wanted to be a writer, because I've just always been creative. And that comes from sort of being on the spectrum with the ADHD and the autism. It's like my main outlet was anything creative that I could do. And I loved storytelling, and like any kind of format. So you know, when I was younger, I would write scripts, poetry, stories, songs, and that

But it was more being an author was always my goal. And I took creative writing at college, but then I got really sick halfway through college, you know, I had to drop out. To be honest, I just wasn't finding fulfilment in that like completely. Alongside doing writing, and everything growing up, I also, you know, I did musical theatre. And like, for my birthday, I think I was like, 14/15, my mom

And funnily enough, even though I was like, obviously, just under 16 at the time, and I just released that for fun on YouTube, BBC Introducing actually picked it up, and they played it on their show. And that is kind of what made me consider combining, like everything that I love doing into sort of one.

So instead of just being a writer, or you know, just being a musician, I figured why not combine all of it because I see myself more as a concept artist anyway. So if I'm writing these stories, then what other mediums can I use to like tell it. So I'd have like one story and then I'd like make a soundtrack to it, and then release the soundtrack. And I do a bunch of art and maybe release like a

Clearly a lot of creative energy, like I've been told I have a lot of creative energy that I need to burn, it sounds like you have even more so. On one hand, we don't want to label you and that's the point of the podcast, but what genres do you prefer dabbling in?

I usually go by the mantle of a 'genre bender'. So I like to merge genres. And it depends on the story, because like the second EP that I released properly with that same studio, the life and death, the lady fame that was kind of like my first proper go, having like a full concept thing. And that was like, each song was supposed to reflect a different era of music, because it was this

Yeah, but if you listen to my stuff, it weirdly, it's, it's if you listen to certain things out of context, it does still work. Like you don't need to know the story to listen to the songs, necessarily. And I don't just do songs that are concepts. Sometimes I do music for fun, like you said, it's kind of weird with labels, it's difficult because in the industry, you do kind of have to

But then when you have a content creator, that's a very used term at the moment, and you're, I'm not even gonna say at the start of your career, because you have been doing this for quite a while now. Is there anything that makes you feel far more comfortable, I guess, comfortable, uncomfortable when it comes to the creation of content, because content greater seems a little bit bland

It's the demand for it, because I always started just doing it as a compulsion, because I love to do it because it was stuck in my head. So I needed to get the story out. And it would be like, Oh, I've got a really cool idea. And like, Oh, this is a cool thing that I could do for this idea. And it would just be fun. But you know, as you grow up, and people start to sort of see you're

So when you're independent like myself, like I'm not on any labels, I'm not currently working with any studios, so I produce everything from home from my room, being chronically ill as well. You know, that's kind of like a compulsory measure for me because I can't travel a lot of the time. So when you've got people In the industry take notice of you, and like what you're doing their understanding

So like, it's a massive struggle to get any kind of work,

it feels like it's being used as an excuse by a lot of people in terms of, oh, we can't pay you this, or we can't do this because of the pandemic. And you're like, that's interesting...

You come from an underrepresented background and there are very few people like you, whether you're busting genres, you know, in terms of your heritage, you talked about the illness, and I want to sort of go back to that as well. How are you managing to stay resilient to keep going to keep thriving, bearing in mind that you are a minority within a minority within a minority, who's trying to be

I'd like to be one of those people that are like, you know, I It's a struggle, but you just got to power through and all of this and take opportunities. But because I am that person that is the sort of mentality that I tried to put out. But I think a lot of my issues with dealing with any kind of struggles that pop up whatever minority part of me is facing that specific struggle, the

And if you don't have a good network and support system, the thing that you love, doing the most can be the thing that not just takes you down, but like you'll you'll lose your passion for it. I lost my passion for writing prose and stuff like that, in college, because I was facing so many different adversities that I hadn't been trained or taught how to deal with at all. And I did sort of crumble

But it's difficult as well being isolated. I think that's the worst part of it. Because your creativity can take you so many places and meet so many amazing people. And you know, you can connect and make art essentially to reflect what you're going through so that people can understand what you're going through, which is what my next EP is about.

But when you are dealing with something like chronic illness, especially one that keeps you at home, it's an extra layer that people don't really think about, because when your whole thing is performing, and performing live, and being highly energetic, and just expressing yourself through music, whatever it is. And then that's the one thing that you can't do, like the thing you enjoy most

I guess that's that I think- people are the most important about that having a team; having at least one person on your team that you can build with they're the ones that ground you into that.

How are you managing to take that public persona which is Ace and maintain a degree of privacy or a degree of your own?

it's it's actually it's interesting, sir, because that's a conversation I've had like a couple of times this week because I've been having a sort of general identity crisis as kind of my thing as a person.

I've had so many different characters. You know, before Ace Ambrose there was Ace Oddity; been quite a few because it depends on whether I'm doing a character for the EP or just going by Ace as my creative moniker. But the origin of Ace is kind of weird, because obviously, you know me as Hadassah. That's how my family know me, but I actually named myself and created the character of Ace because

And like all the microaggressions that I was so used to dealing with, you know, people just not even not learning or wanting to say my name. It was like, you know, Oh Hadassah, I can't say that even though Melissa is exactly, you know, I mean, it's the same, it's just not. And I always pointed that out. And it was always just such a big deal. And I never understood why. But because I found

But right now, Ace is just how I present and it's sort of the person that I want to be seen as, because I spent so long being seen as you know, the artist who was sick or like, you know that everything that about you that's negative is how people define you. And I wanted a just to be one thing, but having a sense of self is difficult, because then when you meet people that didn't know you

You know you mentioned the ADHD before, which a lot of women actually are discussing right now in terms of actually having diagnoses. How are you embracing everything, that's part of the like, the ADHD, the chronic illness, and using it in a way that helps you be both Hadassah, perhaps be Ace as well,

That's something I need to work on doing because I've let it overwhelm me, if anything, I didn't really know until the last two years that one, you know what, everything with the way that my brain is working, the reason why, you know, when the pandemic came, like all of my coping mechanisms fell apart was because I've got AuDHD, you know, autism and ADHD, both undiagnosed unmedicated,

Because before I was like, I was so code switching, I was I was like, no matter what I did interview wise, or like, you know, public appearances, I had this kind of, you need to talk in your controlled accent, you need to talk, you have to mask this personality trait, you need to Oh, yeah, don't have too much energy when you're talking about this. And it's like, it gives you a headache,

And that's like, if I can put that into a comic, or, you know, music video was something and make that public in, not in a woe is me, whatever, no, like, this is what I'm dealing with. And it sucks. And it's awful. And it's not all there is to my life, but it is a part of it. And then that's kind of my way of other people seeing that as you know, not as a person, but as a character as people

because that's literally how I found out that I have it, you know, I saw other people talking about it online their like experiences, whatever. And I was just I felt kind of just validated. And that was the first step into getting treated for any of this stuff is just to be told that you're not nuts, that like everything you're going through is real, whether it's in your head, or whatever it is,

And talking to resources. We were talking briefly when we first started saying Oh, shall we do the podcast? Nerd culture, apparently it gets your geek on, like what does that mean? And how does that shape you?

Oh, it's like my favourite thing about myself. That is the nerdism. It's just the ability to sort of find joy in that because you know, right now I've been being ill. I struggled to find joy in a lot of things because a lot of my dopamine came from physical activities, which I've had to quit doing like dance gymnastics, all of that when I was younger. So music is the only outlet I

And like it was the first character that I saw that like on TV that I could resonate with in like a really weird way. But bearing in mind that was like back in the 70s or 80s, like my mum got me a boxset. And I've seen every single episode of Doctor Who, since the 60s, since the first doctor, up to present day plus the audio books that everything, you know, I was just like, that's what I grew

extra important for those people. Because, you know, we are only starting to see ourselves in media very recently represented. And even that is sort of cool. Like I said, it's like, we're treated like the diversity card. And like, oh, yeah, you're only represented to make a point. And instead of having natural representation, which is why I was also like, coming to terms with the fact that when I'm

We need to get Hadassah, we need to get Ace onto some sort of Doctor Who, show

my God, it's my honestly, it's been my one. If I don't achieve anything else, I want to either be the doctor or be a companion or have a cameo in it as either ace or some sort of character in dog too. That's always been my life's mission.

Well you never know. Honestly, sometimes I think it's worth saying something and then seeing where the ripple effect takes you. So you never never know what's gonna happen off the back of this will never make any promises. But you never know. You also adopt rescue greyhounds. So very quickly, tell me tell us a bit more about why that's so important to you and how that contributes to

That was like an unintentional thing, because I think I remember getting off first when I was young kids. Yeah, I think I just joined secondary school when we got our first because originally, I wanted a cat. And I was desperate for cat. And this was like, you know, it was a long time ago. And like it was sort of when Cats Protection had all the posters up everywhere of cats

And we knew we wanted to like rescue something or adopt something because that's, I don't know, it's kind of in our nature of just sort of preference. But honestly, I have no idea what happened. But I think my dad just either found or on line and or just saw like a post saying, you know, someone needs to adopt this greyhound. But yeah, he fell in love with candy. And she was I think she was called

are not that just come from like, you know, bad situations. But it's just, I know, because of what I've been through as a person. You relate to an animal, but it's been through the same and it's it's weird. It's like you give each other comfort in that kind of way.

What does the future look like face to face right now, like what keeps you in the light?

Honestly, I have this upcoming EP that I've been working on since the start of that, well, I started the concept for it before the pandemic, and funnily enough, it's a doomsday EP concept EP, and a lot of what actually happened in real life reflects, you know, the EP, and that's it's coincidental but also very, sort of, I guess apt because I started creating the EP or the concept for

Fantastic. And I guess I'm finally if people do want to hear your back catalogue or find out more about where Aces, where are you situated in, in the social world,

Now you type Ace Ambrose in and I pop up all over the shop, I've got my fingers in a lot of pies. So I mean, it depends what you want to see if you want to listen to my music. I'm on Spotify. Do you want to see the artwork Instagram is the best place to go. Most of my comic art work is on my co collaborator Nerdy and Niche Curtis Crypts- he does all my artwork, absolutely

The wonderful Ace Ambrose, who loves to bend genres. Do check out all of Ace's creations. Do you have an interdisciplinary life because I would love to hear from you. Maybe we can chat on this podcast that goes with my newsletter, which is called Have You Thought About. It can be found via www.dhrutishah.com. Please join me next time for a fun conversation with another guest who likes