Southbound winds were being very disrespectful to my body temperature on that February evening. I should’ve made a better choice on the outerwear but I thought a light jacket would suffice, unfortunately I was wrong. It didn’t help that I was on foot and the direction I was heading was perpendicular to the direction of wind flow. I usually spend my Tuesday nights watching old movies I seen a million times before but not this night, I found myself taking long strides in the night on the streets of Downtown Dallas. Even though downtown is decorated with various light fixtures that flood the area, it seemed to be darker than usual. The usual urine smell blanketed my nostrils for a short period of time as I was getting closer to my destination. It wasn’t real late but since the sun sets quite early, it seemed a lot later.

My final destination was 211 N Ervay, one of downtown’s high rises with a modernist design and aqua/turquoise windows. What I found a little interesting was at the time of night there was a considerable amount of eccentric, millennial traffic flow going in and out of the building. For the most part, many occupants resembled the swagger of a musician or a recording artist. It was then that I remember that Asia and I decided to meet at the Healthy Habitz Music studio so I assumed there were a handful of other rental spaces in the building that where being used as recording studios. I meet her engineer after walking past him and headed to the 15th floor, only to find out that he was already on the first level waiting on me. I felt like an idiot as I went all the way back down to the first level to greet him. We engaged in a lengthy, introductory conversation while we waited for Asia to arrive. Several minutes later, a glass door swung open and enters Asia with red box braids, red Champion sweater and a fashionable grey vest with cargo pockets. From there, we headed up to the 15th floor for the studio space. The studio is located down a long hallway on the left hand corner and come equipped with a nice window view of the beautiful Downtown skyline.

Born Asia Woods, she’s a native to Kansas City, Missouri and immediately sets the record straight that she isn’t from Kansas, she’s from Missouri. From there, I assumed Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri gets confused quite often to those unaware of it. Under the same breath, she expresses her love for the Kansas City Chiefs as they are the current Super Bowl winners. With 2 older sisters on her dad side and 1 older sister on her mom side and a deceased brother, she was the youngest of them all. Even though her mom and dad were present, they were never considered together. In Asia’s words, her parents were “around” but not as often as expected. Eventually, her older sister on her mother’s side began raising her. Asia describes the environment of her upbringing as “ghetto” as she mentions to me that some of her family member were recently involved in a high speed chase with the local police. In her early years, Asia was a huge fan of pop artists like Britney Spears and Keyshia Cole and was infatuated with performing at talent shows and performing karaoke. Unfortunately, Asia started to develop anxiety from getting on stage to perform in front of people. Dance and spelling bees were other activities she became apart of. Her dance history is extensive; she started to dance jazz/ ballet/ tap because she thought she wasn’t good at singing. According to her mother, as Asia grew older, she lost her rhythm.

Entering into middle school was the start of her teenage years and angst as she moved from the '“hood” to the suburban lifestyle with her older sister, nieces and nephews. At this point, singing wasn’t involved as much in her life but she used her writing talents to vent and help cope during stressful times. The fact that her mom and dad weren’t around as often as she liked ultimately drove her to question her own self worth. Although she was constantly surrounded by family, she considered herself an outcast. Entering into high school proved to be a bit rougher on the edges than middle school. Not only did she kicked out for being disobedient, she moved in with her brother and his wife and kids. That ended up not working out either so moving in with her grandmother was the next option. Asia mentions that her grandmother didn’t care for Asia on her mom or her mom’s kids. She felt it was for the fact that she and her mother are of a darker complexion, in comparison to the rest of the family member being considered “ light skinned” or of lighter complexion. The high school she attended was a performing arts school which allowed to strengthen her creative nature. Through her high school years, she was into choir, creative writing, TV/News Broadcasting and dancing but ended up graduating with a fashion major.

Immediately after high school, Asia hightailed it to Dallas, Texas with her older sister. Initially, her sister established stability in the city a few years prior so it made it easy for Asia to make a sudden move. Upon arrival, she was set up with a decent corporate paying job and received help with raising her credit score. During that time, she was a homebody and wasn't fully aware of the blossoming new wave that was taking over the DFW music scene. 8 months or so later after her move to Dallas, she finally stepped outside of the house and was ready to see what the city has to offer.

One of her first few introductions into the local scene, along with linking with individuals like Black Pat and Blu, was the Catch The Wave Podcast. She began her contribution to the scene by interviewing local artists under the podcast. From there she was able to make connections and network with talented creatives that were scattered across the metroplex. The podcast created an opportunity for her to attend SXSW to interview the attendees and make even more connections and build more relationships. One day, something clicked and she decided that she didn’t want to interview artists anymore. She felt as if she was the one that should be interviewed. Using her connections to link up with a producer she interviewed prior, Asia found herself in a booth getting ready to record. She claims that at first she was shook going into the booth but after recording, she left the booth and was met with everyone’s astonished reaction to her singing abilities. This took place around the late part of 2016 into early 2017.

“ There will always be people that don’t wish the best for you”

From that point forward, she created and released a series of singles throughout the years that created a lot of attention for the songstress. One of her first releases that was able to reach a certain level of views was her song “ Trust Issues”’ that she released on Soundcloud, it ended up accumulating 50,000 views. Her first song that reached all streaming platforms was the song “Wrong Way’ featuring Trey Ward. The song “ Distractions” was the track that really caught my attention. The instrumental for the song came for a contest that Asia decided to enter, featuring artists Kodie Shane and Young Lyric as judges. The contest rules were for contestants to download a beat from a particular website and create a song from it. Whoever had the best song according to the judges wins a feature from Kodie Shane. Her song Distractions ended up winning the contest but she was never awarded the feature so Asia took it upon herself to release Distractions on all platforms, despite getting the feature.

Her song “ Monogamy” is one of my recent favorites from the Kansas City songwriter. From a lyrical standpoint, it features the opposite meaning of what monogamy is and highlights the characteristics of a “player”. This track caters to the women as it takes away from the common perception that only men can engage in acts of promiscuity. The corresponding video contains the visual elements from the early 2000’s with the wide angle/ up close shots and Asia’s neon green fishnet outfit as its tells a story of deceit and the circumstances that follows.

Asia is reluctant to put together a body of work at the moment, her reason being is her level of self consciousness in her craft. She explains the stress of making quality music for her fans and at the same time, not giving much thought about what the fans want. She strives on turning listeners into fans without having to deal with the pressures of conformity. “ As an artist, what matters to me is what the fans want because that’s what will grab their attention”, she explains , “That’s what will get me fans, not listeners. Fans are the ones that will spend the money on your merch and come to your shows". Her plan is to build a dedicated fan base behind making timeless music that will eventually bring her global success. Perfection to her is key. Sonically, she doesn't want to lack as she doesn’t want her fans to skip any of her songs. Being a resident in DFW, she’s learned that not only do you have to make good quality music, face to face networking has proven to be very effective in the city. Her introverted personality and her battle with social anxiety is currently in the way and it creates multiple challenges when comes to that form of networking. She made a comment on how her primary producer would have to speak for her on multiple occasions as she would get flustered in front of people. Fortunately, her strength and determination for her music career allows her to slowly but surely overcome her struggle.

To check out her latest single “Pride” and the rest of her music, click the button below

"Pride" available on all platforms