Ashnikko

Greensboro, Riga, then a one-way ticket

Ashnikko was born Ashton Nicole Casey on 19 February 1996 in Oak Ridge, North Carolina, and raised in Greensboro on a diet that ran from country radio to Slipknot. The pivot came at ten, when M.I.A.'s Arular gave them a template for rap that was neither American nor especially polite. The family then moved abroad — first Estonia, then Riga, where Ashnikko attended a Latvian state high school. At eighteen they left for London alone.

The London years were slow and unglamorous. A debut single, 'Krokodil', went up on SoundCloud in July 2016. The Sass Pancakes EP followed in 2017 on Digital Picnic Records, then Unlikeable in 2018 and Hi It's Me in 2019. Nothing about that sequence suggested a breakout; the records were the sound of an artist assembling a voice out of rap cadence, pop-punk phrasing and a fairly aggressive sense of humour. The 2019 UK Music Video Awards gave 'Hi, It's Me' the newcomer prize for best pop video, which was the first external signal that the visual half of the project was as considered as the audio.

'Stupid', and what arrives with a viral hit

'Stupid', from Hi It's Me, featured Baby Tate and went to number one on multiple Billboard component charts on the back of TikTok, eventually certified platinum in both the United States and Canada. The follow-ups consolidated rather than repeated: 'Tantrum', 'Cry' with Grimes, and 'Daisy', which reached number 24 on the UK singles chart. Behind the scenes Ashnikko co-wrote 'Boss Bitch' for Doja Cat's Birds of Prey soundtrack, co-wrote 'Frost' for Tomorrow X Together and remixed Lady Gaga for Dawn of Chromatica.

The mixtape Demidevil landed in January 2021 and included 'Slumber Party' with Princess Nokia, still one of the few songs from that era that survives untouched in the current set. Ashnikko came out as genderfluid in May 2021 and uses they/them pronouns. A year-long hiatus followed before 'You Make Me Sick!' reopened the account in February 2023.

Weedkiller, then the diary entry

The debut studio album Weedkiller arrived on 25 August 2023 through Parlophone and Warner, a science-fiction concept record about a fairy world colonised by machines, with a world tour across Asia, Oceania, North America and Europe behind it. Coachella came in April 2023, and the opening ceremony of the League of Legends Worlds final followed in 2024.

Smoochies, released on 17 October 2025, deliberately dismantled that apparatus. Fifteen tracks over thirty-seven minutes, executive-produced by Slinger with Joep Le Blanc, Micah Jasper, Lotus IV and Oscar Scheller, recorded across Stockholm, London, Los Angeles and The Hague. Ashnikko told DIY in October 2025 that the aim was for it to read like a diary entry, and that the difference from the previous record was a refusal to keep suffering for the art: 'With WEEDKILLER, I loved writing it, but I felt like I wanted to suffer for the art.' The organising image is the bathroom conversation — friends comparing notes on sex, heartbreak and whether the relationship is worth keeping. In the same interview they framed the record's explicitness as a political position rather than a sales one, and were blunt about where the real intimacy in their life sits: 'The most intimate, caring relationships that I've ever had are platonic ones.'

Five singles preceded it: 'Itty Bitty' on 31 March 2025, 'Trinkets' on 12 August, 'Sticky Fingers' on 29 August, 'Smoochie Girl' on 19 September and 'Wet Like' on 3 October. Reviews clustered between three and four stars — NME and DIY at four, AllMusic and Dork at three. It reached number 32 in the UK and number 158 on the Billboard 200, which is roughly where Weedkiller landed too. The commercial ceiling has not moved much; the live audience plainly has.

Where things stand in September 2026

The Smoochies Tour runs 47 dates, opening at Klub Stodoła in Warsaw on 26 January 2026 — where 'Microplastics' and 'She's So Pretty' were played live for the first time — and closing at Metro City in Perth on 29 September 2026. In between it took in the UK and Ireland in February, North America through spring, and Europe's festival window.

The UK run was the clearest measure of growth. Manchester Academy on 14 February, then two sold-out nights at O2 Academy Brixton on 19 and 20 February 2026. Amelia Moore opened the European shows; the North American leg rotated support, with Princess Nokia and googly eyes at the Shrine Exposition Hall in Los Angeles on 20 March and googly eyes with Royal & the Serpent at Stage AE in Pittsburgh on 12 May.

Australia and New Zealand were announced in September 2025 and upgraded almost immediately. Demand forced a second Sydney show at the Enmore Theatre on 20 September, a second Melbourne Forum date on 22 September, and moved Brisbane out of Fortitude Music Hall to Riverstage. The leg began at Auckland Town Hall on 16 September 2026 and continues through Melbourne on 22 and 23 September, Brisbane on 25 September, Adelaide's Hindley Street Music Hall on 27 September and Perth on 29 September. It is Ashnikko's first Australian headline run since opening for Billie Eilish in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne in February 2025 — a thirty-minute support slot in arenas that appears to have done its work.

Inside Smoochie World

The show has a frame, and the frame holds. It opens with a recorded voiceover of Ashnikko rooting through a handbag and finding a small door at the bottom of it, which leads into Smoochie World. The reviewer at Manchester Academy on 14 February 2026 described the conceit unravelling on purpose as the night went on, from bright and pink into something closer to unhinged. Two dancers work the stage with Ashnikko through changes of backdrop and prop; the choreography is tight rather than decorative.

Pacing is the part reviewers keep noting. Los Angeles on 20 March 2026 ran an hour and forty minutes across 26 songs, front-loading Smoochies material — 'Sticky Fingers', 'Working Bitch', 'Microplastics', 'She's So Pretty', 'Lip Smacker', 'Trinkets', 'Smoochie Girl' — before the Weedkiller block and a closing stretch of 'Slumber Party', with Princess Nokia joining, and 'Daisy'. Pittsburgh on 12 May ran 24 songs to the same shape. There is a mid-set mash-up of older cult favourites and a 'Toxic'/'Invitation' pairing that has stayed fixed since Warsaw.

Not everything is armour. At Manchester, during 'Skin Cleared', Ashnikko spoke about a past breakup and said they were thankful to themselves for the growth since. The Brixton review called the run immersive and cathartic and described near-instant chaos from the pit to the upper tiers; the Auckland Town Hall review on 16 September 2026 read the night as one about self-expression and community, with the balcony on its feet through 'Smoochie Girl' and 'Toxic'. The common thread is a crowd that knows every word and a performer who has stopped treating that as a surprise.