Kassi Ashton doesn't present like a girl afraid of much, other than being bored or boring. That's clear with "Violins," a song and music video that she's fine describing as provocative.

The new song — a pop-country banger that dramatically shades an ex-lover trying to crawl back apologizing — is feisty and sassy, but also inspiring. Revenge is covered by this sense of liberation. Thank Natalie Hemby for the melody and Luke Dick for the funk, Ashton tells Taste of Country. The hook was inspired by her father's habit of rubbing his fingers by his ears while saying he's playing the world's smallest violin as young Kassi cried or complained.

"Or he would say the wah-mbulance is gonna come and play for you while you cry," she adds, laughing during a phone call from her home on a rainy Nashville afternoon.

Ashton gets to play the role of wah-mbulance driver in the new music video. While she'll credit director Kristen Barlow for literally bringing her vision to life, the singer deserves credit for the vision. All of the female outfits were hand-designed and stitched by Ashton. She went as far as building what she had in mind on Photoshop for Barlow to create.

"I'm a very, very visual person. I explain things in images. I see things in images. I used to even study for tests by remembering images," Ashton says. You'll struggle to find another musician that values the visual as much as the music.

Frankly, you'll struggle to find another musician like Ashton. The "Taxidermy" singer has been slow-rolling new music to fans one song at a time for about 18 months, and there's no plans to drop anything longform soon. That suits her fine, as long as she stays busy and keeps moving forward.

“I don't wanna blow up overnight. I wanna feel like every tiny inch that I worked for I deserved," she insists.

Her passion for embracing art's sharp edges make her unique in the current country music culture, which can be fairly resistant to change. A lot of artists chase that overpopulated middle ground, and some find hits.

"I just try to be as myself as I can, but I also don't like to be in a gray area," she says. "I want to be black or white. The gray area is filled with enough stuff that's sort of blasé — I'd rather do something that provokes something in someone, good or bad you know?"

And now you know how she came up with the treatment for "Violins," a music video that relies on a marching band unlike anything you remember from high school.

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