Ash Erickson

Ashlee Morrigan "Ash" Erickson (born June 2, 1992) is an American musician who handles lead vocals for Triple Seven, and has written the band's lyrics since The Innocent Demons Dance. Derrick Halsey asked her to join the quintet after their previous frontman, Brendon Porkart, was fired. She had a side project, Morrigan's Moor, in which Micah Trevant and former rhythm guitarist Lou Killings were involved.
==Background==
*Birth name: Ashlee Morrigan Erickson
*Born: June 2, 1992 (age 32) -- Canton, Ohio, United States
*Genres: Extreme metal, alternative metal, avant-garde metal, pop punk
*Occupation(s): Vocalist, musician, songwriter
*Instruments: Vocals, acoustic guitar, vocoder, synthesizer
* Years active: 2009-present
*Labels: Scornful VII, Relapse, Equal Vision, Stillborn
==Artistry==
;Vocals
She's a soprano with a VERY versatile range. While she favors "pants-shittingly high" screams she's also been able to cover "feathery" cleans, inhales, yells, snarls, gurgles, crooning, spoken word, pig squeals, and scat. Sometimes she'll use a vocoder, allowing for more distorted, "mechanical-sounding" vocals; Devirgination features a few instances of this, as did past songs Souls Before Bodies and Beneath the Death Cafe. 
;Influences
She's cited artists like Mr. Bungle, Erasure, Pyogenesis, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Cocteau Twins, Maximum the Hormone, Type O Negative, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Anal Cunt, Infected Mushroom, Deftones, and DIR EN GREY among favorites -- the latter holds the biggest sentimental value for her. Fellow female singers she's praised 'til blue in the face include Diamanda Galás, KatieJane Garside, Elizabeth Fraser, Ringo Shiina, Björk, Candice Clot, Jun Togawa, AnnLouice Lögdlund, Lene Nystrøm, and Dolores O'Riordan. 
;Development
A self-taught vocalist Erickson takes what she's called a "perfectly imperfect" approach to performance. Her distinct, yet recognizable phrasing is mostly rooted in the Japanese music scene. Aside from the aforementioned Jun Togawa and Ringo Shiina she's credited Yamataka Eye, Hiroshi "Kyo" Isono, Mikio Sakai, Megumi Hayashibara, and Mariko Gotō as inspirational to her singing. Over the course of Triple Seven's career Erickson's vocals undergo changes, of which are extensively detailed below: 
*A Prayer for the Damned: Her arsenal at the time was made up of low gutturals and hardcore-friendly shouts, contrasting with Porkart's shriller performance on the band's first EP. She brought singing into the picture here in a more reduced capacity than on future releases; Your Head Is the Only One That Works, I've Fallen on Bleeding Ears, and Roy's Our Boy! Roy's Our Boy! were the only songs on the album to have cleans. 
*Ghost Romance: She (mostly) ditched the lows and introduced her signature (in)famous exhales, while her clean singing was a lot higher, more frequent, and "prouder" than ever before. 
*Lilith's Epiphany: While recording for this album Erickson came down with a sudden head cold, and wasn't allowed to do any retakes. Her cleans wound up sounding more nasal whereas the shrieks were replaced by "one-note" death growls.
*The Innocent Demons Dance: Her singing here was a twitch deeper and less thin than on the previous album; she began adding vibrato to the mix at this point. Screaming returned, though the technique was handled in a "controlled" fashion. Erickson's vocoder usage made its debut, which would be later exaggerated on Devirgination.
*Finding Enjoyment in Chaos: She gained a fuller range of harsh vocal techniques, largely sticking with fry screams and lows. Her cleans pretty much took a backseat, but when she DID utilize them, they were high again and even bordered on theatrical. 
*Devirgination:
== Personal life==
In a 2023 interview Erickson revealed that she lived with her Irish-born grandmother, Saoirse Teresa Erickson (1947-2022), from age 6 until she ran off to Sandusky at 13. She described her grandma as a "two-faced dumbfuck" and someone who "physically and emotionally harmed [her] to the point where [she] wanted to blow her brains out". This same person died to esophageal cancer. Her biological parents were both musicians -- the father a Japanese enka performer, and the mother an American turntablist/producer. It was also during this interview where Erickson said she was diagnosed with autism. She has two brothers: Neil Gerard Erickson (born April 21, 1992) and Myron Emmanuel Erickson (born November 3, 1993). Neil plays lead guitar for space rock ensemble Seismic Devil, while Myron is a -- to quote Ash -- "retired pornstar-turned-legit dog walker".
Erickson is bisexual and an agnostic. 
;Interests
She's made no bones about her enthusiastic love of anime. Titles like Little Witch Academia, Jigoku Sensei Nūbē, Saber Marionette J, Cyborg 009: The Cyborg Soldier, Lupin III: The Mystery of Mamo, Paranoia Agent, Girls und Panzer, and YuYu Hakusho are ranked among Erickson's favorites; at one show back in 2022 she even cosplayed as Karasu! She owns two pets: Otis (a Siamese cat) and Fred (a rock lobster) -- the latter named after Fred Schneider, of whom co-wrote the The B-52s classic "Rock Lobster". 
Category:Triple Seven
Category:Active members