Ashtin Larold tends to be known for his bouncy trap songs and his melodic emo anthems. “Motions” is a refreshing departure from that standard. Though the lyrics still tell a melancholy story of pain and loss, they’re accompanied by bright pop melodies and packaged in vibrant colors, with sunflowers being a running motif for the song’s rollout. Ashtin puts it like this: “I’ve never been great at writing happy lyrics, so instead we made a song that sounds upbeat and happy, even if the lyrics aren’t”. And it seems like that rings true. Motions is a bright, catchy pop song that you want to listen to on a sunny day, just as long as you don’t pay too much attention to what he’s actually singing about. It’s a bittersweet combination that stands out as a real hit in Ashtin’s catalog.  “Motions” feels like the culmination of 5 years of work and growth as a musician. Five years ago me and my engineer Bobby worked together for the first time on the first song I ever released on major streaming platforms. We’ve worked together on pretty much everything I’ve made since then, and I feel like all of the growth and experience finally paid off with this song. It has a lot of parallels to that first song we made. Both were experiments in new sounds, and they both differ a lot in tone from the other music I released around the same time. There was this moment during the making of both of them where we looked at each other and just kinda went “this is the one”. That first song, “GHOSTS” was my first song to hit a million streams, and me and him both kind of had a feeling it would be. I feel the same way about “Motions”. It’s a step in a new direction for me and I can honestly say it’s the best song I’ve ever made, at least so far. “ – Ashtin Larold.