Singer. Songwriter. Aston River.

Life happens.
I write songs.

Love, distance, and starting over.
I’ve lived it. These are the songs I wrote along the way.

Meet Aston
Start with Still Not Me
Listen first. Read the story when you’re ready.
Made from real life.88 songs to make your own.Explore the collection

The archive · 88 songs

Find your next favorite.

Tap a cover to listen. The lyrics and story are one tap away.

Still Not Me AR / 001 Still Not Me One Honest Hour AR / 002 One Honest Hour In the Car AR / 003 In the Car You May Not Love Me Now AR / 004 You May Not Love Me Now Not the Easy Version AR / 005 Not the Easy Version Since I Was Ten AR / 006 Since I Was Ten Until You Disappear AR / 007 Until You Disappear Spirit of Elegy AR / 008 Spirit of Elegy Half a Second AR / 009 Half a Second Something Holy AR / 010 Something Holy Beside Your Tent AR / 011 Beside Your Tent Nobody’s Home AR / 012 Nobody’s Home Carousel of Depth AR / 013 Carousel of Depth OK? Not OK! AR / 014 OK? Not OK! Said It Sooner AR / 015 Said It Sooner When June Came In AR / 016 When June Came In Awakening AR / 017 Awakening Reason to Stay AR / 018 Reason to Stay The Life I Saw AR / 019 The Life I Saw Done with Almost AR / 020 Done with Almost Almost Happy AR / 021 Almost Happy My Thorn AR / 022 My Thorn Don’t Call It Hate AR / 023 Don’t Call It Hate I Hold Your Hand AR / 024 I Hold Your Hand Where We Used to Go AR / 025 Where We Used to Go Cold November AR / 026 Cold November Presay AR / 027 Presay Being Alone AR / 028 Being Alone No Trace AR / 029 No Trace Never Close AR / 030 Never Close You Never Noticed the Fire AR / 031 You Never Noticed the Fire The Ember AR / 032 The Ember God’s Well and Evil Eyes AR / 033 God’s Well and Evil Eyes Speak AR / 034 Speak Signal AR / 035 Signal The Song for a Dead Girl AR / 036 The Song for a Dead Girl Return the Wheel AR / 037 Return the Wheel Picture of You AR / 038 Picture of You Echoes of the Broken AR / 039 Echoes of the Broken Silent Wings Above AR / 040 Silent Wings Above Tears Came Rollin’ AR / 041 Tears Came Rollin’ Parasite Piano AR / 042 Parasite Piano There Was Always Only You AR / 043 There Was Always Only You So I Breathe AR / 044 So I Breathe Recurrence of Absence (Intro) AR / 045 Recurrence of Absence (Intro) The Slake Lullaby AR / 046 The Slake Lullaby U AR / 047 U Rock the Show AR / 048 Rock the Show Until a Gaze Remains AR / 049 Until a Gaze Remains Wretched One AR / 050 Wretched One Midnight AR / 051 Midnight Hold the Line AR / 052 Hold the Line Jesus My Stay AR / 053 Jesus My Stay Wake Up AR / 054 Wake Up Under Folded Waves AR / 055 Under Folded Waves Through the Hollow Sky AR / 056 Through the Hollow Sky Where You Stand Awake AR / 057 Where You Stand Awake Quiet Room AR / 058 Quiet Room Signal Within the Spiral AR / 059 Signal Within the Spiral Color and Sound AR / 060 Color and Sound Time to Time (Part 1 - Killing Myself) AR / 061 Time to Time (Part 1 - Killing Myself) Time to Time (Part 2 - Alive) AR / 062 Time to Time (Part 2 - Alive) Carry On AR / 063 Carry On Motel Neon AR / 064 Motel Neon We Gold AR / 065 We Gold Far Behind My Face AR / 066 Far Behind My Face We Chose Us AR / 067 We Chose Us Moving Too AR / 068 Moving Too Say It Again AR / 069 Say It Again Scroll, Scroll, Scroll AR / 070 Scroll, Scroll, Scroll Reason to Walk AR / 071 Reason to Walk Childhood. Where We Were Light. AR / 072 Childhood. Where We Were Light. Unsent AR / 073 Unsent Street Side Table AR / 074 Street Side Table Leaning In AR / 075 Leaning In I.F.L.Y. AR / 076 I.F.L.Y. A Place to Stop AR / 077 A Place to Stop Easy Days AR / 078 Easy Days No One Gets Me AR / 079 No One Gets Me On Purpose AR / 080 On Purpose The Stranger's Mile AR / 081 The Stranger's Mile Calm to Me AR / 082 Calm to Me I Never Agreed to This AR / 083 I Never Agreed to This Soul of Mine AR / 084 Soul of Mine West Sound AR / 085 West Sound The Red Book AR / 086 The Red Book Beside Yours AR / 087 Beside Yours JESSE AR / 088 JESSE
A preview is just the beginning. 88 songs shown

Words you might recognize

A song for that feeling.

Some things are easier to put in a song.
Here’s what I was trying to say.

The person in the songs

Yeah, that’s me.

Aston River, then and imagined.
Aston River with his younger self
A real childhood photograph. A future imagined with AI.

I am real.

That’s me at ten, from a real photograph. The grown-up is an AI version of me in the future. Between that photograph and today came love, distance, poetry and songs that stayed with me. That story became Aston River.

Read my story

Personal charts

The songs they chose.

Aston River's own ranking, with personal selections from his daughter, his best friend and the curator.

Beyond the music

Step into my world.

Take your time here.
The music can wait a moment.

From the original pages

Paper first.
Songs ever since.

I’ve kept the pages these songs began on. Some became music years later. Others are still waiting for me to finish them.

How it all began
Original handwritten lyrics and drafts by Aston River

For film, TV and artists

A song can begin a new life on screen.

Producers, directors, music supervisors and streaming teams are invited to explore the catalog for film, television, series, trailers and campaigns. Artists who want to record an Aston River song can get in touch as well. If a song fits your project, ask about licensing, recording permission, stems and availability.

About Aston River

I have been searching since I was ten.

The life, memories and unfinished work that became Aston River.

A boy at a window, looking toward an unexplained brightness in the night sky

I was ten when I woke and found myself standing at a window, looking across a valley filled with a brightness I could not explain. I still do not know how long I stood there or how I returned to bed. What stayed with me was the certainty that ordinary life was only part of what I was feeling.

Around the same time, I met the girl who would shape more of my songwriting than anyone else. We were children, yet our families and much of our town already saw us as a pair. War separated us and placed us in different countries. Contact disappeared, but the connection never did. I began turning separation, memory and everything left unsaid into poems and songs.

Years later we found each other again. We became parents to a daughter, shared a life and eventually ended our relationship while keeping the human bond between us. Love, separation and reunion did not become one chapter that simply closed. They kept changing as life changed, and they continue to run through the music.

Music came first

Long before I understood songwriting, music could reach emotions I rarely showed anywhere else. By my early teens I knew that a particular melody or performance could unlock something immediate in me. It gave me a direct way into feelings that conversation could not always reach.

In 1996, when boy bands were everywhere, I formed one of my own. We began with five or six members. Over the years the group became five, then four, then three, and eventually two. I wrote most of our material, and we spent years rehearsing, recording demos, visiting studios and learning how songs change once musicians, equipment and production enter the room.

The band continued until 2002. That year, Summertime reached second place on an early online chart. It was a modest result in a very different era of the internet, but it proved that a song we had made could travel beyond the people around us.

Finding the right collaborator

After the band, I kept writing and carried the strongest material with me. I met producers, watched different studio methods and kept looking for a collaborator who could understand the music as I heard it.

Around 2007 or 2008, I met producer Ralf Elas. We understood each other quickly. He could play almost every part himself, and together we returned to older songs, rebuilt arrangements and created new work. For about two years, I experienced how close a production could come to the idea in my head when the right person was in the room.

Then life changed direction. Marriage, children and family needed my full attention. Music moved away from the center for years, but the writing did not disappear. Old pages stayed with me, new ideas kept arriving, and many unfinished songs waited for a practical way forward.

The return

Music technology eventually gave me that way forward. For the first time, I could test a lyric, melody or arrangement without the cost and scheduling of a full studio session. It gave me the freedom to compare many approaches and keep working until each song carried the emotion and structure I wanted.

The work remains personal. I write the lyrics, shape the stories and decide the musical direction. Many melodies began in my earlier demos; others arrived during the new process. I revise lines, rebuild sections, compare versions and listen again until the result feels honest.

This method does not replace musicians or producers. Their ability, instinct and human experience can transform a recording. My goal is to bring the strongest Aston River songs back into a studio with people such as Ralf and develop them further together.

Aston River now

Nearly a hundred songs are complete, with several hundred more ideas, drafts and early versions still waiting. Some come directly from my own life. Some began with people close to me. Others grew from real situations that stayed with me long enough to become a song.

The styles can change, but the purpose stays consistent. I want each song to meet someone at the right moment: during love, separation, grief, hope or a decision they have been avoiding. If one person stops, listens and sees part of their own life differently, the song has already done meaningful work.

Aston River brings together the child at the window, the young songwriter learning in a band, the years devoted to family and the person returning with more life to write from. I am still searching. Now the search has a home in the songs.

The original pages

Aston River lyric sheets, handwritten drafts, notebooks and printed songs spread across a wooden table.

For film, TV and artists

A song can begin a new life on screen.

Producers, directors, music supervisors and streaming teams are invited to explore the catalog for film, television, series, trailers and campaigns. Artists who want to record an Aston River song can get in touch as well. If a song fits your project, ask about licensing, recording permission, stems and availability.