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Everything you need to know about Ashton Irwin’s Skinny Skinny

Here are some of our theories and what we noticed in this incredible video.

By Nuha
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TRIGGER WARNING: This article will cover heavy topics such as depression, eating disorders, body image, and more.

Ashton Irwin just recently announced his first-ever solo project, and we couldn’t be more excited. The extremely talented singer, songwriter, drummer, director, dancer, producer, artist (and more!) is releasing his debut album ‘Superbloom’ on October 23rd, coincidentally the anniversary of 5SOS’s second album, ‘Sounds Good Feels Good’. According to Ashton, the songs on this record will be the most personal tracks he’s ever written and will cover important subjects such as depression, body image, and eating disorders as well as finding the light and positivity through them.

The video begins with Ashton slowly approaching the middle of the room doing some stretches–proceeding to take his shirt off, revealing little doodles and drawings to take form around him including a little spine and a wrecking ball chained to his ankle, holding him down. Four mirrors stand in the middle of the room where Ashton begins circling around the area as more doodles appear all over. As the first verse begins, Ashton starts the beautiful contemporary dance choreographed for the video (which he actually learned in quarantine–what can’t this man do?!), showing him being held back by his own mind and body as the negative thoughts begin controlling his actions. As the chorus begins once again, you can see him walking across a painted line. But what’s interesting is that you can see him walking across the line uneasy, not being able to walk directly in a straight line. We think the line could possibly represent everyone’s expectations for the ‘perfect body’ and while he’s trying to fit the expectations by being straight down the middle, he continues to drift from side to side. He then grabs an acoustic guitar, completely shifting off the expectation track to break free for a split second singing the bolder cries of help in the lines ‘I want to eat, I want to stay thin, I wanna dance but–I gotta stay in’ before returning back to the line once again. Reaching the second verse–he starts looking at himself in the mirror, describing how weak he’s become. Soon after–you can hear the background vocals, AKA the intrusive thoughts, get louder and louder as morphed versions of Ashton’s face pop up in the mirrors and around the screen. There’s a beautiful shot where Ashton can be seen overwhelmed as negativity floods the screen with little doodles, capturing the immense pain he has gone through. As the tone slows down a bit, Ashton walks over towards a mirror laying on the floor and lays down as a sketched version (of perhaps his inner demon) sits on top of him strumming the same acoustic guitar. At last, Ashton gets up reinvigorated and runs towards a sledgehammer laying in the middle of the room. The sledgehammer could also represent a load of his thoughts and how difficult it was for him to carry them as he has trouble dragging it towards the mirrors–where he finally smashes the mirrors. As he breaks through the mirrors–he breaks through all the negative thoughts, all judgment, all the fear–as he’s finally won the battle. And what a powerful victory that was.

This is for sure an extremely important song for not only Ashton’s career–but for fans all over the world. The topics this song and the rest of the album cover are so incredibly important to share and we could not be more proud of Ashton for his strength and brilliance. Thank you, Ashton. We are so grateful for all you do.

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