A Few Questions for Ašara
(From L-R, Mike and Ieva)
A new outfit hailing from Rhode Island, Ašara, just released a new album of songs earlier this fall, called Dancing in The Doldrums (Spotify|Bandcamp|Youtube) and I got a chance to talk to them a little bit about it.
Here's the interview for your reading pleasure with Mike and Ieva! (some edits for clarity)
Good day, morning, noon, night, whatever time it is. Let's start with a hard hitting journalist question... how are you doing?
Mike (Instrumentals) - I’m a lil under the weather at the moment and about to get a COVID test, but things are swell. How’s about you Larny?
Ieva (Vocals) - Doing well, thank you for interviewing us.
How did this project come about? It’s always a curiosity to wonder how a project like this comes together... Mutual friends, classified ads, chance encounters...?
Mike - She had popped up in my suggested profiles on instagram and I had checked out her band Cruisers (it was awesome). We talked a bit about music and decided to jam once. It was fun for me (I can’t speak for Ieva, probably hated it) but there was no real direction to it. She then sent me the demos for 5 songs.
Ieva - Heyy it was fun for me too, I’m just not much of a jam sort of person typically. I think we had a direction, we wanted to make music, and the only thing I ever know how to write is droney and pretty depressing, all subjective I suppose. That’s a direction in itself, whether I like it or not.
What's the meaning of the name? I sense it's not in English so excuse my ignorance here.
Mike - It means “tear” in Lithuanian. Once I heard it, I knew it meant we had a band name. AH-SHA-RA is the pronunciation.
Ieva - I am part Lithuanian. It was my first language before I learnt English. So sometimes I tend to form sentences combining both without even realizing. I wanted a word that I could associate with pain, emotional or physical. Not to sound like an absolute cliche but my writing stems from those feelings.
Ok next question: Your musical past before this project came about, what was it like? How do your past experiences influence what you’re trying to do now?
Mike - My musical past and present is amazing. I’ve worked with so many talented folks in the genres of metal, punk, rock, and everything in between. The Ašara demos were completely bare bones so a lot of what I brought to it was rhythmic structure. The music was droning on and I wanted to move it forward and fill it in without disturbing the mood Ieva had laid out.
Ieva - I’ve been in numerous bands, signed and unsigned. I’ve toured the US and Europe. Worked with people remotely over decades really. Every project has been slightly different, from chamber-pop to darkwave. I would say that Ašara is the closest I’ve come to realizing what I hear in my head. Sometimes it’s hard to translate initial ideas into the real world. Thankful that Mike and I were able to create this together.
I got a chance to hear some of your music prior to this interview and I’m intrigued....it seems like a combination of ideas that touch upon Chelsea Wolfe meets Filter meets David Lynch...is that an accurate assessment or is there a better combination of names in your mind?
Mike - Out of those 3, I’ve only really listened to Welcome to the Fold by Filter, lol. Great song. I honestly stuck in my own head while making this. I asked Ieva what she thought it sounded like which led to me falling in love with Windhand. It’s on you to tell us who we sound like, I just wanted to mix elements of doom, stoner, and industrial metal and listen to what came of it.
Ieva - I watched Twin Peaks when I was way too young. So there are probably some elements of David Lynch’s work in my subconscious. I think he is brilliant. Julee Cruise is definitely an influence in some way as well. Elizabeth Fraser (Cocteau Twins, Massive Attack) is one of my main influences across anything I do. I’m also a fan of everything on Sargent House so thank you for the comparison.
Lay it out for me: In your first year of existence...what are your goals?**
Mike - We actually finished an album start-to-finish in 2021. I really wasn’t sure if it was going to end up unreleased or not. If by first year you mean from the release onward, we’re going to keep writing and play out in 2022 if the cards line up. We have a few live musicians we have yet to run the songs with, but we hopefully won’t keep you waiting long.
Ieva - We’re working on the next batch of songs, and will hopefully play a couple of live shows eventually.
Mike, I think you might like this one....if your band got a call from a pro wrestling organization to write or license a song to anyone, which wrestler (and this could be anyone) would you want to come out to your music?
Mike - I’d be open to commission a song to anyone, but specifically, Malakai Black in AEW. He’d look good walking down the ramp to He Could Kill.
Ieva, this’s one for you....what’s your lyrical inspiration for these songs?
Mike - Her lyrical inspiration for album #2 will be my interpretation of lyrics from album #1. She was holding the lyrics hostage from me so I had to come up with my own. It’ll be a 240 degree process; She sings the lyrics, I guess was she’s saying, she sings what I guess she’s saying, It’s going to be amazing**
Ieva - I really love Mike’s interpretation of my lyrics. Sometimes it's all about how words sound together. Whilst driving across the country from Los Angeles to Boston, I listened to a lot of Dateline. I was of course horrified by all of it, and it's typical of me, I’ve always been curious and drawn to things that are slightly morbid. I wrote a lot of these lyrics from the perspective of someone who is preying on another. “A Pact” is about a deer running from a hunter, from the perspective of the deer. “Remain” is about a killer’s confession. I could say that some of the inspiration came from personal experience intertwined with more extreme made up scenarios.
Time for a big question: How did you produce this project during the pandemic?
Mike - Musically, it was very easy but different. If you don’t know me, I’ve played bass for about 20 years and barely touched a guitar or drum set in that time. I was gifted a guitar from a friend a few years back and had enough of an idea on how to program drums to get the flow I wanted. We recorded it 95% remotely, the bridge riff to Dark Waters came from a jam in May because I couldn’t really figure out what to do with it. The technical aspect was tougher because I had to learn how to mix for this so it still does sound rough around the edges to me, but I am proud of what we accomplished.
Ieva - I had been so used to working remotely way before the pandemic, so I can say that I’m pretty comfortable with that sort of setup. We both have our own home studios so we did a lot of tracking on our own and met up to go over final edits in person.
Final one before I wrap this up: Where can people find you on social media?
Mike - asaramusic666, asara, or ašara. You can type a Caron “s” on Windows by holding Alt and typing 0154 (confirmed) or on Mac by holding down the S key and you'll be presented with three options - press 3 on your keyboard to type š (unconfirmed).
Hopefully we’ll have a website soon since I’m bad at constantly posting.
Duly noted, thanks to you both for a fantastic interview, can’t wait to see you live in 2022 (or whenever that day comes)!
