Please tell me and our readers: Who is Asrai and where do you come frome? The three ladies of the band are living in Schiedam, our guitarist Rik comes from Den Haag, and the bassplayer is lives in Rotterdam. Margriet Vocals and her twinsister Karin Drums started the band. At the same time Martin our current bassplayer was making music with our first male guitarist Bert and later with our brother Henk We met Rik through Jos ( Grendel) who played guitar for a while for Asrai. Of course you met al lot of musicians through the years, and through Patrick (Malochia, Contrast who temporarily replaced our guitarist and did two gigs with us'), we met Manon.. - Keyboard (small world after all). When did you start with Asrai and with which intention did you do in the past? In June 1985 we started Twins No Twins. The music-scene back then was very male-dominated (and still is) so it was time for some female input. Not in the least bothered by the lack of any musical experience we took up the initiative to start up an all girl-band, and thanks to the punk-spirit we could. The music we made was sober but very intense, and because of our sober and gloomy sound we actually stood out in between all the punk, hardcore and heavy-metal bands. We got fed up with the patronizing behavior of the scene and chose our own way of dressing and making music. After three years, and various band members, we changed our band-name into Asrai. Making music became such an important part of our lives that being an all girl band wasn't that important anymore. More the fact of being a musician. So our first male guitarist stepped in to our world. And in that line-up we've played for eight years What does the word/name Asrai mean and why did you choose this for your band name? The Asrai are small, fragile, female beings who turn to a puddle of water when they are captured or exposed to sunlight. It gives them somthing unreachable....in a way we're experience our music like that. Your music is - in my opinion - a mixture between Gothic, Gothic-Rock and also Goth-Metal moments and can sometimes be compared with other bands from the Netherlands, for example The Dreamside or The Gathering: Where do this similarity come from - is it just because of the same country or something else - what duo you think? It isn't strange recognising the Dreamside in our music, it was produced by Roman Schoensee. So it's only logical that you might hear his musical input in the production. But I have to agree that every band from a particular country seems to have his own sound. You will always recognize a German band or a Scandinavian band for example, but I can't explain why You´ve released another album some years ago on german label Poison Ivy. But your Debut didn´t get very much attention here, so for a lot of people Asrai seems to be totally new. What do you think: Why doesn´t "As Voices Speak" did get more attention and of course I´m wondering, why you haven´t released more works during the long time, Asrai exists now? Shortly after we released our first album it was noticed by Poison Ivy records. By signing a contract we were not able to promote our Dutch release, and shortly after the release of the German issue Poison Ivy went bankrupt.... Bad luck I guess. To us it didn't feel usefull to promote the new album wich was already more than a year old. So we wanted to record a new album, but due to certain bandchanges it took quite some time to record a new album, long after we decided to do so. At first we recorded a demo-cd and sent it to several record companys. After Transmission Records singed us we had the possibility to record the album with a larger budget. Due to a fire at our recordcompany, the realease-date of the album was later than intended. Which bands have influenced you and your sound in the past and present? Difficult, I think that everybody gets his influences by the people he/she meets and the music that you listen to. What we liked about the punk scene was the unpolished energy and anger, and with the wave/gothic bands it was the doomy gloomy emotional sound. Can you tell me a little bit more about the Gothic-Scene in in Netherlands? The Dutch gothic scene is very industrial orientated. There a loads of dance parties and sometimes festivals with bands. Terra Gotha festival in Vlissingen is a very nice, and good organised party by Wim de Nooyer. At the moment some guys from Rotterdam are trying to organise more batcaverock nights. A good alternative for the people who aren't into industrial that much . How well known are you in the Netherlands? After the release of our single Pale light we where regularly seen on the music chanel The Box with our videoclip. This is a good way for people to get to know you. And the die hards know us from the years before. It's strange to think about how well known you are...and we never really realized this, because to us personally it's not that important.... Making music and live our life in the way we believe is more important., but it's nice when people are touched by our music, it's a great compliment and stimunlance. Have you ever been in Germany, do you know the Goth-Scene here? Which differences are there, worth to mention? Yes, we've been to Germany, We also went to the WTG Leipzig festival this year. The big diffrence between the Goth scene of Germany and Holland is the audience. I've go the feeling that people from Holland are more critical. The Goth scene in Germany is much bigger ...as is the country compared to Holland. In Germany there's a bigger scene hwo's more Gothic Rock oriantated then in Holland. For example the magazines...there are no big Gothic magazines in Holland. And most of the mags are more hardrock/metal orientated. So it's difficult to get the right attention from the Dutch media.... Why did you choose the track "Pale Light" as single? I think there are some other very nice track on the album, which could have become a single-release! Thanks!... Transmission records came up with the idea for the track Pale light because of its catchy sound. What plans do you have for the future and what do you exspect from your new album? Keep making music of course...also playing live. The album will be released in 36 countries, and to be honest...We don't know what to expect...it's also the first time for us to be singed by a recordcompany that believes that much in our music and gives us the upporunaty to devolp to a higher level. Will there be live-shows from Asrai this year, may be also in Germany? Making plans for playing live again, We hope that the dates will be announced soon Is there something special to mention concerning your live-gigs/shows: May be you work with special effects or...? We're not planning to much on showelements in our gig because ...Asrai is basic orientated; What you see is what you get. Our music speaks for itself. Our emotions are weaved throughout our music, and this you can see in all our band members when playing live. By adding too much show-elements it will distract the attention of the bandmembers and their sincerity in playing our music. Of ourse a good light-show is a wonderfull and sferical support to the show, and maybe we will experiment more with this. W e have got some ideas about this, but it should add to the show, and not overrule the band. Do you like to say something else? At this moment a lot of gothic-bands are in the spotlights, and we have a lot of interest in these developments. A bigger audience is getting ihnterested, wich puts a lot of bands under the attention they deserve. In the last editions of Orkus and Zilo a lot of attntion has been given to women in music, and I've got the feeling that their musical input has become more important than our looks. We really hope that the magical and dark side of Gothic will not get lost, because of the commerce getting involved, and changing eveything that makes gothic unique to a commrercial cliché.From different revieuws we've learnt that people are allready getting tired from the same "old concept" and completely miss the concept of this type of music. We are for real; love us or leave us 20.06.2004 Marco Schwiers |
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