ASRAI 1.) Two albums in sixteen years of existence isn't a large number, so where do you see the main reasons that it not just took nine years before your debut was released with "As Voices Speak", but also seven years more before "Touch In The Dark" will finally see it's light of day? We must admit that the release of 2 CDs in sixteen years isn't an impressive amount, and to us it doesn't feel like 16 years......But these are not the only recordings of Asrai in existence. Before recording "As voices speak" a number of Demo-tapes were recorded and released. The recording of "As voices speak" got delayed due to the decision of both guitarist Bert and Bass player Elfriede to leave the band weeks before the studio was planned. Luckily we soon found Serge to be our new guitarist, and he also provided us with Leah to play the bass. With this line-up we finally recorded our first CD. We released the CD ourselves, mainly from a DIY-mentality which was typical of the scene at that time. Although we supported this concept we also found that it restricted our possibilities and decided to send out promos in search of a label. Michael Zöllers of the German Poison Ivy label soon responded, and the CD got remastered on its release in Germany. After this there was a long period in which we did a lot of gigging and spent a lot of time on writing new material. Besides the band we all have 'regular' jobs, which take up a lot of time not spent on the band..... On top of this Serge got a career-opportunity he decided to take and left the band after playing with us for 4 years. Replacing him proved more difficult, because we wanted to experiment more, planning on a second guitarist and adding keyboards. Eventually Jos (from GRENDEL) joined the band as the new guitarist and brought with him Rik, who now is our steady guitarist. So it was very important to us to form a steady line-up before recording a second album, but as Grendel got increasingly more successful, Jos ended up leaving the band to focus his energy on this. When we finally were ready to record our second CD, Leah, our bass player got some unfortunate health-issues, and so we decided at the last minute to take Martin, a good friend and brilliant bass player, with us, to play the bass on these recordings. And thus we recorded the Demo-CD in Aichtal. After sending off the demo it became apparent that Leah wouldn't be able to play the bass for a long time, and also switching to keyboards didn't work out. So Leah left and Martin stayed. We played the demo to our friend Manon and before we realized there were 5 of us rocking the stage! Margriet's boyfriend Beer was recording with his own band at the Excess studios in Rotterdam at the time and Hans Pieters (from Excess) came up with the tip to send the demo off to Hans van Vuuren from Transmission Records. He offered us the opportunity to re-record the CD with a producer and lots more studio-time than we'd originally had. So it's been a rough ride of ups and downs, and to top it all off a fire at Transmission records delayed the release as well. 2.) During all this difficult period of line up changes and the bankrupt of Poison Ivy, were you ever close to giving in and lay Asrai to rest? No, Margriet and Karin have always been very dedicated to keeping the band going, even though it hasn't always been easy. Especially Bert and Elfriede leaving the band at the same time.... But this also made us realize how important Asrai is to us. 3.) "As Voices Speak" was licensed here in Germany by Michael Zöllers label Poison Ivy. Where you satisfied with his label-work and the support he gave Asrai here in Germany? Michael Zöller was very enthusiastic and we believe that if he had had more resources at the time it wouldn't have ended the way it did. We did expect more out of this deal, but circumstances didn't allow it. "As voices speak" was originally released in our own care. Later Michael wanted to do a German release, so the CD got re-mastered and the artwork restyled, and "As Voices Speak" was ready for the German Market. But shortly after we signed, the label went bankrupt. It was a pity that there wasn't more time for promotional work for the bands he had on his label, which he intended to do. And of course we regret how things went in the end. Also for Michael. 4.) Also being on a German label back then I can't remember Asrai playing shows here in Germany. Am I right? Do you now hope for concerts or festival shows here in Germany? Well, we did play in Germany before. We also would have played at the Wave Gothic Treffen Leipzig 2000. and we all know how that ended. But of course we plan on playing plenty of shows in Germany. 5.) "Touch In The Dark" will now be released on Transmission Records, a label mainly known for metal and progressive acts. Do you feel comfortable being the only real Goth band on Transmission? Yes actually we do, the reason being that Hans from Transmission Records really believes in and supports the bands that he signs. He really knows what he wants and he's also very open-minded to suggestions. 6.) You recorded "Touch In The Dark" with the help of Roman Schönsee (and Kemi I guess) and Sascha Paeth, here in Germany mainly known for his cooperation with Metal acts like Rhapsody and numerous like-minded bands. Did you ever fear he might lead Asrai into a musical direction you'd not be comfortable with? Kemi didn't work on the recording. We've know Kemi for a very long time through the Dreamside, also a Goth band from Rotterdam. Since Roman joined the Dreamside they grew a lot, with the input of his musical point of view. I ran into her around the time we were planning on recording a new demo/CD, and she introduced us to Roman. We recorded the demo-CD in his studio. And that went well...so when Transmission Records wanted to sign us and gave us the change to record the CD with a larger budget, we suggested Roman as a producer. To keep within our budget we decided to record the keyboard and bass at the Beautiful lake studio in Aichtal and the rest of the recordings were done at the Excess Studio in Rotterdam, with Hans Pieters and Dennis Leijdelmeijer. When Margriet visited the studio, Sascha was working on the metal-opera Aina, and she was very impressed with his way of composing. So we had high expectations of what he could do with the songs we recorded. And we're not disappointed at all!!!!! Sascha has a very broad interest in various styles of music, apart from Metal. So he very much enjoyed the challenge of producing and mixing our music. He has a talent for capturing the intention of our music and the meaning of every individual song. He's a person with a lot of integrity and respect. Working with Sascha was very pleasant and really the finishing touch to our album. We're looking forward to working with him again in the future. 7.) As already mentioned it took seven years to have "Touch In The Dark" finally finished and released, so I wonder how old are the songs that made it on the album? What did you do all the time in between the release of both the albums? We were looking for the right band members, experimenting with our music being on stage a lot. "Touch in the Dark" contains songs that we wrote over the past years. The songs grew stronger and gained a deeper level when our band became closer in the current line-up. 8.) I guess due to the long period without any release you also have a lot of unreleased songs lying around. Do you have plans to have them released one day? No, it's more interesting to invest in new songs with our current line-up. 9.) Do you also have plans to re-release your demos one day? No plans for that, we like our demo's a lot. Keeping them on tape has its charms, reminding us of the good old underground days. 10.) Where do you see the main musical differences to "As Voices Speak" and "Touch In The Dark"? To me it seems as if "Touch In The Dark" isn't as raw as "As Voices Speak" with the integration of more electronic elements. Yes, you're right, the changing of band members, working with a producer and being able to spend more time on the recordings are a few reasons for the musical differences of the two albums. Getting older and maturing in our musical views is another. Our first album we recorded within three days, and in that short time we didn't have the chance to experiment with the music. But still it's a very intense album, that expresses the times and emotions of that period. For recording Touch In The Dark we've had 4 weeks of recording time, the musical opinion of Asrai, our producer Roman, our technical engineers Hans Pieters and Dennis, the opinions of Hans van Vuuren from Transmission, and of course Sascha. Through all these different point of views and input we had the chance to deepen our music and get everything out of our potential. 11.) What was the initial idea to call the album "Touch In The Dark"? The name has something underneath it, it gives the feeling of an eerie experience. 12.) Where do you draw your lyrical inspiration from? We live our lives with all the passion and intensity we can get. The emotions that one experiences are an inspiration for musical expression and lyrics. Everybody does that in his own way. 13.) You recorded a video-clip for "Pale Light". Can you tell me a little bit about the setting and the recording. Do you have shows in Holland that will show such videos? We just finished the video-clip and it was made by Marcel de Jong and Jelle Swetter. From the first moment we saw Marcel's work we were very keen on working with him. This resulted in Marcel designing a Band-poster for us. During the negotiations with Transmission records we introduced Marcel, which resulted in him doing the video for 'The Beast Within' from the album AINA. Marcel had a brilliant idea for the clip on our single 'Pale Light', very dark, very cool (the idea can be seen as a screensaver on www.marceldejong.com ). Unfortunately this clip would go over the budget. Thankfully Marcel is packed with very good and creative ideas and he came up with a different, but very surprising clip. We expect the clip to be shown on THE BOX on Wednesday evenings (alternative night) and on MTV. 14.) With musical roots deep in the 80s, I wonder what your original musical influences have been? Did these influences change over the years? Therefore also being older than most of the bands I wonder what do you think of today's Goth scene? The big advantage of the 80's was the possibility of anyone simply starting a band. The punk-mentality in which anything was possible, that was alive in those days, meant that bands that had been going for 5 weeks, and that means five weeks of playing an instrument for the first time in your life, were able to do live-gigs. The expectations and ideas were a lot different then than today. Age does play an important role in that. Margriet and Karin had been playing together for years, and Martin and Rik have both got lots of experience playing in punk rock, hardcore and wave bands. It's a big plus that we all originate from the same roots, but still have different points of view about it. Most of us started to listen to punk and news wave bands, like Dead Kennedy's, Joy Division, The Cure, Stranglers. Birthday Party, the Ramones and loads more The Dutch gothic scene is very industrial orientated at the moment. Musically not a very suitable place for Asrai. But everybody is entitled to their pleasures. 15.) What is your current status in the Netherlands? Me living close to Holland and being there every 4 weeks getting the impression that brutal metal bands, Goth metal bands like After Forever, The Gathering or Epica and German electro-acts are very popular, in contrast to typical Goth bands like Clan of Xymox, Götterdämmerung or Asrai. Would you agree? Yes, we agree. In Holland there is a very strong metal scene, a lot of Dutch Goths are industrial orientated. But we have the impression that there is a new interest in an 80's wave revival. 16.) What else can we expect from Asrai in the upcoming weeks except the release of "Touch In The Dark"? The season of gigging is sort of closing right now; the time for the big festivals has begun. To play the bigger festivals requires early booking. Because of the CD being released at this time, we will concentrate on the next season. We are also currently working on the second video-clip to 'In Front Of Me', again with Marcel and Jelle, with the cooperation of Maud Mulder, who designed the artwork for some of our band-merchandise. www.obliveon.de Michael Kuhlen |
