Asrai has been on the scene for a good time now, being formed in 1988. Tell us a little about your way through the years till this point. We (Karin and Margriet) started an all over girl band in 1985. With so many friends playing in a band you can't resist the call of making music. And because there where almost no woman playing in the scene where we hanging around that we decided to change that. We started without any experience playing an instrument we created our music with a " fresh" point of view. And after five weeks we had our first gig and that tasted for more. In 1988 we had a change of line-up and the music was getting more serious, so we decided to change the name into Asrai. Soon after that our first male guitarist entered our band. So the line-up became: Margriet Vocals, Bert-Guitar, Elfriede Bass and Karin Drums. We stayed together for eight years and recorded several tapes: The Blue tape, So clear that you couldn't tell., Love is a Lie, Live in a Package and Asrai. In that time we wanted to record an cd but Bert and Elfriede decided to leave. In short of time we found new members in Serge guitar and Leah Bass. And recorded our first album As voices Speak. We've send our cd to several record companies and the label Poison Ivy was interested, so a German release was issued. But bad luck this time, Poison Ivy went bankrupt, and for so far our German adventure. We thought it was to late to promote the Dutch version and started to write new songs for our next album. It was a crazy time, and very busy with gigs, tricks (form a record company who double-crossed us and a lot of other bands for a compilation album), work and family matters. In the meantime Serge decided to left band after four years and this time it was difficult to find a good replacement. After more than a year, trying with several other guitarists we found Rik. Now we started seriously working for our next album and met Roman (our producer for Touch in the Dark). In his studio we would record our demo (Touch in the Dark). But a month before recording, and a week before a gig, Leah our bass-player wasn't able to play the bass anymore because of an injury. We asked Martin for replacement, he is a very good bass-player and a friend for years. And in a week notice he learned all our numbers and was playing with us on stage. And in the studio. We tried to deepen our music with some keyboard, tried that in the studio and that work very well with our music. And a lot of things happened we send our demo to Transmission Records and they signed us. Leah decided to leave the band, because she couldn't play the bass anymore and keyboard. In the same time a friend of us Manon, she heard our demo and before we all knew it was the five of us on stage. All the years of believing , crossing our fingers, hard work and the love of music pays off. Now with a contract (Transmission records) we recorded "Touch in the Dark" at the Beautiful lake studio and Excess studio. It was mixed by one of the greatest mixers of this time: Sasha Paeth Just released our first single " Pale Light" and in September our second single " In front of me" will be released. Both videos where made by Marcel de Jong (We really admire his work and are very happy to work with him) and Jelle Swetter. And we hope that we will play for many years in this line-up: Margriet-Vocals, Rik Guitar, Manon Keyboard, Martin Bass and Karin Drums. Still talking about the past, some of the band's members used to play with punk and new wave groups. Have this experiences somehow influenced in your current sound? Of course, it's our roots.. You can never denied that kind of things Between 1988 and 1994 Asrai had released demos, how was that struggle through the years to find a record label? In that time was the music that we played was not as popular as nowadays. So that makes it difficult to find a record company who want to invest in our music. You really need your contacts and sometimes you have to make to much concessions. And to be honest that's , and specially in those days that was difficult for us. We wanted it to do it our own way, sometimes it's the hard waybut we've learned a lot of it. A curiosity, the band has a demo called "[i]So clear that you couldn't tell where the water ended and the air began[/i]". Isn't it tôo big of a name? I'm guessing some newcomer reading that name, and right after he can't remember the band's name. Hahaha , Yes, you're right! We (Karin & Margriet) tough it was also a bit long, it's even for us difficult to remember. But our former guitarist wanted to give the demo that name,( And he also had something to say about it) but even that the demo has a enormous title it's also a begin of a story. A nice way to start to tell the stories of the numbers on that demo Let's go to the new album. How would you describe Touch in the Dark? Touch in the dark is a passionate album full of emotions. The more heavy guitars and strong basis of drums and bass filled with surprisingly sounds and warm synth added with Margriet's incredible voice the songs will go straight to your heart. Although the modes of gothic metal are predominant throughout the album, we don't find choirs or male voices. Is this more of a straight and direct approach on purpose? The straight and direct approach in just our way of making music, maybe because of the punk and new wave influences. For example, that's why we don't have any solo's . How does the composition process work inside this band? Most of the time a song grows out of jamming. Or some of us come up with an idea. But we all have our part of composing the songs. Pale Light is one of the album's best tracks, and showcases every element of Asrai's music. Is this the only reason it became the single and a music video? I guess so, finally the Record company made that decision. Because for us it was hard to choose because there're more very nice songs on it (Restless Shadows etc). Another defining track is In Front of Me, tell us more about that song In front of me is a catchy and strong number with a hot blooded rhythm and with blood running vocals, The chorus has a wicked influence on the listeners. The video clip was made by Marcel the Jong based on a drawing of Maud Mulder what was used for our merchandise, and is totally different what people will expect. It's a cartoon with the special created Asrai-mobile. What's more to explain, it's something what you really have hear and see. And that possible because the video clip will also be on our next single. Who will be released in September. How has the audience reacted to the album till now? From our audience we get very good and heart warming reactions, but some of our older fans sometimes misses the raw parts of our first cd. You have some scheduled dates in Holland, Belgium and England still this year. What do you expect from these gigs? Hope we will have a lot of fun, and meets some interesting people. The graphic art in Touch in the Dark brigs a lot of statues representing angels. Any special meaning behind these images? In our former artwork (demo's and As voices Speak) you could always found a touch with nature. That was what we also wanted in the artwork for Touch in the dark. We wanted something dark and with a eerie and pagan touch. starting with a ring of roses as a passageway to another world. Our recordcompany work always with Carsten Dresher so he did the artwork for our cd. After various concepts we agreed to the final lay-out. Carsten came up with the Angel (For us personaly the angel doesn't mean that much, but it has a certain serenity) the rest of the artwork contains many personal details.The roses we wanted from the beginning, the same goes for the puple base-colour. Many of the statue-photos inside the booklet were made by Manon. We've all individually chosen parts of our lyrics to accompany our photo's. And the animals all have their 'pagan' meaning, like the owl representing inner wisdom, the bat representing demons and spirits in medieval Europe. Ravens represent magic, mystery, and sacred law as well as battle, guardians through the cyclus of death and rebirth. In the end became the artwork representative for our kind of music, so it's very recognizable to people who have never heard about us. You're from Holland, same country as After Forever and Within Temptation. Do you feel you're band is compared to those? Does this bother you? Everyone tries to compare you with an another band they know at that moment. Sometimes that's a nasty habit. So it seems that you don't get the chance for your own (musically ) identity. I've read some internet reviews, and some of them compare your band to Lacuna Coil. I totally disagree, since I see clearly distinct influences over each band. What do you think about that? I agree with you, We like Lacuna Coil but we're not influenced directly by them. And I think that people needs to compare you with another band so they can put you in a for them recognizable direction. Our roots are another scene and that's a different way to approach a way of making music and I think that's what you can hear in our songs. Since we're talking influences, what bands would you cite as a source of inspiration? There's no special band that has influenced us a lot. But of course you get influenced by the music that we like. And every band member has his own musical background. That all together you get the music that we are playing. How's the metal scene in Holland like today? Holland had always a very solid metal scenewe think that's something that will never change. Leave a message for your Brazilian fans We hope that we can touch the hearts of our fans with our musicand there will be a chance to play in Brazil. By Luiz Mendes www.paradisemetal.com.br |
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