Roadie Crew: You started the band as Twins No Twins, in 1985, almost 20 years ago. How did it evolve into Asrai? Please tell us the story! The story starts before we even start playing music. Henk, our brother was a roadie of a hard rock band ... so that was our first contact with the statue Music. We enjoy watching them play and when Henk started his first (punk)band we where very enthusiastic. Almost all our (male)friends were playing in a band... and we had enough of all the stories and being only audience. We wanted to get on stage as well and taste some of the magic of being live on stage. There were more than enough male musician, and we hardly didn't know any female musicians...so we decided to change that and in June 1985 we started an all over girl band: Twins No Twins. We could rehearsal with equipment from friends. Because we had no musical experiences at all so it became a very somber and pure sound. Margriet decided to sing and Karin to play guitar. The other members picked up the bass guitar and drums. After five weeks we had five numbers and our first gig! And it tasted like more...we would never be the same anymore. We had several gigs and the most craziest things happen. For example...once the drummer girl didn't show op on a gig because a boyfriend became jealous...pfff. Gladly a friend of us knew the songs so well that he played the drum parts to help us out. It was very often that people didn't know how to react on an all over girl band.... very typical. In the three years of playing in Twins No Twins we had three drummers and two bassplayers. With the last line-up change we wanted to have a name what was more like us... getting more seriously with our music, playing a style people had to learn to listen to it... And we became Asrai. Shortly after that the drummer decided to quit and drums sounded very appealing to Karin, in every spare time she was already playing the drums. So we decided to look for another guitarist instead of another drummer. That became Bert (yes, a male guitarist). Being a musician had became more important than being a female band. For eight years we had the line-up Margriet - Vocals, Bert - Guitar, Elfriede - Bass and Karin - Drums. In that time we recorded several demo tapes. Roadie Crew: What does Asrai mean? The Asrai are small, fragile, female beings who turn to a puddle of water when they are captured or exposed to sunlight. Roadie Crew: Lots of bands with female singers are in the spotlight nowadays, specially because of the success of names like Evanescence and Nightwish. What do you think about it? In other music than Gothic Metal, female singers were already in the spotlight. Until a few ago fortunately Gothic Rock/Metal female singers became respected. An it sure was time for it. Roadie Crew: You come from Holland. What is the Gothic scene in your country like? Nowadays the industrial is very hot over here, so at most parties you hear that kind of music. But more and more people are starting to complain about it so maybe we soon will have parties again with mixed music. Roadie Crew: Gothic Metal nowadays is a genre with lots of bands playing different kind of music inside the style, many of them using more Doom Metal elements, others using more Industrial, Electronic and even Black Metal. What do you think about it? It's a good thing that people aren't restricted to one style of music. And are possible to combine different styles of music, so sometimes you get very exiting music by that way experimenting. Years ago when our rehearsal room was at the Chillup (sadly enough it doesn't exist anymore) we could rehearsal at their stage now and than, and there were also some rap musicians and spontaneously they did a show with us. That was a lot fun. Roadie Crew: The first video of the band, in this album, is for Pale Light. I couldn't watch it, but according to the website, it seems like you used some sort of Tim Burton-like characters in a cartoon way. What can you tell us about the video? It's a pity that you hadn't got chance to watch it (yet). The first video Pale Light is a clip with a high contrast and tended to be a bit psychedelic. At first we had some ideas to make a very dark video made by one of our most favorite artist, Marcel de Jong. But for that one there wasn't enough budget. So Marcel came up with the idea for the psychedelic clip. We recorded this one in our rehearsal studio and Marcel together with Jelle Swetter gave his magical touch on it and so there was Pale Light. We already know that there will be a second single and while we were busy on our first video we were also thinking of our next clip. For our merchandise I asked Maud Mulder to make a drawing from Asrai, and she did a very good job. So when I gave Marcel and Jelle a bottle of beer (to say thanks) with a label on it which contained the drawing of Maud, an idea was born....maybe the beer did help... But I contacted Maud and she was very exited that her style would be used for our video clip. Maud and Marcel respected both work very much and I was glad that we could combine two of our most favorite artists. It became totally different than the first clip. For the clip Marcel made us Siamese twins. He also created the Asraimobile...and that one is amazing. Together with the town and the show we where in it became a very nice story.... This video clip comes on our next single who will be released in September. Roadie Crew: The new album, Touch In The Dark, shows the band doing a great Goth sound, with some electronic and Pop approach. What can you tell us about it? Working with a producer was very exiting... We had the change to deepen our music with some good ideas Roman had, and showed us a new way of making music and a professional approach Roadie Crew: Many people think Touch In The Dark is the debut album of the band, but you released As Voice Speak. That album had almost no promotion at all. What happened? To continue our story... By the time that we decided to record our first album, Bert and Elfriede left the band. Gladly enough we found two new band members Serge - Guitar and Leah - Bass, and soon after that we recorded our first cd As voices Speak. At the Studio Het Pand. We didn't had a record company and did everything by ourselves. So we didn't had a very large budget and recorded the album within three days. After our release we decided to send the cd to some recordcompanys and The German Label Poison Ivy Records was interested to do an German release. The cd was mastered again and with another artwork the German released was issued. But this record company didn't do very much on promotion, that was a pity because it looked very promising. After the record company went bankrupt we decided not to promote the album by ourselves but to start writing new songs. Roadie Crew: There was a seven year break between these two albums. What happened? Seven years seems a very long time, but time flies. When Serge left the band it was difficult to find a good replacement. In the same time a lot of things happens in our personal lives. When Rik came to play in Asrai as a new guitarist it was the right choice. And we started more serious with our plans for recording our second album. We met Roman and we recorded our demo cd in his Studio. Short time before we got to the studio Leah, our bass player became ill. And we asked Martin, a brilliant bass player and a friend of us, to record our demo and do an upcoming gigs. So within two weeks we where together on stage. And then hell broke loose, we send our demo to Transmission Records and they wanted to sign us. We had the chance to record the album with a larger budget and with a good team where they always work with. But it became clear that Leah wasn't able to play, not on bass part or keyboards part so after more then six years she left. In the same time a friend of us (Manon) heard the demo. And before we all knew it we where with the five of us, Margriet - Vocals, Rik - Guitar, Manon - Synth, Martin - Bass-guitar and Karin - Drums, with a contract. We recorded our album with Roman as our producer. Because we had to lower the cost we recorded some part at the his studio: The beautiful lake studio and the other parts at the Excess studio. It took some time to record everything. And by the time that the recordings was send to our mixer Sasha Paeth (Who did a very good job) There was a fire at the record company. So the release was delayed. So more than enough has happened before we had our release of our second album... Roadie Crew: Are there any plans of doing live performances for the promotion of Touch In The Dark? Of course we will do live performances.... Playing on stage is one of the most exiting parts of making music Roadie Crew: We have a special section in the magazine where we ask our interviewee about their top 5 favorite albums ever. Which ones are yours? Margriet - Vocals: Birthday Party: The best of the Birthday party The Cure: Faith/Pornography Soundtrack Queen of the Damned Social Distortion: White Light, White Heat, White Trash. Diamanda Gallas Rik Guitar: Wumpscut: Bunkertor 7 N.I.N.: The Downward Spiral Imminent Starvation: Inhuman Dislocation The Damned: Machine Gun Etiquette Ramones: Leave Home Manon - Synth: 1 All of Nine Inch Nails (that's already a lot more than 5) 2 Dream Disciples: Asphyxia 3 Jack off Jill: Clear Hearts Grey Flowers 4 Faith and the Muse: The Burning Season 5 Jane's Addiction: Strays Marin Bass guitar: In random order Strangles: Black and White Wumpscut: Music for a slaughtering Tribe Motorhead: Orgasmatron The Damned: Every album of them Lords of the new Church: Lords of the new Church Karin - Drums: Not fare that we had to choose but besides both albums of Asrai. The Cure: Faith/Pornography Nick Cave : The Good Son (But I like all his albums) Damned: Eternally Damned (Same story) Dreadful Shadows - Beyond the Maze (What can I sayt hey have more very good stuff) Soundtrack Queen of the Damned Thanks a lot for the interview and good luck :) |
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