Actually I was quite surprised to hear that you are still active after all these years. Your debut was released in 1998, so this is more than six years from now. What happened after the disaster with Poison Ivy? What made you carry on? What kept us going on was the love for music, the pleasure of playing live on stage (especially the reactions from our fans ), the fun at the rehearsal studio and believing in ourselves and our music. If I am not mistaken there is someone new in your line-up? Well, actually we have three new members! Finding them was one of the main reasons of the delay from our new album. The first one to join was Rik on guitar, replacing our long-time guitarist Serge who left for a carrier change. The second one to join was Martin on Bass replacing Leah (she left through her illness and it was to much for her to keep on playing in Asrai). The last one to join us was Manon on synth shortly before the recording of our new cd, for bringing more variation and melancholy in our music. Contains "Touch in the Dark" music that was composed within these six years? Or did you write the material in the past few months? "Touch in the Dark" contains songs that we've written over the past years. The songs grow stronger and to a deeper level when our band became closer in the current line-up. You recorded the album in two different studios, why? We recorded our demo in the studio of Roman Schoensee. When we signed with Transmission records we wanted Roman as producer. At that time it wasmore convenient, for the time schedule to record the bass and synth at the Beautiful Lake Studio in Aichtal. The drums, guitars and vocals were recorded at the Excess Studio Rotterdam. Your sound has changed in the past years. The music was more rough, more rock-oriented on your debut, while the new songs sound more epic. Can you comment this change? Through the years we evolved personally and musically, and with the new blood in our band we we came to our current sound. The cover of "Touch in the dark" looks very much cliché - don't you think? What is the basic idea behind the cover? Is there some sort of concept on "Touch in the dark"? It's an almost an impossible task to avoid clichés but we came with some basic ideas which Carsten Dresher turned into our current cover. We added some personal touches to the artwork by using photos made by Manon and selected by the band. We wanted a touch with nature; therefore the roses and animals. The animals all represent a special pagan meaning. Every member selected a personal line, and these are added in the booklet. Can you say a few words about the lyrics? The titles are very short, concise. The lyrics are too personal to explain. Also to create to possibility for listeners to explore their own emotions in it. You have released a Single for "Pale Light", will you also shoot a video? We've just finished the video, which will break from the traditional gothic visuals, it's made by the brilliant duo Marcel de Jong and Jelle Sweter. Do you think that the success of bands like Within Temptation and Nightwish especially here in Germany will help Asrai to get more attention? We sure hope so. What are your thoughts concerning the crises of the music industry and file sharing? This is a very difficult issue. Through file sharing the music will be more spread around and known by a different audience. We think that the real fans will buy the cd anyway. But for the music industry and artist it can be a financial disaster. Have you planned any gigs here in Germany? Not yet but we intend to so. |
