Gothtune: mars 2013

Asrai, you started as a band 1985 with only females. Over the time you have changed your lineup several times. Tell us about the way where you are today, have the struggle been hard?

Yes we started in 1985 as an all girl band. At that time there was a lively music diverse squatting scene in Rotterdam and a lot of our friends were playing in a band, but only the guys played the instruments. So it was time to add some girl power to the scene. Nowadays we are the only band still existing from that era , with a steady line up now for almost ten years. And with this line-up we had our break through.

Karin1Sometimes the struggle was hard, we had some line up-changes and it wasn't easy to find people with the right chemistry,( and with all the line ups we played for several years). But when people want to move on you need to let them go. We were lucky with people we found and friends they became. Also the prejudices against women in music struggle was a pain, although it never stopped us playing our music.

Throughout the years it was an exceptional journey starting from playing in squats up until the big venues and touring.

Has there been any moment you felt like the doors opening up for you as a band?

When we signed at Transmission records, the doors really opened up for Asrai. We were signed almost the same day they received our demo. Crazy times followed with a lot of gigs, our album released in Europe ,South America and Asia, a European tour, our clip on MTV and the Box, yes suddenly we reached and touched a lot of people with our music

Manon - KeysYou have worked with music for a long time, what is the different today in the gothic scene from the 80´s or 90´s.

A lot has been chanced, including us ;). But I think the most important thing in the Netherlands is the venues. In the 80’s there were so many more venues, it was much easier to play somewhere. With all the restrictions on sounds, safety and all the things the government could think of to close down as much as possible. The venues have increasingly comercieler programming process since they no longer receive subsidies like before.

In the 80’s it wasn’t called Gothic yet, but I think there was always a people who were ore interested to go to see live bands and a group who prefers the dance parties. But through the years you see the scene develop, and different styles in the scene, think about cyber, steam punk, I think that is nice through the years that in the gothic scene everybody can express their creativity in their own way.

Do you believe we enter a third wave for the gothic rock?

Wasn’t thinking about it like that, but I think you could be right, a new generation and a new era for Gothic Rock.

Margriet-vocalsYou released a cd some months ago, "Pearls in Dirt". Tell us more about this record.

After the release from Touch in the dark, we started to write new material. We wanted Sascha Peath to produce the album and was supposed to be released by Transmission records again. Just before recording the record company went bankrupt. What was a disaster of course, lucky enough we found Season of Mist who wanted to release the album. Another label, another vision and approach.

We recorded Pearls in Dirt in the Excess studio, with Hans Pieters and it became a hot blooded album, with songs about love, losses and all the things called life.

Did it take long time to write the material and finish it?

Some songs formed pretty quick and others took a bit longer to grow on us, they needed some time to turn out the way they are now.

Do you have any upcoming gigs?

March 16 in Brussels, Belgium. It the first edition from an event called Coalescaremonium

What is the most weird experience you had on a concert?

Through the years we had some weird experiences, one of the most funniest was, that we left the stage in London and missing Manon, she couldn’t leave because a fan was hugging her ankles so she couldn’t leave, of course we rescued her… and one of the first times we were playing on a big festival, when a girl showed Martin her sexual capabilities... and he missed some notes ;).

You made a video for your song "All seems so Hollow", tell us more about it. Who made it for you? Did it take long time to make it?

All seems so Hollow was one of the first songs we wrote after Pearls in Dirt. Sascha Peath wanted to be our producer again and we recorded it at The Gate Studio in Germany.

We wanted to have a video clip for this song. And Loes Baijens and Silver shot the video . It was so much fun to do, we found a farm barn (close were we used to live in our youth) where we could record the clip. When we were there for the first time we saw some awesome cars. And they suggested that we could use one of those It became a midnight blue Mustang from the 60’s that was so cool. Everybody was so nice and helped us out it was awesome. Natascha from Studio Mystica helped us out with a lot of details. The recording took all day, I think we played the song for more than a hundred times but it showed off, we’re really happy with the result.

Do you have any other future plans?

Rik2The music business is changing we all know it and still don’t know what direction it’s going. It’s insane to see how many studio’s, labels, venues and festivals went bankrupt

Time changes and we and we think it’s time to get back to our roots, therefore we decided to do everything ourselves again, just to be pure in the process. Following our own vision and believes. At the moment we recorded 5 new songs at the Gate Studio with Sascha Peath again. He knows exactly what we mean and it’s such a pleasure to work with him. Just put All seems so hollow in the air, and our further plans, just to do what we love the most, making and specially playing music.

Is there anything you want to tell the reader, that we forgot to ask?

Keep supporting bands, buy their cd’s and merchandise and go to the gigs. Follow them on social media, give them your support. And thank you for this interview

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Gothtune mix-09 - 201302 by Gothtune on Mixcloud

01 - Gothtune - Jingle
02 - Still Patient? - Mascara osiris II (2013)
03 - Girl Loves Dead Boy - Jane
04 - Closterkeller - Phantom
05 - Kuriozum - Phantom
06 - Zoophagous Patient - In Paradise
07 - Neuro Sentence - Kali
08 - Der Himmel über Berlin - Allumette Lucifer
09 - Madness of the Night - We are the Gothrockers and we dont care (classical mix)
10 - A Ring Of Thorns - Out Of Nowhere (antecedent cut)
11 - Laufderzeit - Ewige Dunkelheit
12 - Angelcorpus - Dark Angel
13 - Vagabondage - Throw the Goat
14 - Alchemy - Raven Girl
15 - Cold in Berlin - Take Control
16 - Robi - On ne meurt plus d'amour

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