Hi Kari, thank you for doing this interview with us. Finally the Ashbury Heights album is out, how are you feeling?
And thank you for asking me, I’m more than happy to do this.
I feel really happy that it’s done and out there, but it’s kind of a bittersweet emotion. So now I quickly want to throw myself into doing a new album! One that won’t take two years!
It took 2 years before the album got released, how did you feel last 2 years, there must have been some really stress periods of time in it? How did you manage to stay positive?
It has been a hard journey and I was only positive in periods. The thing that made me keep going wasn’t positivity; it was just my love for music. I finally got my chance to do what I loved and damn it if anything or anyone were trying to stop it! Of course people around me tried to encourage me and that helped a little, but there were times that no kind words helped and it felt like we were never going to finish the album.
Can you explain why it took such a long time before the album was released, after all most songs were already written when you joined the band?
When I joined I moved in with Anders to be able to record it as soon as possible. We spent some months to record it and try to develop my voice. He also rerecorded some of his vocals then and we spent some time with that. After this our labels CD distributor went bankrupt, that was nothing neither we nor the label could have foreseen and that made all the releases on hold for OoL. It took a long time for that to get solved and we even decided to rerecord the album once more since I had gotten more secure with my voice. We also talked to the label about having a producer and that idea made the album take even longer. We finally got to the point when we rerecorded the vocals in a real studio and let John Fryer mix it again.
Originally you are an opera singer, in what way did you have to change your style of singing of Ashbury Heights, was it hard thing to sing in a different way?
My only real obstacle was to be okay with how I sounded. I thought it sounded strange when I sang with my “regular” voice since I wasn’t used to it. When I was going to record “Shades of Black” it was really hard! I don’t like yelling and it felt like I was yelling when I sang that song in that way. But it worked out really good after all the practice I had to get to know my voice.
Two years ago several Ashbury Heights fans were really worried about the future of the band after Yaz left and you joined, how have you experienced that period of time, what gave you strength to carry on?
Something I told some hardcore ‘Old-AH-fans’ was that they wouldn’t get me to quit since music is the thing that makes me breathe. I think that if I hadn’t loved music that much, and still do, I wouldn’t have been able to handle any harsh words. I was not very strong back then and easily sucked those words in but the knowledge that they hadn’t even heard me sing was also a comfortable feeling. They didn’t have any ground for the words and as soon as the clips of me singing at Belgium Gothic Festival 2009 appeared on YouTube I got pleasant comments, and now when the album is released I only get good reactions from the fans.
The new album: Take Cair Paramour receiving awesome reviews, can you leave the past 2 years behind you and feel proud of what you achieved with it?
Even though I wanted to do more and get things to happen these past two years I know that things weren’t in my control. So I am proud of everything I learned, experienced and achieved.
Let’s go deeper into some songs: the opening track “Anti Ordinary” is one of the stronger opening tracks I have heard. Your vocal line is a hard one to sing, how did you record it, is it a one take recording or did you have to do it over and over again?
The thing is that my voice doesn’t have any problems to sing high. So it was easy to do. I just didn’t like that I sounded so soft on it. I did it fairly quickly when we recorded it, tried some different ways of singing it and did some takes to be sure that we got it. It’s unfortunately not such an interesting story.
One of the favorites for many people is: “I Can Kill You So Easily” which gives you a small solospot on the album in the chorus, is this a favorite one for you as well or do you have another favorite track?
The lyrics of “I Can Kill You So Easily” are witty and I understand why people like it, I like it to but it’s not my favourite song. I also like “The Velvets”, just because it’s weird. But my two favorite songs are “Hope” and “Sensual Nothing”.
The third track I want to pick out is ”Sensual Nothing”, a nice song but it gives me the feeling more is in it. It doesn’t reach its maximum potential and I think it could have been better with you singing it instead of Anders. What do you think of this, would it be a nice idea for a new EP?
That song is actually written for me. We had a few days before it was supposed to be done and I had a cold, something I always seem to get when I do something important, and the recording didn’t get as good as we had hoped. I didn’t find out about the fact that he had put his song on it until I heard the master of it. I have told him that I want to do it again for the next record so it will sound as we had intended it to. But he is refusing since he thinks it should only be new songs on it. So you all have to complain a little to him so we can rerecord it!
We have heard many people saying that would have loved to hear more of you, on Take Cair Paramour you are pushed into the role of a backing singer. Have you heard such comments as well and what does it mean for you?
I have gotten several questions and comments about that and it’s a simple explanation. The label and Anders were both worried about how the old Ashbury Heights fans would take the change with a new female vocalist so they wanted to let the fans get used to me and not as they explained “throw it in their faces”. This decision was taken pretty soon after I had joined the band and I also agreed on it since I knew that because I was so insecure in myself I didn’t want to sing to much solo live before I had become stronger. But after a long wait for the release I wanted to have a bigger part. I only got a few songs to sing but only ‘The Velvets’ got released, and that was as a bonus track. ‘Sensual Nothing’ as I mentioned earlier was also one of them. ‘Church of The Heartbreak People’ was also one of my song but we never seemed to get the music on it right.
How did the audience react on the new songs when you played them live?
I was surprised when they all cheered as soon as the intros of the new songs started and even more surprised when I saw many people sing along! It’s one thing to play the old songs that I know people know, but to play such new songs and see positive reactions made me feel great.
You are now several shows further, is it easier to deal with your nerves? In what way have you grown as a performer and how did you achieve this growth?
They say that the best performers are always nervous before a show but if that makes me a better performer I rather skip it! I think I will never completely get rid of that nervous feeling I get but I’ve learned how to better deal with it. It is worse when I know I won’t be able to give my all.
When we played on the Amphi Festival this year I knew that my voice wouldn’t last and that made me nervous. I had gotten a cold a week before and also lost my voice for three days and the fever I had also came back when I was on stage. But I felt that the way I reacted on it was one of the proofs that I have grown a lot. My first decision was to try convincing the others that we would skip one of the songs that I knew that I wouldn’t be able to sing while being sick, but I got voted down since Johan had broken his finger a while before he hadn’t had time to learn so many songs. After that my next decision was to act like a man and not a mouse! I ignored the fact that the fever was back, my broken voice and the lack of food and decided to focus on my performance and let those things hit me afterwards. I must have succeeded in something since I’ve only gotten good comments on that show!
What are your dreams for the future?
I have a lot of dreams for my future. Of course one of my dreams is to start working with Ashbury Heights next album but also to make a reality of some other projects I have started with. This is probably something I will announce in the end of this year!
Any last words for the readers?
Thank you for reading this interview and be sure to buy our new album ”Take Cair Paramour” and watch our shows!
Lots of Love
Kari
www.myspace.com/ashburyheightsmusic
www.kariberg.com
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Viviana Ball www.vivamusic.ro
Martin Black www.art-in-black.de