Ask Carole talk to us about their latest track Run With You, Norse mythology and hip hop!
PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF FOR US WHO ARE NOT FAMILIAR WITH YOU AND YOUR
MUSIC AND TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF.
We are Ask Carol from Norway, consisting of the two members Carol and Ask. Carol sings
and plays guitar, while Ask plays drums, synth and guitar.
Our music has a grungy, alt-pop rock vibe with a lot of guitars and female pop/rock vocals.
The vocals can be soft then suddenly turn mean, fierce and badass. Usually we sound a little
more rough live than on the records, with more of our rock influences shining through live. We
like so much different music, and different genres, and we believe by blending them we can
create something a little bit new.
Being only two, playing almost all instruments live on stage, our live-style is multitasking, with
both of us often playing two instruments at a time, maybe even more. For bigger concerts/
stages we use either a third person or a little bit of tracks to fill in.
TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR NEW SINGLE?
'Run With You' is Ask Carol's first single of 2020, a catchy disco-punk alt-pop tune
with a retro vibe. Intimate vocals and grungy guitars setting the mood, with a
dreamy background and pulsating beat. The feeling of wanting to just get away, run
from your sorrows, secrets, your life. Before it's too late. It was mixed in The Village in LA, produced by Ask Carol. Similar artists it could make you think of might be Yeah Yeah Yeahs, KOLARS or Faces On TV. The first of several releases planned for this Summer and Fall, leading up to our debut album in early 2021. The song was written long before these challenging corona times, but lately the song has come to mean something more to us. We feel it represents a longing for just going away, to get away from it all, a feeling that has grown more intense as we all have to stay home for such a long time.
WHAT INSPIRED THE ALBUM OR SINGLE?
We are working on our debut album, and the inspiration could come from anywhere. Sometimes it’s just ideas, popping into our heads from nowhere, sometimes we sit down deliberately, to write or create something. Inspiration to carry on, even when no one seems to care, comes from the intense belief in our vision, our vision of Ask Carol.
Most of our inspiration comes from life, experiences, travels, people, other music that we love, new music, could even be movies, great stories, or TV series.
CAN YOU SUM UP THE ALBUM IN A FEW WORDS?
Our debut album will be a journey, with cinematic vibes, intimate moments, and a great deal of attitude. It’s a joy to work on, and we can’t wait to show you all!
WHAT RECORD CHANGED YOUR LIFE AND WHY?
Ask: There have been many records that have meant a lot to me, but think one record that has been extra important is London Calling by The Clash. I loved it when I was a teenager (still do btw), and used to listen to it all the time. The Clash was one of the bands that inspired me to start doing music.
Carol: I think my teen-years were important. I loved the Fugees "the Score" and "Nirvana"
MTV Unplugged, I still love those albums. It's something so very honest about the Nirvana unplugged album, so much feeling in Kurt's singing. This was also the album I started learning guitar to. The score was important to me, because Lauryn Hill was the queen that made me want to sing. Her voice was and is so amazing! Even though I mostly play rock, there is so much grit to some old school hip hop. Lauryn Hill is just so badass both when she sings and raps. Loved the combination of Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean and Pras Michel together. The mix was so cool.
DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE MUSIC VIDEO FILMED BY YOUR BAND OR ANOTHER
ARTIST?
Ask: I don’t really watch that much music videos…. We actually just released a new music video a couple of days ago, for 'Run With You'. It’s the first real video we have done ourselves, so excited to see how it goes! Carol and her sister did the acting, and Carol and Ask did all the filming, directing, producing, editing and everything else. It was a fun experience, and we think it turned out alright.
Carol: I loved music videos growing up! There weren't any record stores in the small town
closest to my home, so I waited for the Norwegian music charts on TV, a weekly TV show
with just music videos and interviews with artists. Michael Jackson Thriller is awesome! I have the DVD. Haha. And I loved the music video to "Ready or Not" by the Fugees. So much action.
WHAT WOULD WE FIND YOU DOING WHEN YOU'RE NOT MAKING MUSIC?
Probably making animations, drawing stuff for our merch, designing new things, making t shirts, filming, trying to figure out how VFX work and how to make it, doing booking…. Almost everything we do has to do with Ask Carol some how, even if it’s not music. Except for a few times when we eat, we watch some TV or something.
DO YOU GET NERVOUS PERFORMING LIVE, IF SO HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH THAT?
The thought of singing in front of people for the first time was so scary. Before our first concert I (Carol) had never sung in front of anyone, so we thought it would be better to play our first concert far far away from Norway, so that no one would know us. The feeling of doing our first concert was both “nerve wrecking”, exciting, and a big relief. This was something we both had been talking about doing for almost seven years! The audience and the venue was awesome, and it was a great night for us. We will never forget Strange Fruit, the small blues bar in Hongdae, and we'll never forget the super welcoming owner, our friend Jihong.
HOW DID YOU FORM THE BAND?
We, Ask and Carol, the two members of Ask Carol, became friends right after high school,
when studying music in southern Norway. We were always talking about starting a band, but it
would take about 7 years before we finally went through with the idea. The summer of 2015
we stayed at a cabin in the Norwegian mountains, with no electricity and no water, far away from people and civilization, only a few sheep outside the windows. That's where our first songs were made, and where the seed to what would become Ask Carol started. One more year went by before we started for real, and Ask Carol was officially born, in 2016. Our first concert ever was at a small blues club in Seoul, South Korea, called Strange Fruit. At that point, Carol was already a somewhat known guitarist-for-hire in the Oslo music scene, and had never ever sung in front of people before, or at all for that matter. That's why we wanted to try out our music and hold our first concerts far away from our hometown.
After thinking hard and long about the band name, with many pretty good suggestions, we
ended up with the simple band name Ask Carol, the first names of our two members, Ask and
Carol, put together. Ask is a real Norwegian name, coming from Norse Mythology, the Viking
religion; Ask was the first human being, created by the God Odin, out of a piece of Ash-wood.
You can read all about that story here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Ask_and_Embla
HOW DO YOU WRITE? - DO YOU HAVE A KEY SONGWRITER, OR DO YOU ALL WORK
TOGETHER?
We write everything together, both of us. We usually work separately on the initial ideas, and then get together for the later phases of the production and songwriting. Sometimes the song ends up very different than the original idea, sometimes not. Every song is unique, we don’t have any rules.
WHAT INSPIRES YOU?
Ask: It can be so many things. Often travelling and experiencing stuff can inspire me. Or
maybe watching a good movie or TV series. Or discovering some new music that I really like.
It can also happen when you least expect it, there are no rules.
Carol: It can be almost anything. New experiences both good and bad, travel, someone
pissing me off, someone doing something unique/great , reading something, movies,
conversations etc. So you could say it could be anything that triggers me to feel something.
WHAT IS NEXT?
Well, we were supposed to do some touring, but all that got cancelled. Now we focus on our debut album, which is scheduled for release in early 2021. Before then we have a few more singles coming up, and we plan on doing some live videos. Currently, we are working on the last single, Run With You, which was released this weekend, to get it out there and get some exposure for it.
It can be heard here:
Spotify https://open.spotify.com/track/7yOPgWH6FeopoMKAJYlwPg?si=DATny14aTgmGF0-
ogzAPAA
SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/askcarol/run-with-you
PLEASE TELL US ANY SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS SO WE CAN SHARE.
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/askcarol
Twitter - https://twitter.com/askcarolmusic
Website - http://askcarolmusic.com/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/askcarolmusic/
Youtube - https://youtube.com/c/AskCarol
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