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Coming from Switzerland, Ashtar released the first full-length last year (Ilmasaari), bringing a great album to the ones that love Black/Doom Metal. If you are a fan of the genre you MUST listen this release that brings lots of authenticity and personality. We talked a bit with Witch N. and Marko.
GroundCast: To warm up, tell us how the band started.
Witch N.: Marko and I started to jam in summer 2012. We quickly realized that as a couple we didn’t harmonize only on a personal but also on a musical level, so it was quite obvious for us to begin to write songs together. And in contrary to the general opinion we have to say: No, it’s not a problem to be married and play in the same band!
GroundCast: What are your influences?
Witch N.: We both play or played in Doom bands – Phased and shEver – for more than ten years, so the doom element in Ashtar comes pretty naturally. Recently I’ve also listened to a lot of black metal from Venom and Bathory to the 90ies and the so called “third wave”. I think the sludge influence in our sound comes mostly from Markos drumming style. We both listen to sludge bands such as Aldebaran or Zoroaster.
Marko: I also like music that doesn’t have anything to do with Metal. Maybe that can be heard on some of my guitar work on the album. For example on «Celestial» some licks are a bit Shoegaze influenced.
GroundCast: You have a full-length, “Ilmasaari” from 2015. What can you tell about this releases, exist some concept or story you wanna tell?
Witch N.: “Ilmasaari” is finnish and means island of the sky. It’s a place in at the sea in western Finland where Marko spent all the summers in his childhood. The place has a special meaning for both of us, and the atmosphere of our songs reflects the magic of it. Besides there is not much of a story to tell, because “Ilmasaari” isn’t a concept album.
GroundCast: Still talking about Ilmasaari, the CD was in my top 10 from 2015 already. It brings an excellent Black/Doom Metal and I can only believe that the next release will be great too (when it happens). The band exists since 2012, but the first release is from 2015. Why it took 3 years to see the daylight? How was the composition process of the album, I know that Witch N was from shEver, are these songs totally new or some came from a long time ago?
Marko: It took us three years because when we started we really started from zero. That means, we hadn’t played together before and had no particular plan what to do. Witch N. had some riffs and lyrics in the can, her own ones, none of shEver – but still we had to get into the groove together before starting to really work them. So that took time. Then we started with the arrangements with Witch N. on guitar and me on drums. We recorded the sessions in the rehearsal room and worked out the guitars and bass-lines at home. Finally, in 2014, we went to the Osa Crypt studio in Greifensee, Switzerland, and recorded the album in several sessions. We played all the instruments by ourselves, with no guest musicians, so overdubbing took some time. And in the end we sent the material to Greg Chandler of Esoteric. He mixed the stuff in Birmingham… I think, three years from forming a band to releasing a first full-length album is not that long.
GroundCast: Recently we had a case with the Amalie Bruun from Myrkur, where she had to block the messages in the facebook because she was receiving too many aggressive and hate messages. I know that its not new that some women in the metal scene suffer from some prejudice, once that Witch N. came from a band that originally had only women. I would like to know if she suffered already some prejudice because of her gender and if Ashtar had some problems with this too?
Witch N.: Luckily I haven’t received such messages so far. But of course I know what it’s like to be a woman in a male dominated scene. Actually it’s not only negative, though when I started to play bass in shEver I had to face a lot of prejudices like “she just looks good but cannot play an instrument”. These opinions disappeared in most cases as soon as we started to play and “sing” – as you know I don’t have a voice like a lilting elf. So, it can’t be denied that it’s an advantage being a woman in the metal scene: You got more attention from the beginning. And I love it when other women come to me after the show and tell me that they are impressed by my voice. I think generally there is a change in the scene: More and more women are active and talented musicians, they’re not only passive objects. And more and more people think that it’s just normal seeing guys and women equally on stage.
GroundCast: We are in the internet era where everything can be downloaded (almost everything), what do you think about it?
Marko: I don’t think it’s just a bad thing in general – like «robbing» music from the bands, as many say. Of course we prefer people paying for our music by buying the vinyl, CD or tape – and we always do so ourselves when we like a band. We buy vinyl. But on the other hand free access to music via internet is a platform that can make you better known as a band. I mean, if thousands of young people who wouldn’t pay for a record, listen to your music in the internet and like it, it’s a kind of promotion for the band, isn’t it? Maybe they tell their friends about that cool band called Ashtar, and maybe they’ll come to a concert when we play in their region.
Witch N.: But for us artists the profit is far too small – if we even get anything at all! I cannot tell if in the future this trend is going to ruin the music scene or if it will generate new ways of selling and buying music which are worthwile for us artists as well. Time will tell, as we cannot stop this development anymore.
GroundCast: And about streaming services as Spotify?
Witch N.: To be honest, I don’t really like the idea that art is available for free and can be shared with everybody. Personally I don’t have an account on Spotify – I like to buy and own the albums on CD, vinyl or tape, including the artwork to hold in my hands.
Marko: Yes, I don’t like streaming too much either. But on the other hand it’s a bit the same as with the downloads: We don’t profit from streaming directly but if people listen to us that way, it’s still better than not knowing us at all.
GroundCast: How is the Swiss metal scene? How is to have a band in Switzerland?
Marko: Actually it’s not much different than in other smaller European countries. There are some great Metal bands around like Triptykon, Bölzer, Zatokrev or Rorcal but not as many as in big countries like Germany. We live in Basel, a city with about 170 000 inhabitants. So that’s quite small and there are not too many doom or black metal bands around. Everybody knows each other – which can be a nice thing and a bit boring at the same time.
GroundCast: What are the band’s future plans?
Marko: We’re playing gigs at the moment as a quartet with two guest guitarists. Then we’ve planned to work on new songs in autumn and to go to the studio next summer or fall to bring out the second album at the beginning of 2018. But that’s just a plan. Let’s see what really happens until then.
GroundCast: How would you define the Ashtar?
Witch N.: Ashtar is an empire in a fantasy novel that I am currently writing. The inhabitants of this empire pray to a storm god and a goddess of stars. Originally Ashtar or Attar is the god of the morning star in western Semitic mythology. He is often referred to as “He who is bold in battle”. Marko read my script and it was him who came up with idea to use Ashtar as our band name. And some of my lyrics on “Ilmasaari” are inspired by characters or scenes from my novel. By the way: We don’t have anything to do with a certain extraterrestrial sect of the same name!
GroundCast: Thank you for the interview, now the space is yours to say something to our readers.
Witch N.: “The stars enlighten our path” – even in the darkest of nights, there is light and a road to follow…