For today's Artist of the Day, we decided to ask Carol and Ask about Ask Carol.
Who are Ask Carol? Ask Carol are Carol (vocals, guitar, percussion, keys) and Ask (drums, guitar, synth) and we're based in Auma, Norway.
What genre would you describe yourself as? Our music is a mix of different genres, but lately
we have started calling it alt-pop, but you could also say it is a type of indie rock. It has elements
of blues, soul and punk to it too, we find it kind of hard to say exactly what genre it is in just one
word. If anybody has any suggestions after listening, let us know!
Who is your main inspiration? We are both inspired by so many different things. A few of our biggest common inspirations are Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd, which I think you can really hear in our music. In addition to that, Ask is very influenced by The Clash, and Carol draws inspiration from amongst others, Norah Jones and Lauryn Hill.
What is your songwriting process? What mainly happens is, one of us has an initial idea, then we work on it separately for a while, before we get together. We then work a bit on it, bounces ideas off each other, before we continue to work separately, and repeat, until we have a finished song. This is the workflow that comes most naturally to us, and that works best for us.
What made you want to start in music?
Ask: I remember reading the biography of The Clash, about when they started out in London, and it really inspired me, so I picked up my mums old guitar and started making a little sound. That was where it all started, and it snowballed from there on, and well, now we’re here.
Carol: I’ve been surrounded by music since before birth. My dad put headphones on mums belly when she was pregnant haha. But my first memory was/is probably of my dad playing “The Stones” or Deep Purple and my mum ABBA or something on vinyl records. I’ve been super interested in music since I was small, but when I saw the movie “Sister Act 2” with Lauryn Hill (when I was maybe seven), I knew I wanted to sing, but it took me almost twenty years to actually do it. I fell in love with the sound and the looks of the guitar about the same time, but that was also a long process. I bought my first guitar when I was 15, super inspired by the grunge era. You can
say I’m I late bloomer, haha.
What is on the horizon for you? Well, this is a tricky question right now. The situation in the world is very strange at the moment, and everything is just a mess of uncertainty and bewilderment. We had many plans that we have had to postpone, travels that will not happen, but there are a few things we know for sure. We know we will be releasing more single this Summer and Fall, with the first one coming in August/September. At the moment we are focusing on recording and writing material here in our studio, working on our debut album. The album is planned for 2021, a little postponed because of this crisis, but as mentioned, there will be many singles released leading up to that.
Who would you most like to collaborate with? We kind of prefer doing things on our own, really. But, it would be really awesome to do something with someone that does something we’re not that good at. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be music, it would be awesome to collaborate with a filmmaker or visual artist.
What is your ultimate goal? Our ultimate goal is to be well known all over the world (not like famous, but well known globally in our niche), and live a fulfilling life off our music, being able to travel anywhere in the world, and fill a good size venue, put on an awesome show we feel good about, on our own terms. There is more to this, but this is the basic gist of it.
If you could cover any song, what would it be? Magnolia by JJ Cale, it is one of the most beautiful songs!
Tea making: milk first or last? Actually, neither of us use milk in our tea, usually. Except sometimes, when Ask has masala chai, which he started drinking on his trip to India many years ago.
Tell us your funniest joke! Our old drummer, who played with us before we became a duo, he was the one with the jokes, haha. He always had a joke about everything, and we were the ones laughing, or not, haha. We will bring him to the interview next time!
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