What was the beginning pint for your music career? How did it all start?
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
Was there any bumps on the road? What kind of challenges did you have to deal with?
Well, actually, when we started out, Carol had never sung before, she’s the singer. And Ask, who is now the drummer, had never ever played drums before. So, of course, something had to be done…. That was the biggest challenges we faced, and there’s no other way to deal with those than hours, and hours, and hours, of practice.
What was the most fulfilling and satisfying moment so far?
From our first self-booked tour to South Korea, to playing SXSW, to the music videos, and animations, the most satisfying thing for us is that we managed to do everything by ourselves.
How would you describe the music that you typically create?
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.
What is your creative process like?
We usually start out with the ideas separately, and then later on in the process we get together to finish up the songs. We often do the songwriting and production process in parallell, but it all varies very much. At the moment we are in two separate locations, so we use the internet and the cloud to send ideas back and forth. The most important thing is to get the initial ideas down as fast as possible, cause those often tend to slip away if you don’t get them our of your head and down on paper/computer/phone/recorder.
If you could change anything about the industry, what would it be?
That must be the fact that in this day and age, without social media, you are nothing. Starting or building a career in music without social media is impossible. There are good things with social media, of course, but there are also negative sides, and the impact it has on music is not necessarily all good. This is up for debate, but in general it seems to be more important to be an «influencer», and behave «influencer ish», than to actually make good music. For some of those who really care about music, this social media race can really kill the joy of making and being into music.
If you were asked to give a piece of advice to upcoming bands, what would that be?
Do it now, before it’s too late. What the last couple of years of Covid has taught us, is that you never know what will happen. The world could change completely in just a blink of an eye, and what you thought you knew is not applicable anymore. So, don’t wait around for that «perfect moment», just go for it! (Of course not in every situation, there are many times where patience and waiting is appropriate, just a disclaimer..)
What has been the best performance of your career so far?
That must be the first real concert we did, ever. It was in a small blues club in Seoul, South Korea, as mentioned earlier, called Strange Fruit. What made it so special, was the fact that it was our first performance ever as a band, it marked our beginning. And, it was in a new city, far far away from home, and the vibe and the mood was just amazing. A unique experience, that will always stand out, no matter how big or good our later concerts have been.
If you didn’t become a musician, what would you be doing now?
Ask: Haha, I don’t know. I studied many different things in college, from Architecture, to Film sciences, to Music technology. So, probably either an architect or something to do with technology 😛
Carol: I have now clue really. I’ve studied different stuff and had different jobs, but I like being «free», my own boss, and being creative, so maybe something with drawing, graphics or something
Difficult to say. I have one plan and that is music
What is new with the band at the moment? What are you currently working on and would like to share with the world?
We are finishing up our debut album as we speak, with the first single, «Tonight», being released just a few days ago. We’re so excited to finally share songs from the album with our fans, and can’t wait to drop the album later this summer! 😀
