1. Hello Ash Code and thank you for being here. Even as a fairly “young” band on the scene, you surely don’t sound so. Can you tell us how and when exactly you started developing as musicians and how did the whole process lead you to forming Ash Code?
Alessandro: Me and my brother Adriano have been playing since when we were kids. We had another band before, and we played a different kind of music. At the end of 2013 the project stopped and I, eager to change, wanted to start all over again and I started to write new songs. Claudia gave me a help with the melodies of both the voice and synthesizer, she gave me some advice on style and so “Dry Your Eyes” and “Unnecessary Songs” were born. The tracks were uploaded on Soundcloud and immediately well received by users, so we formed Ash Code.
2. What inspired you to explore the particular sound you are devoted to? You are surely used to be labelled as darkwave, post-punk, electro; however I find your expression more contemporary that those labels suggest. So what do you personally think about your music making?
Claudia: Our bases are in the genres you mentioned, but for us it is just a starting point. Our goal is to experiment constantly with new sounds, different instruments and modern forms to express our content. The noise is an important part of our sound, and we do always a lot of research.
3. Your music is indeed a danceable one, but always with that touch of darkness. Besides artistically expressing yourselves, is there any audience in particular you wish to reach with your creation?
Adriano: We address our music to everybody, it’s not restrict to a certain type of audience. We express what we are…
4. Being an Italian band and recognized out of your home country immediately, how do you perceive Italian “underground” scene opposed to the German one, that I find as the major one when it comes to supporting bands like yours?
Adriano: The problem is that the majority of Italians appreciate other kinds of music. We have good darkwave, electronic and deathrock bands, but in Italy there is a very strong tradition of songwriting and easy pop bands, so that type of music has a bigger audience.
5. Italians are proven to be brilliant artists and musicians with so much talent. As Italy is really blessed with some original and excellent music names, and I witness few new ones emerging recently really worth listening to, do you think it has to do with your genetic code, environment, mentality, temperament…?
Claudia: Is not ruled out that Italians have music in their blood, so many people say it. We are definitely very passionate people.
6. When you started Ash Code did you ever imagine you would reach to the audience with such speed? Besides the fact you were artistically driven did you have any other motivations or hopes for yourselves as the band or did you just start with “we feel we have to do it and send our message throughout our art”?
Alessandro: We did not expect at all what has happened, and we are surprised. Obviously we are delighted, we know we owe everything to our audience, we hope to never disappoint them. Our first motivation is certainly making music and expressing our thoughts and feelings, we started for this reason, and because we love to play. However we will not stop, our goal is still to grow everyday more.
7. What made you choose Swiss Dark Nights label? How did that collaboration come about?
Adriano: We knew SDN because is the label of our friends Geometric Vision. We chose it because Valerio Lovecchio is a professional and honest guy, we had positive vibrations from the first moment.
8. From the list of your past and future live dates, I can tell you are pretty busy playing around. For those who have not seen you live yet, what can one expect from your live show?
Alessandro: We give much importance to the show, we enrich it with projections in sync, fog machine and lights. We often exchange the instruments to play during the live set and this creates movement on stage. We try to give our soul and we always hope that the audience has fun and is in tune with us.
9. How much do your personal tastes in music reflect in your music making and how about other aspects of art? What do you feel particularly drawn to?
Claudia: Our tastes are fundamental. We are influenced from our readings, from travel, and movies. I feel very attracted to art in general, I love the ancient art, modern and contemporary art, I love going to museums. Another thing that inspires me a lot are the natural landscapes, both in Oblivion and Posthuman we were inspired by all of this.
10. How is the work of composing and writing lyrics divided between the three of you? How do you incorporate your ideas and work on them as a trio?
Alessandro: The idea can start with a melody that comes to our mind, or a concept or another song. Usually I work at the structure, I make the drums and the bassline, and then Claudia fits the melody of synth and helps me with the vocal lines. For the part of the bass, it depends, sometimes Adriano composes it, sometimes me or Claudia.
11. Both of your albums “Oblivion” and “Posthuman” were ranked highly by some music critics and publications. Did you find that kind of the recognition was the great reward indeed for your hard work and creativity?
Alessandro: We had great reviews, and we are glad. I think we picked the right result. I can say the public has understood us.
12. Even though your sound is very recognizable on “Posthuman”, you did make certain shifts, so where are you heading with your new ideas? What are you sources of inspiration; inner or outer world?
Claudia: Posthuman is more complex and elaborate than Oblivion. Oblivion was much more immediate, with Posthuman we did a lot of research and used different synthesizers, theremin and mellotron samples. With the next album, we just started writing, we are continuing the research, and certainly will have many new features, trying to remain ourselves. Our sources of inspiration are both the inner and outer world. Right now we are very inspired by the David Lynch movies and by old and new musicians.
13. When it comes to the lyrics, what do you mostly focus on?
Alessandro: Lyrics are inspired both by the desire to put into the music some concepts that are very interesting to us as well as dealing with some personal affairs. To write a lyric we draw inspiration from anything, even an event that has happened to us and somehow has troubled us. By the way most of our lyrics talk about feelings, and the difficulties that arise in interpersonal relationships.
14. I have seen some of your videos. How much are you oriented to video making and do you feel it is as well one of the ways to communicate your ideas and share them with the audience in a visual way?
Alessandro: We think videos can be useful to drive the message of our songs. We were very lucky to found a director like Elio De Filippo (Nubes Grafica) that understood our mood perfectly, we made 6 videos together and another one is coming… As I said before the visual aspect is very important to us, on stage we have visuals in sync edited by me to melt music and images into a unique flux.
15. You have some great merch as well. Who designs your t-shirts, bags and other stuff fans can enjoy?
Adriano: Most of the graphic stuff of the merch is made by hand by our friend and artist Roberto Toderico. Our goal is to create objects that are relevant to our music and also cool.
16. What are you currently working on and can you share some nearest live dates with us?
Claudia: In these days we‘re writing new songs and planning new gigs including a South American tour. It‘s a busy time, we‘re very positive about the future.
