ASK CAROL

About Ask Carol

Who are the members of Ask Carol?

Ask Carol consists of

Carol - Vocals, guitar, perc, keys

Ask - Drums, guitar, synth

How & When did Ask Carol form?

This project started when we, Ask and Carol, the two members of Ask Carol, became friends right after high school. We where 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/

Where was the first place Ask Carol performed?

Our first concert ever as a band was at the awesome blues pub Strangefruit in Hongdae, Seoul, South Korea. It’s still one of the coolest places we have played, and the owner, Jihong, was so kind and welcoming. Because we had never played live before, Carol had almost never sung in front of people at all at that point, we wanted our first concert to be as far away from people we knew as possible. So, when a friend of Ask who lived in South Korea at the time said, jokingly, «if you come visit me I’ll fix you some gigs», we said «yes, we’re coming!». We fixed some gigs ourselves, but he actually fixed some good gigs for us too. That was our first tour, and it was great. Korea is an amazing place.

What inspired each of you to start 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 li@le 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.

Latest Ask Carol Single release, «Run With You»:

What’s the story behind the new song?

This song, «Run With You», was first recorded two years ago, in a very different version. A more smooth, chill-type thing. It changed a lot in the new recording and production, into a more grungy-vibe kind of thing, with pumping guitars.

The feelings we had in mind when we wrote it was the feeling of wanting to just get away, run from your sorrows, secrets, your life.... before it's too late.

What inspired you to put together a new single & what it is all about?

We had started the recording before our Filipino Tour in February this year. Then, when we got back, the whole country locked down. Luckily we got stuck at our (home)studio in the Norwegian mountain, so we had the chance to finish up the song. 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...

Will you be touring to support the new album? If so, when?

Well, we really wish we could, and we had planned to, be touring a lot this summer and Fall, but, for obvious reasons, that is now not possible. The touring life feels like a distant dream at the moment, but we really hope we can go out on the road in not too long. Nobody knows what the future brings, and with the current situation it is hard to say what will happen. The one thing we can say for sure, one beautiful day it will be possible again, and on that day we will be ready, and we will tour the whole wide world!

What is your song writing process?

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.

Live Performances

What’s your first thoughts when you get up on stage?

Us being a DIY band, with no team, no tour manager, no one who takes care of things for us, there is usually so much stuff to think about, take care of and fix from the sound check until we’re actually on stage playing, that we don’t really get time to think about anything else. The thought might be, «remember to put the camera on record», «where should we set up the merch stand», «hope no one steals from our merch while we play» :P, «oh no, somebody bumped the camera», stuff like that, haha :P

Where was the first venue you played?

That was the amazing Strangefruit, the blues pub in Seoul, South Korea, we mentioned earlier.

What is your most memorable moment from any live performances?

There are two moments that really stick out, the first is playing at SXSW in Austin Texas. It was a dream we both had for such a long time, and then it actually happened. The other is from one concert on our first Filipino Tour. We thought we were going to play this small thing in a park, and it turned

out to be this big auditorium with maybe 1500 people there. That was a surrealistic experience.

Describe the atmosphere when you’re performing

We have heard people say that when the heard our concert, without seeing us, they thought it was a big full band playing, making this huge sound, and they were really surprised when they saw that it is only us two, with no tracks or playback. That is a cool thing to hear, and one of the things we are striving for.

What band would you like to perform with the most?

Oh, there’s many! But one is The Kills, cause we believe those who would go to a concert with The Kills are people with a good potential to like our music too. And The Kills is a great band, a duo like us :)

Will you be touring in the United Kingdom any time soon?

We had planned on doing that in April this year, but then corona happened. As soon as it is safe and possible we will be coming to the UK. Many of our favorite artists are from the UK, we’re really looking forward to touring there :)

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Ask Carol - Bio

Based out of the Norwegian mountain community Auma, comes the grungy alt pop duo Ask Carol. Ask Carol is a high energy power-duo with a big sound. MulFtasking is their middle name. Two guitars, drums, a synth, a drum machine and an unique spliHng system for Carol's guitar, makes this two-piece sound like a full band. Their sound can be fierce and mean, then suddenly turn soK and comforFng. Their sound could make you think of arFsts like the Kills, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs with a Nordic, melancholic twist. Ask Carol has toured in the Philippines, Japan, South Korea, Scandinavia, SXSW two Fmes and more ,and supported The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Their first EP was released on Grappa Musikkforlag. The band now put out their music on ChoVan Records, their own Indie Label. Given the special circumstances, tours and concerts are postponed. They have a concert scheduled for October 10th in Oslo. This year they will be focusing on new single Run With You (May 15th) and the upcoming album slated early 2021.

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/askcarol

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/askcarolmusic/

Website - http://askcarolmusic.com/