Pigeon Spins Featuring an Interview with Ask Carol

Ask Carol - AC II: Desert Sky

"From the funny, feel-good adaptions of their Backyard jam and CowChella music from their viral social media videos, to the serious and philosophical "Cold July" and "Writing On The Wall", Ask Carol takes you on a journey, this time rooted in a folk-rock, alternative indie style — with trombones, vocal harmonies, electric guitar, looping, and taking on more acoustic elements (like

acoustic guitar, as compared to their strictly electric debut album)."

Interview with Ask Carol

(º)> How did the isolation in your mountain town influence the sound and mood of your second

album, Desert?

I think our environment here, and the fact that there are so few people here, very much influences the music we make, and how we make it. First of all, with no people around, and no other music workers for many many miles around, we are left to figure out most things on our own. Also, the isolation and breathtaking surroundings puts you in a certain mood, as well as the long, cold and dark winters, and that mood influences the vibe of the music. This is where the melancholic backdrop of many of our songs probably comes from. It's an environment that invites

retrospection and reflection, exploring dreams, nostalgia and yearning, rather than, say, partying

or straight love songs.

(º)> What inspired the CowChella video-series, and how did it shape your creative process?

It all started very randomly, when we were playing outside in our backyard one day. We often do that, and had been doing so many times even before covid. What was different on that day, was that the cows had access to the field right next to our backyard. When we started playing, all of a sudden all of the cows started running towards us, like they really wanted to listen. They kept looking and listening, you could tell they really enjoyed it. What started out as a random funny thing, grew into something bigger. After that it happened several times, because the cows often stayed in that field next to us.

(º)> Can you describe the “dreamy and reflective” vibe of Desert and how it differs from your

debut album?

The most obvious difference is that our debut album had a lot more rough fuzz guitar, and at times even punk-ish sound. Desert and the other songs on our new album, Desert Sky, takes some of the dreaminess we also had on the first album, expands on it, and adds a bit more nostalgia and a mellower vibe. The inspiration we got from traveling through the desert, adds feelings of hope and opportunity, a sense of freedom at the face of the unknown.

(º)> How do you balance your folk-rock influences with the high-energy indie-rock elements in

your music?

We kind of let the music take us where it wants to go. We don't look at ourselves as a genre-specific band, like, we're not tied to any specific genre, any category, or defined by any box someone would want to put us in. The music speaks for itself, and reflects our moods and emotions, and we let that guide how it sounds. Then you can define a genre after it's done, and this album turned out to be of a more folk-rock-y vibe. It fits the emotions we wanted to convey.

(º)> What challenges or benefits come from being a two-person band with such a big, full-band

sound?

The good thing is that you have less people to organize, less people who need hotel rooms, plane tickets, space in the car etc. Travel is cheaper than with a full band. Musically it's also easier, cause there are not 4-5 different opinions of where you want to go musically. That may be why even in bigger bands, there have often been songwriting-duos, like Lennon/McCartney, Strummer/Jones etc.

In practice, being only two people wanting to sound like we wanna do, we rely heavily on technology. Not necessarily modern technology, but new inventive ways of using the good old guitar pedals, and amplifiers, working hard on the signal chain with the goal of keeping everything live. We use looping, which is always done live, and multitasking, playing several instruments often at once. It takes a lot of practice and a lot of hard work, but it's still worth it.

(º)> How has touring internationally shaped your music and performance style?

Well, technically it sets a few limitations just because of the fact you'll have to fly a lot, and all the gear and equipment need to fit in a few suitcases. There's also an artistic aspect to it, as we get exposed to many different cultures, we meet so many people and experience a lot of things, which all plays a part in shaping who we are as people, and in also the art we make.

(º)> Why did you choose to emphasize physical formats like vinyl and CD alongside digital

releases for Desert?

Releasing physical formats is a way to take our art to people in a more concrete way, it adds another dimension when you can hold it in your hands. That's way we spent such a long time perfecting the cover art, the form and shape of the cover, and the special custom look of the vinyls. It is much more than just the music, and the music itself gets an outlet outside of the tech bro billionaire run digital medias. Everything in the digital format is run by gatekeepers, algorithms and money. Physical vinyls and CDs can be sold directly to fans, we bring it to our concerts, and we sell it ourselves on our own website.

You know, Facebook or Spotify could disappear tomorrow, or maybe something happens and all our music is suddenly taken down. But nobody's gonna go into everyone's home and take the Desert Sky vinyl record away from them. It's theirs forever.

(º)> How did the pandemic downtime influence your approach to music videos, merch, and live

recordings?

Like we mentioned already, there are very few people where we live. And during the pandemic, we couldn't even travel at all, so we had to do everything ourselves. Make music videos, make merch, record our music, etc. After the pandemic, we continued doing it all ourselves. We embraced the DIY (Do-It-Yourself) style, and we feel it works well for us. That way we can be in control of everything, and get everything as we want it.

(º)> What role does your Nordic, melancholic twist play in shaping the emotional tone of your

songs?

As mentioned, that nordic melancholic twist comes partly from living in the environment we do, with the long, cold winters, the remoteness, and the spectacular nature. The environment you live in influences you, wether you want it or not. So, it definitely plays an important role in shaping our music.

(º)> What can fans expect from your first European tour and live performances of tracks from

Desert?

We just wrapped up the Arctic Tour, and with that also the European tour of this year. Now we'll take a little break from touring for a while, we have been touring almost non-stop the last three years. It's been heavy, taking it's toll, but so much fun!! We can't wait to get started on some new material, and on the new tour next year, you can expect new songs, as well as some of the good old stuff both from our first and second albums! More tour announcements will come over new years, mostly in our email Newsletter.

(•)> That's all, Folks! Check out Ask Carol on the Pigeon Spins Playlist