Posted by BeautyandtheEast on 04-06-2011 | Comments | Share | Filed under: Entertainment, Music
By Kashif Ghazanfar, Aslan Media Music Editor
Zohra Atash maintains a deep, artistic vision while not allowing herself to be pigeonholed by stereotypes as an Afghan-American woman. As the founding member and lead songwriter of the band Religious To Damn, Zohra brings together seemingly disparate elements and sounds with thoughtful precision. Traditional Middle Eastern instruments such as the rubab and harmonium are seamlessly incorporated alongside modern guitars and synthesizers.
While one can hear the bands that influence RTD in their music, the end result of their music and sonic structures do not sound derivative or forced to conform to a preconceived idea. Instead, the songs tend to blossom like wildflowers. RTD’s sound hints at bands like Cocteau Twins and Siouxsie and The Banshees the way a waft of perfume might remind you of a memory.
Perhaps, what best defines RTD’s evocative sound is Zohra’s compelling voice. At once sonorous and haunting, her vocal delivery seems to echo the likes of Kate Bush. Also carrying a hint of Middle Eastern tonality, her personal sound holds an ethereal quality.
What’s most compelling about musician and songwriter Zohra Atash is her ability to be artful and provocative without being contrived. As an Afghan-American who holds Faith and family in high regard, she maintains a composed and distant grace when dealing with questions of gender and identity. She is, first and foremost, an outstanding musician with a great deal of vision regarding her craft as a songwriter.
Atash recently sat down with Aslan Media to discuss some of the complexities she’s experienced as an artist and musician, and shared her creative process:
Aslan Media: Who (and what) are your early influences that compelled you to make music? Were there other factors such as your complex identity as an Afghan-American that allowed art and music to become a kind of refuge for you?
Zohra Atash: My father was a musician and a singer, so I think it was in my blood. He used to play harmonium and sing and play records all the time while I was growing up. He bought a lot of recording equipment too. My earliest memories are of me recording songs off the radio and singing really loudly over the vocals. You must understand, in those days, my parents were having a really difficult time bringing us up in a country where certain aspects of the culture were so foreign to them. They were apprehensive about immersing us in activities outside of the house and school, I think out of fear, really. So you could say that music has been a form of catharsis and escapism, and a really great way of staving off boredom from the very beginning….
AM: Musically, I hear a myriad of influences. While I detect elements of bands like Black Tambourine and, perhaps, Cocteau Twins, your great vocal delivery reminds me a little of Kate Bush. Is that a fair assessment? Who are your favorite artists/bands and singers?
ZA: I love all of those artists, yes, so I guess they must be somewhere in my musical DNA. It feels like the required thing these days is to deny that you’re influenced by the artist you’re most clearly influenced by and cite something more obscure or unrelated. I think that’s weird, so I’ll say yes, your assessment is entirely fair, Kate Bush is definitely an influence. It’d be almost criminal to not be influenced by those records as great as they are. Elizabeth Fraser is one of the best vocalists in rock history. Period. And Black Tambourine, they’re fantastic, and from my hometown. There are so many great bands that came out of DC in that era… I was lucky.
The favorite artists/bands is always so difficult to answer, because I’ve had so many. Right off the top of my head, I’d say Wire, Lee Hazlewood, Peter Gabriel, Diamanda Galas, Suede, Captain Beefheart, Patti Smith, Bryan Ferry, Emmylou Harris, Jacques Brel, Fairuz, Nick Cave… all huge influences.
AM: Are the ethnic influences in your sound a conscious decision or did it happen naturally as your sound progressed?
ZA: It’s almost so natural, the question feels foreign. When I decide to put rubab or harmonium on a song, I’m not thinking that it’s any more “ethnic” than a guitar or Rhodes. I guess growing up the way I did, I was never strongly aware of those dividing lines that would make one thing feel like it was “over there” in the ethnic box. When your dad plays Beatles tunes on the harmonium, it’s just all the same thing, just sounds and instruments and music.
It’s been interesting to see how people have responded to this, some have heard that I’m Afghan and the word “gypsy” has been tossed around to describe our music, and they hear it and they think, “Oh, this isn’t the exotic thing I was expecting.” Sometimes people like that, sometimes they don’t. It’s almost as if some want to complain that it’s not plain enough and the others want to complain that it isn’t weird and foreign-sounding enough. But the moment I start consciously asking myself whether I’m committed enough to an “ethnic” sound to satisfy people who do have those clear dividing lines is the moment I’m not making the music that feels most natural to me.
AM: How do you go about writing a song? Do you begin on the piano or guitar or with a vocal melody?
ZA: Every song is different. Most of the time, songs get written in my head, and I flesh them out on guitar or piano, or whatever until it starts to make sense. I spend a lot of time on the details.
AM: Do you prefer crafting a song in the studio or do you find more sustenance in performing live?
ZA: I suppose if I had to sacrifice one, I’d keep writing music. That is my joy. Performing is a part of that joy, but not the end all be all.
AM: Who are you currently listening to?
ZA: The last five records I just played: US Christmas: Run Thick in the Night
Willie Nelson: Teatro, Kraftwerk: The Man-Machine, Rolling Stones: Aftermath, Anna Calvi: Anna Calvi
AM: Does faith play a role in your music, at least, on some kind of peripheral level? Do you feel a certain reluctance in being explicit about your family’s faith or background given the often insulated mindset of music scenes and artistry in general?
ZA: It plays multiple roles. I doubt I’d write the kinds of lyrics I write or be drawn to these grandiose ideas and images without my religious bacAMround. Questions about guilt, redemption, and what’s eternal are all questions that religion deals with. I’ve never been reluctant about discussing my family’s faith or background. But it can get complicated in my own creative process.
For instance, our last video for the song ‘Sunset,’ really upset some of my family members. They were worried it looked “satanic.” The idea of anything in that video being devilish was as far from my mind as whether the rubab was ethnic. To me it was just a dark, visual love poem. If anything, it was like a fairy tale. We were just creating our own fantasy world, but some in my family couldn’t separate that from the real world. It’s a difficult line to walk because I love and respect my family and I don’t want to hurt them. But it’s also difficult to feel like you have to ask yourself before you put a piece of art into the world, “Wait, will my family assume I love Satan if I release this?!”
AM: Does your gender add even more complexity to your identity as an artist who is also, perhaps, straddling two seemingly disparate cultures?
ZA: I’m sure gender plays some role. At a point, though, it can be annoying. I don’t think any woman ever wanted to be a “woman rocker.” Not to sound cliche, but why don’t we say “man rocker?” I think it might be nice to have fewer labels. Muslim female musicians might turn heads post-9/11, but musicians just want to be respected by fans and by fellow musicians for their creative output. “Rock and Roll” was always about breaking free from the chains that bind you, and identity can be one of those. Too much focus on ethnicity, bacAMround, and gender sort of misses the point of why we get into it in the first place.
AM: Lastly, what hopes do you have for your music and as an artist?
ZA: I only ever wanted to create work I was proud of, and I think I’ve done, and try to continue to do that.
Check Atash and her band: http://www.myspace.com/religioustodamn
Religious To Damn’s Latest Album, ‘Glass Prayer’ can be found on iTunes http://www.religioustodamn.com
Tags: zohra atash, religious to damn, zohra atash, aslan media
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