“The Darker Side Of Art”

Interview with G. Stuart Dahlquist

By Sergio Vilar


Stuart, could you describe the Asva's music and tell us a brief and interenstig history about the band?
Asva began a couple of years ago, maybe as a response to the dismal state of  mind I was in. Two of my fingers had been badly broken in a work related accident and I had all but given up on playing ever again, and for nearly a year that’s what happened. So I moped and grumbled about the house, in a bad mood for sure! Then Brad (who I'd played with in Burning Witch) called and was hoping I'd write some kind of doom or heavy music we could play together so as luck would have it, my mood so sour, “Caprichos 1-80” was birthed. Asva
musically is an evolving project... members are added (never to be let go) as the sonic requirements change. For instance right now I'm writing a new track that feels like it needs Gamalon Drumming. Jessika knows a good deal about that music so we'll include it on the next recording. And although I write the basic ideas for our music everyone contributes an equal part to the finished song; I just sort of draw a few stick figures, the others help produce Guernica's.  I'd like to think that Asva's music, although coming from a personal space that is really quite dark and frightening, is more about the possibilities of escape from that cold, unsmiling, world and into a warmer place. Asva worked for me!

What is exactily the name “Asva”?
Asva is from the Sanscrit language and means Horse or more specifically a working Horse, plowing, being riden... in the employee of a human. The name means a great deal to me as I grew up on a ranch and worked astride a horse for many years. Nothing would be as it is without Asva.

Musically, what are your influences?
There’s alot of people in Asva and we each have different wells to draw from. Myself? Pretty traditional: Neil Young, Led Zeppelin, The Fall, Guided By Voices, a little metal ie; Mayhem, just checking into Deathspell Omega (really enjoying these guys) the usual suspects. What I spend alot of time studying and deconstructing would be the works of guys like Krystopf Penderecki, Jaco Pastorious and Weather Report, Miles Davis... I've also spent a great deal of time listening to arrangments in particular by Earth, Wind, and Fire. No shit!

Where do you draw your inspiration for the music?
Oh, the stuff of life; bills, booze, girlfreinds, the job, travels... I just was in Brazil and got a heap of inspiration directly from hearing and dancing at Samba School. I also clean up after three dogs who are my pets twice daily. I still wear the sour face I did with those busted fingers every time I'm collecting all that poop in a bag. The origin of true doom!

How would you describe your music?
Like I mentioned earlier I like the fact that although its very cold, very dark and heavy, there lies a really palpable sense of "yes things are awful, but its ok, you will get through... ". “Futurists Against the Ocean” is to my listening ear very much like that. The opening 20 minutes or so is wieghted strongly against the listener, you have to fight to get beyond, the beautiful struggle. Then things open up a bit, a light is there, then over there, but not quite within reach. The end of the disc is a powerful sense of emotionally barely holding on, you have control and victory but only because you have fought tooth and nail, and in our lives I believe that stuggle becomes sooner or later, common for all of us.

Tell us about “Futurist's Against The Ocean”. How did that begin, the CD title and the history behind the songs?
The title “Futurists Against the Ocean” came directly from an extraordinary chap book of collage by Aleksei Kruchenykh called “Universal War”. The artworks are are really simple, just shapes cut from solid colored paper, two or three or four to a page with captions that really tie them together.
Maybe a contemporary could be found if one looked for Michael Lesy's Wisconsin Death Trip', a book thats a hell of a lot easier to find!
The songs had a variety of origins: “Kill the Dog, Tie Them Up, Then Take the Money” just popped into my head one day. I was laughing, imagining some intensely bungling crooks being told by the Boss "Ok look you idiots, this is what you do; First thing is kill the dog. That fucker will bite you. Then tie those people up. People call the cops and scream right? Well we don’t want that to happen. Then after you get those two things taken care of, that’s when you take the money. Got it?". “Zaum; Beyonsense” means... well its from more of that Russian Futurist movement. A rough translation of Zaum is Beyonsense. I thought the two words looked good alongside each other, and it feels good on the lips and tongue to say it. Go ahead! Say it out loud!
”Fortune” was titled as that because of Carl Orff's first movement in “Carmina Burana” one of the most powerful pieces of music anywhere and I was freaking out over it as I usually do every three or four months. Asva had
recorded the music and was still essentially an instrumental band but I really wanted words on that track. So I took an 11th century piece from Hildegard von Bingen “O vis aeternitatis” and messed around with it in my little studio, just overdubbing it verbatum ontop of the track. After a couple of tries I got it to sit squarely where I wanted it to and low and behold it brought tears to my eyes. Jessika joined Asva and wrote a stunning lyric after the rest of us had recorded that piece. She has a great deal of knowledge with regards to ancient musics and just ran with it.  When we've played live she has choked me up to where its hard to play the tears welling up in my eyes, all blurry. I'm a pretty emotional fellow at heart it seems.
”By The Well of Living and Seeing” has its germination in the Charles Reznikoff book of the same title. A collection of poetry, the song is basically lines taken from those writings. I strongly recommend discovering
Reznikoff- his book “Testimony” is very powerful stuff!

What is the creative process like in the studio?
The songs are written as I mentioned earlier by me at the start... I record bass, guitars, organs, sometimes a sample of something I think might go, then I do a little mixing and mail  CDR’s up to the others who live in San
Francisco and Seattle (I'm in Los Angeles). I'm a very shitty player of anything but the bass guitar so the other guys take my rough attempts at playing the parts and create much better pieces, generally a huge step beyond what ever I had done on my own. In the real studio we have the luxury of a very accomodating studio owner and sound engineer so we can experiment, change things, re-do. Everyone is flexible and open to suggestion; its really a superb environment.

Please tell me what you think of your live performances and the audiences reaction to your on stage.
I'd like to think our live show is reminiscent of the record... grim as hell and  uplifting at once. We're doing a new song “A Trap For Judges”, surely the heaviest thing I've ever written, even beyond the Burning Witch era stuff I think. I cant wait to hear what people think! Someone is talking about a live recording, a live release. If we sound good (and we should) something will come of it I think.

What is progressive rock for you? How would you describe this musical genre?
I have no idea what’s going on in Prog now; I'm a huge fan of early Genesis, of Yes, King Crimson, Grobschnitt... if your equating Asva with other progressive bands I take that as a huge compliment. Although it bears mentioning that I write from a musically uncomplicated place which seems to nullify the Progressive label.

How do you think about the Progressive Rock and Progressive Metal climate today?
I'm not especially well versed, there’s a few bands I really like that I suppose would fill my ideals of what makes a band progressive. Kayo Dot is the most interesting thing I've heard all year and hits every mark I could imagine setting. Pelican is fucking great. Asva is doing a split with Guapo this fall- There’s some pretty interesting stuff out there, I wish more would be brought to my attention.

Lastly. What can we expect after the releasing “Futurist's Against  The Ocean”?
Tour, tour, tour. I leave for the East Coast tomorrow morning, then we play down the West Coast in July, and three weeks in Europe in September.  Also the afor-mentioned split with Guapo and a vinyl release of “Futurists Against the Ocean” which I'm doing the artwork for now. We should have enough material for another full length by September so we'll be back in the studio pretty soon.

Just to close this interview, would you like to tell any message for our readers around the world?
I'll do my best to get Asva a show where ever you live, just as long as there is an outlet for us to plug into. Write me a note and give me your town and country. Also just have to say I dislike G. Bush. Sorry about the
fucking mess he's causing.

www.dosfatales.com

Nucleus interview: 08/04/05