Asher Myers Interview
Q: Can you talk about your musical history?
A: Music for me began as a little kid sitting in the back of a car. My dad would play some pretty great tunes while we drove to and from our school. When I was really little, it was homemade mix tapes made up of The Beastie Boys, Fat Boy Slim, Public Image ltd., Cornershop; bands that got me humming and tapping along. "Girls" by the Beastie Boys may not be the best song to get stuck in a young child's head, but I don't think I really understood what the song meant. It just sounded great to me. Then as I got older, the bands that my parents really liked started to come through. The album Is This It by The Strokes was played on repeat so often that it became the background music of a very long period of my young life. The same thing goes for albums like The Killers’ Hot Fuss and Sam's Town. The way they had created a sound of their own, and the songwriting of the songs themselves was top notch; these things stuck with me for the rest of my life.
I started playing guitar around 5th or 6th grade, after seeing how much fun a couple of other kids in my elementary school were having one day "jamming out.” I instantly knew what I wanted to do. Rock out! So, after several years of noodling on the acoustic guitar and gradually getting better as a player, I joined up with a drummer in my high school around sophomore year, and we formed a band. It was pretty unofficial, but after a while, the two of us were speaking the same musical language and bouncing ideas off of each other with great ease! I loved the chemistry and the nuance of being in a band, but after a while, I decided to focus on writing songs. At the time, I was just starting to write some pretty decent material by myself, and I decided to "go solo" for a while. After a couple years of honing-in on what I wanted to do musically, and getting a more comfortable grasp on my songwriting voice, I tried my hand at recording. I went to Gravity Studios in Chicago to start the pre-production and demos for my EP. Recording in a professional studio for the first time completely changed the way I understood music, and it had a tremendous effect on the direction of the EP.
Q: What are some of the themes on your release Transit?
A: The name "Transit" was chosen because I had been writing my lyrics in very similar tones throughout the five songs on the EP. Almost all of them mention traveling, as I find people are constantly either moving toward or away from each other. People are constantly finding other people, and deciding whether or not to stay. It could be anything: falling in love for the first time, getting offered a new job far away from your family or friends, getting over someone and moving on with the rest of your life, moving closer to family, deciding to stay somewhere that you hate, running away from your past, the hopes that we hold for our futures, or even the death of someone close to you. So much in life has to do with distance, traveled physically or emotionally. It wasn't something I really thought about though, it was just the tones I had been using in my songs for many years. The name just fit nicely and I went with it!
Q: You collaborated with a number of musicians for this release. What was that process like?
A: It was incredible! I had never played with session musicians before, and I was pretty much floored the whole time we were tracking. When we recorded the rhythm section, with John Perrin on drums and Herf Yamaya on bass, I was singing and playing guitar in an isolated booth, and I think it was the best I had ever played before! These guys pulled a good energy out of the songs, often way beyond what I ever imagined! They were absolutely killing the takes, and they were a blast to hang out with for the day. The bass player Herf Yamaya works at the studio and he was really fun to have on the project. The drummer for most of the EP was John Perrin, who currently plays with the band NRBQ. He was really good at finding the right groove and brought all the energy necessary! I also had a lot of fun recording the horns for "Oh Darlin" with Neil Carson on the saxophone and Connor Bernhard on the trumpet, who are excellent musicians. They really knew where to take the horn arrangements, and it was great to work out each part with them. It was the first time I had ever collaborated with a horn player (or even heard one right up close). It totally changed the way I think about songwriting, and I am constantly working horn arrangements into my new songs, especially the trumpet.
Q: Can you talk about your musical history?
A: Music for me began as a little kid sitting in the back of a car. My dad would play some pretty great tunes while we drove to and from our school. When I was really little, it was homemade mix tapes made up of The Beastie Boys, Fat Boy Slim, Public Image ltd., Cornershop; bands that got me humming and tapping along. "Girls" by the Beastie Boys may not be the best song to get stuck in a young child's head, but I don't think I really understood what the song meant. It just sounded great to me. Then as I got older, the bands that my parents really liked started to come through. The album Is This It by The Strokes was played on repeat so often that it became the background music of a very long period of my young life. The same thing goes for albums like The Killers’ Hot Fuss and Sam's Town. The way they had created a sound of their own, and the songwriting of the songs themselves was top notch; these things stuck with me for the rest of my life.
I started playing guitar around 5th or 6th grade, after seeing how much fun a couple of other kids in my elementary school were having one day "jamming out.” I instantly knew what I wanted to do. Rock out! So, after several years of noodling on the acoustic guitar and gradually getting better as a player, I joined up with a drummer in my high school around sophomore year, and we formed a band. It was pretty unofficial, but after a while, the two of us were speaking the same musical language and bouncing ideas off of each other with great ease! I loved the chemistry and the nuance of being in a band, but after a while, I decided to focus on writing songs. At the time, I was just starting to write some pretty decent material by myself, and I decided to "go solo" for a while. After a couple years of honing-in on what I wanted to do musically, and getting a more comfortable grasp on my songwriting voice, I tried my hand at recording. I went to Gravity Studios in Chicago to start the pre-production and demos for my EP. Recording in a professional studio for the first time completely changed the way I understood music, and it had a tremendous effect on the direction of the EP.
Q: What are some of the themes on your release Transit?
A: The name "Transit" was chosen because I had been writing my lyrics in very similar tones throughout the five songs on the EP. Almost all of them mention traveling, as I find people are constantly either moving toward or away from each other. People are constantly finding other people, and deciding whether or not to stay. It could be anything: falling in love for the first time, getting offered a new job far away from your family or friends, getting over someone and moving on with the rest of your life, moving closer to family, deciding to stay somewhere that you hate, running away from your past, the hopes that we hold for our futures, or even the death of someone close to you. So much in life has to do with distance, traveled physically or emotionally. It wasn't something I really thought about though, it was just the tones I had been using in my songs for many years. The name just fit nicely and I went with it!
Q: You collaborated with a number of musicians for this release. What was that process like?
A: It was incredible! I had never played with session musicians before, and I was pretty much floored the whole time we were tracking. When we recorded the rhythm section, with John Perrin on drums and Herf Yamaya on bass, I was singing and playing guitar in an isolated booth, and I think it was the best I had ever played before! These guys pulled a good energy out of the songs, often way beyond what I ever imagined! They were absolutely killing the takes, and they were a blast to hang out with for the day. The bass player Herf Yamaya works at the studio and he was really fun to have on the project. The drummer for most of the EP was John Perrin, who currently plays with the band NRBQ. He was really good at finding the right groove and brought all the energy necessary! I also had a lot of fun recording the horns for "Oh Darlin" with Neil Carson on the saxophone and Connor Bernhard on the trumpet, who are excellent musicians. They really knew where to take the horn arrangements, and it was great to work out each part with them. It was the first time I had ever collaborated with a horn player (or even heard one right up close). It totally changed the way I think about songwriting, and I am constantly working horn arrangements into my new songs, especially the trumpet.
Q: What is the creative process like for you?
A: Honestly, it varies. I started out in my garage, and for a while I was just writing out the songs by playing acoustic guitar and singing till I found a good melody or phrase. I never really felt comfortable starting with writing the lyrics or poetry. When I started playing the drums more, I began to look more closely at the rhythm and "feel" of my songs. As a songwriter, there is no greater tool than multi-instrumental-ism! I found this out quickly and I definitely still think the groove of a song is the heart and soul. But sometimes an idea just hits you, and it's either the whole song, or just a chorus/verse line, but it’s vivid. I think a lot of songwriters have these "lightning bolt" songs.. and I don't want to say its a fluke, but sometimes way less work goes into a way better song. Sometimes, it's the opposite. I'll work on a chord progression for weeks and feel like "man this thing sounds great,” but I don't really know where to go with it. That's when the pencil and paper come out. And lots of balled up pieces start piling up in the trash. You can picture the cliché writer hunched over a laptop or pad of paper, hammering out the same line of a verse or transition over and over again, but the song seems impossible to finish. I usually have to step away from the song, mentally and physically. I'll come back to it a few songs later and boom, done. I find it extremely important not to over-listen to a song idea or demo. A lot of the time it also comes down to the classic "Is this song worth finishing" question that writers often forget to ask themselves. It is challenging to actually decide that a song I wrote isn't worth finishing, but it helps me to keep a good pace and move on to better things. Lately I have been very focused, only moving forward on things I know are worth the work, and either scrapping or reworking the things that just sat there in my notebook unfinished. A lot of my new material is the kind of "lightning bolt" writing, as I have more often stepped away from the instrument and now I mostly write down the things I find myself humming in my head day to day. This approach has been working very well for the last several months, and until I'm stumped, I'm sticking to it.
Q: Have you been playing live around Chicago?
A: I did a few solo performances when the EP came out, but it was really challenging to play these songs solo, so I started looking for band members. I have formed a trio that I am currently practicing with, and we will be playing shows in the next couple of months. I think we have great chemistry together and they are really talented musicians, so it's been a blast practicing with them for the past few weeks and I am confident about future live shows. Josh Dreller is on bass, Chris Abbs is on the drums, and I am singing and playing guitar. We are currently looking for a second guitar player, but we will start shows as soon as possible, lead guitarist or not. I feel confident about the sound, the guys are really in sync, and we have even started working on some of my new songs which I am very excited to add to the live set list! The goal is to play locally in Chicago as much as possible!
Q: What else should we know about your music?
A: I don't really know what else I can add. I think everybody should just listen to the EP and make up their own notions about my music. That's the fun part!
A: Honestly, it varies. I started out in my garage, and for a while I was just writing out the songs by playing acoustic guitar and singing till I found a good melody or phrase. I never really felt comfortable starting with writing the lyrics or poetry. When I started playing the drums more, I began to look more closely at the rhythm and "feel" of my songs. As a songwriter, there is no greater tool than multi-instrumental-ism! I found this out quickly and I definitely still think the groove of a song is the heart and soul. But sometimes an idea just hits you, and it's either the whole song, or just a chorus/verse line, but it’s vivid. I think a lot of songwriters have these "lightning bolt" songs.. and I don't want to say its a fluke, but sometimes way less work goes into a way better song. Sometimes, it's the opposite. I'll work on a chord progression for weeks and feel like "man this thing sounds great,” but I don't really know where to go with it. That's when the pencil and paper come out. And lots of balled up pieces start piling up in the trash. You can picture the cliché writer hunched over a laptop or pad of paper, hammering out the same line of a verse or transition over and over again, but the song seems impossible to finish. I usually have to step away from the song, mentally and physically. I'll come back to it a few songs later and boom, done. I find it extremely important not to over-listen to a song idea or demo. A lot of the time it also comes down to the classic "Is this song worth finishing" question that writers often forget to ask themselves. It is challenging to actually decide that a song I wrote isn't worth finishing, but it helps me to keep a good pace and move on to better things. Lately I have been very focused, only moving forward on things I know are worth the work, and either scrapping or reworking the things that just sat there in my notebook unfinished. A lot of my new material is the kind of "lightning bolt" writing, as I have more often stepped away from the instrument and now I mostly write down the things I find myself humming in my head day to day. This approach has been working very well for the last several months, and until I'm stumped, I'm sticking to it.
Q: Have you been playing live around Chicago?
A: I did a few solo performances when the EP came out, but it was really challenging to play these songs solo, so I started looking for band members. I have formed a trio that I am currently practicing with, and we will be playing shows in the next couple of months. I think we have great chemistry together and they are really talented musicians, so it's been a blast practicing with them for the past few weeks and I am confident about future live shows. Josh Dreller is on bass, Chris Abbs is on the drums, and I am singing and playing guitar. We are currently looking for a second guitar player, but we will start shows as soon as possible, lead guitarist or not. I feel confident about the sound, the guys are really in sync, and we have even started working on some of my new songs which I am very excited to add to the live set list! The goal is to play locally in Chicago as much as possible!
Q: What else should we know about your music?
A: I don't really know what else I can add. I think everybody should just listen to the EP and make up their own notions about my music. That's the fun part!