Norwegian Alt-Pop duo Ask Carol has released a new single titled “Do It In L.A”. This song is one to blast in your car with the windows down. The single is more upbeat than usual for them, as most of their previous work has been darker with more grit. Each song they release includes powerful vocals and a big sound, this duo is talented and we can expect to hear many more hits from them. In celebration of the release of “Do It In L.A” we had an exclusive interview where we talk about their inspiration for the song, U.S cities they’d like to visit…and Korean Barbecue.
MR: Introduce yourselves, was it hard at all to come up with a band name? It seems to have come naturally.
AC: 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
MR: What was the lyrical inspiration for “Do it In L.A”? It is such a fun and upbeat song!
AC: In April this year, we, Ask Carol, finally got set up for a meeting with some big shot management in LA, which we had been working towards for a long time. We were supposed to fly in around the middle of April, but we all know what happened… So, with all travels out of the question, we were stuck in the middle of nowhere, with internet-speeds from the 90s. “What do we do now?” we thought. In need of a distraction from our frustrations, we made this song, “Do It in LA”. Half satirical comedy about the shallow, plastic fantastic society, half an honest testimony to us dreaming ourselves away to sunny Californ-i-a, and LA. Everyone has an opinion about the celebrity scene, but who hasn’t dreamt of being a Hollywood star? A contrast to our often more melancholic music, we needed some feel good music in our not so cheerful times. We have visited LA a few times and have many friends there, so we have made our observations and got a taste of the atmosphere there. It is definitely a melting pot. Those are some of the things that inspired us to make this song.
MR: What does the songwriting process usually look like for the two of you?
AC: What mainly happens is, one of us has an initial idea, then we work on it separately for a while, before we get together. We then work a bit on it, bounces ideas off each other, before we continue to work separately, and repeat, until we have a finished song. This is the workflow that comes most naturally to us, and that works best for us.
MR: I understand that your from Norway? I’ve never been there but I’d love to go! When you begin touring again (hopefully soon) do you have any other cities in the U.S that you want to visit?
AC: Yes, definitely! We love traveling around the US, and there are many cities we’d love to see and visit. A few are Chicago, Seattle, New Orleans, Nashville, they’re all cities with legendary music scene and history. It would be so cool to visit there, and I know we will when the touring and traveling starts again.
MR: What’s the best bad decision you’ve ever made while touring? 🙂
AC: Oh, well, there was this time on our Filipino tour when we did something that turned out to be a very bad idea, but we had no way of knowing…. We ate some Korean Barbecue in a restaurant in a Mall in Manila, and it was really tasty, but the day after all hell broke loose. Our bodies, and especially our stomachs were not happy at all. It was the worst food poisoning we’ve ever had, and it lasted for a week -in the middle of our tour. It was plain luck that nothing went wrong when we were on stage, haha 😛
MR: What is one thing that most people wouldn’t know about each of you, just based on looks?
AC: Carol used to play trombone in a school band. Ask loves to eat cake.
Ask Carol wants everyone to know: When all this is over, the crazy situation in the world, we are coming on tour! We love traveling, and if you have a specific city you want us to come to, let us know 😀
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