SASHA SIEM INTERVIEW
Sasha
Siem
Born London · British / Norwegian · Cambridge & Harvard · British Composer Award
A composer and singer-songwriter with a passion for the devotional and medicinal power of music. She has written for the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic, the Royal Opera House, and Rambert. Her influences include Tom Waits, puppet theatres, the moon, and love letters found at flea markets.
Sasha Siem was born in London to a British mother and a Norwegian father, and began playing the cello, writing, recording and performing her own songs at an early age. She studied music at Cambridge and Harvard, and by her early twenties she had written music for the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Opera House, Rambert Dance Company, Opera North, the Aldeburgh Festival, Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Neue Vocalisten Stuttgart, the London Sinfonietta and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2010, she became one of the youngest people to win a prestigious British Composer Award.
Her brother is the violinist Charlie Siem; her sisters are the visual artist and healing-arts teacher Sophie Madeleine Siem, and the artist and model Louisa Siem. An artistic family to say the least.
After the British Composer Award, she recorded her first alt-pop album, Most of the Boys, with Valgeir Sigurdsson at the Greenhouse Studios in Reykjavik, written for voice and string quartet. It was premiered at the Royal Opera House to critical acclaim from Noisey, Q, Mojo, NME, Billboard, Fader, Wonderland and Marie Claire, with support at BBC Radio 6, Xfm, Absolute Radio and BBC Radio 3.
Five more albums followed: Bird Burning, for voice and wind ensemble, which Line of Best Fit called a spectacular record on several levels; wHOLeY, recorded at 432Hz, the so-called love frequency, and premiered as a choreographed healing experience at Sadler’s Wells; L.OVER, a series of love songs following a divorce, for voice and viol ensemble, released via an online concert series during Covid; EAR.th, a love song to our planet built from NASA recordings of the earth as heard from space; and most recently TRUE, a naked exploration of the ways we create our life stories, for voice and prepared piano.
Tom Waits, puppet theatres, and love letters found at flea markets.
Her musical influences range from Tom Waits, Bjork, Joanna Newsom, Jacques Brel, Laurie Anderson, Ani DiFranco and Leonard Cohen to the composers Claude Vivier, Ligeti, Kurtag, Rameau, Scarlatti and Couperin. Her poets include Anne Carson, William Carlos Williams, Yehuda Amichai, Marianne Moore, Rumi, Mark Strand, Frank O’Hara and Jonathan Swift.
“I have come to see how much everything of my outside world is conditioned by the state of my inner life.”
A desire for what was missing.
“As a teenager I was living a life that was seemingly full of achievement and perfection, but inwardly I felt hopeless and disconnected. I did not want to live the life others wanted for me. I wanted to be truly myself but did not know how. A desire for what was missing ignited a journey of exploration, both within and without.”
“I have come to see how much everything of my outside world is conditioned by the state of my inner life. It takes bravery to face what is truly going on internally, but life is so much richer and alive and wondrous for me because of it.”
A dilapidated chateau in Bordeaux.
“Samson and I met while I was living in Berlin in 2010. After a year of sharing ideas and improvising, we snuck away to record our collaboration at a dilapidated chateau in Bordeaux. I played cello and sang at the same time; Samson wove his electronics around the cello part.”
To dare.
“NYC is overflowing with dynamic people willing to experiment and explore. The energy here propels me to birth ideas. And to speak up. To dare.”
Trust the journey.
“Love and be kind to yourself. Trust and enjoy the journey.”
“Now I see myself as a kind of servant of music and its power.”
Antakly Projects, originally Ninu Nina, has been in conversation with the most inspiring voices in art, photography, design and culture since 2003. Interview by Leila Antakly. Sasha Siem hears music the way some people hear prayers.
Portrait via @sashasiem. All music © Sasha Siem.
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Let go. Let the light in. ✦
