Sasha Siem has always been a deeply individual talent.
An Anglo-Norwegian prodigy, she studied literature at Cambridge University before travelling out to continue her studies at Harvard.
By her early 20s she had written for London Symphony Orchestra, The Royal Opera House, Rambert Dance Company, and more, becoming one of the youngest ever winners of the British Composer Award.
New album 'Bird Burning' finds Sasha Siem trying to different avenue, with her artful take on folk-hewk songwriting recalling a more acoustic Kate Bush, or even a more classically inclined Bat For Lashes.
Arranged as a song cycle, the conceptual nature of the work means that it works on two levels, both as a loosely narrative piece and an intensely personal work of art.
Of course, Sasha didn't do it alone - along the way Icelandic composer and arranger Valgeir Sigurðsson was on hand to push her further, to act as a sounding board and, obstensibly, as producer.
Here, the two muse on the project, their working relationship, and their attitudes towards the creative process.
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SS: Morning Valgeir! As you know, my new album, Bird Burning, explores the transformations we undergo throughout life: birth, death, re-birth. If you could transform into anything right now, who or what would you be?
VS: [Laughs] Would it be a permanent transformation or could I jump back? If I could jump back I’d be… Wow, Let’s come back to that!
Is transformation something that you actively consider when creating music?
Transformation is interesting because it’s not a closed experience; you allow yourself to change your mind. It gives the opportunity to constantly review and criticize and refine your position, even your taste. It’s more like a journey; you don’t have to end up where you started. It’s interesting to take a sound that is pure at first and then - when I’ve had my way with it - it’s something else. It could be an acoustic sound that’s mic’d in a certain way, or an electronic sound that’s processed, or layers of different sounds that transform into something completely unexpected when they come together.
How has music transformed you?
I have no idea how it hasn’t. I think ever since I can remember being interested in music it’s been everything. My whole life has transformed because of it. I think basically without music I have no idea what I would be doing. I remember having very specific taste in music as a teenager and thinking “this music is good, this music is not good”. And gradually you open up more and more and, although I still have my specific taste, the more I know about music, the less I think you know. There’s still so much music that I haven’t yet invested in getting to know. It’s just endless.
In Iceland the daylight changes profoundly over the course of a year. When I was staying with you in February we had around three hours of daylight; now you’re heading towards summer and twenty-four hours of sun. How has living with these extremes of darkness and light affected you?
I like it because you can’t control it. I like that you have to accept that you’re not in charge! It’s taught me that everything is possible and anything can happen.
I heard the premier of No Nights Dark Enough at the Village Underground a couple of years ago. The title implies a yearning to be able to control these changes somehow. Have you found a way of turning on your inner light?
I don’t think I’ve actively been seeking out the ability to turn it on or off but it’s always been really important for me to sink my head into something where I can forget everything else other than exactly what I’m doing at a given moment. That’s a sort of bliss. It’s not necessarily easy... I can be struggling with solving a problem in a piece or a mix but when it’s just me and that thing, that focus – that is a very ON moment for me.
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Many of your works explore different stages of consciousness – specifically the dream state – that intermediary world between deep sleep and full awakening. Could you share with us a moment of revelation or awakening that you’ve had in your musical life?
Seeing into other people’s process is revealing – whether it’s the way they think or how they put their ideas down, or how they play the piano.
Even working with you on the recordings – seeing how you described your ideas to the musicians and how you communicated what you wanted in an open way but always so they could sense that there was a very specific outcome you were after… There were maybe different ways to get there and you wouldn’t necessarily tell them exactly which way to go, but you gave them little pointers of where you wanted them to end up. Just watching that process was very revealing to me and that’s one of the reasons I love to collaborate with people. I feel I’m always learning things from other people and opening new doors just by seeing how other people do things.
Collaboration seems to be at the core of your musical life; or rather your life, because life and work are so closely intertwined for you… Your record label, Bedroom Community, was founded with a group of close friends ten years ago and you’ve worked closely with them since. How do life and work transform each other?
I’ve never drawn a line between life and work, except when I have to do so for practical reasons – to make some personal space – or out of respect for others. I think that when you do something you’re very passionate about, it’s constantly with you. Whether you’re cooking dinner or going on holiday – there’s always something ‘at work’ at the back of your mind, which feeds the next time you sit down to create something.
I’ve built my house and studio together in an integrated way because I want to live the work and make life central. At the same time I’ve had to create a sense of ‘ok I’m going home now, or “I’m going to work now’ but mainly it’s in order to be more present in the place I’m supposed to be in.
Do you have strategies for making those transitions?
Well, the most basic way is to close a door and open another door, and think to yourself: “OK, that’s another world – I’m not there now, I’m here.” And that’s tricky. It’s taken years of training.
You’ve recently become a father again, how has the experience of parenting changed you?
That’s interesting. There’s no one way to put it. It’s transformed me in a way that I’m realizing again how precious time is. Time changes a lot when you have little babies. It happens really fast but also time stands still in a way and there’s a lot of repetition of routine and getting them into sleep patterns. And feeling the transformation of day into night in relation to their schedule has been interesting.
It’s transformed the way that I prioritize – especially with collaboration. There’s less room for playing around in my work. There’s a lot of playing around on the floor with babies but when I go to work there’s got to be more focus. I have to have a clearer idea of where I want to go.
So Valgeir, on that note, I want to go back to that first question: If you could transform into anyone or anything – perhaps I should have said, for the length of this interview – what would you be?
It’s a very difficult question. Do you have an answer to this question?
Well, in this moment I would probably say a bird. I’d like more of a bird’s eye view of things…
Well, I think for 42 minutes I would have liked to have been BACH. I think on a week day at work, with all his kids copying his music and watching the process, and thinking about what he’s writing for next Sunday...
Doesn’t sound too far off your current situation [laughs]. Thank you Valgeir.
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'Bird Burning' is out now.