Saa: "Against Interpretation"

Saa is the new project of Asher Levitas - one of the collaborators in acclaimed and enigmatic London experimental outfit Old Apparatus - and Norwegian avant-garde musician and vocalist Linn Carin Dirdal. Saa's music takes cues from the hazy and alien early 4AD sound, pastoral folk and experimental electronic music contemporaries The Knife. Their new video,"Against Interpretation" looks like the contents of a graphic designer's mind, with overlaid hypercolour images set to the sound of intricate avant-pop. It all sounds pretty exciting, so we sat down with the group to ask them questions about their work, death row, and KFC.

Noisey: How does the meeting of Norwegian and British musical upbringings manifest itself in Saa?

Asher: Well I didn’t have a musical upbringing as such, apart from being forced to play the recorder when I was young. Although I remember very early on my Dad showing me how to slow down and speed up records and I loved that. I got interested in making music through experimenting with Fruity Loops when I was at college. A lot of friends were into the same thing. Linn has been classically trained though. I would say it's a meeting of a leftfield textural and beat-driven approach with a more poppy, melodic one.

Linn: Yeah, definitely. I was brought up on classical music. I always had a piano lesson or a choir rehearsal to go to. I loved being part of performing these huge choral works with big orchestras, like Orff and Handel, and I was very fond of Edvard Grieg’s Lyric Pieces and his sense of harmony. I was probably more fond of MTV though. I was a sucker for pop, still am. You can hear elements of all that in Saa.

How does Saa compare to Old Apparatus and other projects you've worked on in the past?

Asher: It’s hard to say, its very early days. We’ve only been working together for about a year now. In the last three years or so, working with Old Apparatus has been a very immersive experience. We learnt to do everything for ourselves in the end. Everything was in-house apart from one video as we developed a sound and strong aesthetic that we wanted to keep to, so it’s nice to break out of that with Saa and develop a different sound and vision and also to collaborate with other people. Another difference is the fact that Linn is in Oslo so we don’t see each other much in person, we just bounce ideas to and fro via email and have Skype chats. But we are going to get together to work on our live show very soon.

Linn: Although I’ve been involved in various bands and projects over the years, it’s only in the last couple of years or so that I started writing and recording my own stuff, so bringing that into a project is a fairly new thing to me. Also, our different backgrounds mean we have different ways of thinking about music, which makes Saa really exciting. It opens up for a lot of new ideas and experimentation.

How would your parents describe your sound?

Asher: I don’t think they’ve heard any Saa stuff but I think they would be glad that there is singing involved and not just beats and weird sounds.

Linn: Strange and exciting, my mum says.

What's one thing from your childhood that isn't as good as it used to be?

Asher: My stomach after a Zinger tower burger.

Linn: Frozen pizza.

What would your death row meal be?

Asher: A Zinger Tower Burger…. Erm, I'm not sure if I would be in the mood for eating.

Linn: Maybe that’s when I’ll try raw chicken sushi. I don’t want to be around if that one goes wrong.

What's on your phone background?

Asher: My girlfriend.

Linn: Some clouds.

Lastly, please sum up your band in a haiku.

Linn:

Dreams

Dropping

Down

Er, is that even a Haiku

No.

Hear more from Saa

www.sounds-of-saa.tumblr.com

https://twitter.com/Sounds_of_Saa

http://www.facebook.com/SoundsofSaa