With a new music video, a new tour and bucket loads of energy, Asta has a lot to offer in the coming months.
Since winning Triple j’s Unearthed High in 2012, Tasmanian-born Asta has certainly been busy. Her latest offering, the '80s-drenched collaboration with Allday, ‘Dynamite’, was released earlier this year, and she has now released an accompanying video clip as a precursor to her upcoming tour. The video, which features a lot of her dancing around and basically being a loveable lil’ dynamo in front of the camera (and some fabulous coats), turned out just how she wanted it.
“It was a lot of fun to make,” she says. “It was really cool to be able to wear some crazy stuff that I thought would work, and then it was just a ‘put the camera on and then do whatever you like’ kind of thing. It was whole takes of me singing and dancing around and I guess it worked, I really wanted it to have a simple structure. The song [‘Dynamite’] is about taking your time away from someone or something and I think me singing and then Allday doing his part separately just worked I think.”
This is Asta’s latest in a long string of collaborations with Allday, a musical partnership which some may question, so different are the two musician’s styles. Asta, however, adores the contrasts presented when the two perform together. Recently returning from accompanying Allday on his recent national tour, she is a little secretive about revealing whether they have any other projects in the works.
“Hopefully, I guess we'll see, there’s a couple of surprises coming up but I can't give away too much. In the next week something might be happening so we'll see. “I really love working with him, I think we're both completely different artists and we really complement each other vocally, it adds a whole new flavour to my stuff. It's been a lot of fun collaborating with him and I really enjoyed it.”
With her latest tour starting at the end of July, Asta will be travelling all over the country with her groovy tunes and even groovier stage costumes (she continuously delivers on the wardrobe front), and it seems she can’t wait. “I love performing because I can do whatever I want to do. Being on stage is just the best thing ever about the whole thing, I see myself as more of a performer-singer than a musician really.
“When you're on stage it's like you're in a box where you can do whatever you want, it's just so freeing to be able to do that, and to perform in front of fans is just another level. I'm naturally a quiet but confident person so on stage those things just increase in volume, I become really confident. I remember starting out and just trembling with my guitar but now it's like playing in a lounge room - I'm just so confident, I get maybe too into it, sometimes I have to remind myself ‘don't freak anyone out’.”
As well as being a tour that enables her to get her groove on, this particular tour is special in another way, as it's part of the Oxfam run initiative, ‘OxJam’. ‘OxJam’ organises or facilitates gigs around the country for known and lesser-known artists, with part of the ticket sales going to Oxfam. “I know, isn’t it amazing? I swear I bought my first songwriting book from there, it's such a cool shop.
“I'm really happy they approached me about this, I thought it was such a cool idea. A percentage of every ticket goes to Oxfam, and you get to choose where you want your money to go to, and I chose climate change. So yeah, it's such a great thing to do.”
And after the tour? What does Asta get up to in her down time? “Just drinking a whole lot of tea and writing more music and finding new experiences. I'm loving writing at the moment and just really working myself.”
Written by Eva Phillips
Asta 'Dynamite' Tour Dates
Jul 31 - Cloister, University of Adelaide - ALL AGESAug 1 - Jack Rabbit Slims (WA)
Aug 11 - Elephant Hotel (Bris)
Aug 14 - Club 54 (Launceston)
Aug 15 - Republic (N. Hobart)
Aug 20 - Manning Bar (Syd)
Aug 21 - Academy (Canb)
Aug 22 - Uni Bar (Wooloongong)
Aug 28 - Howler (Brunswick, VIC)
Aug 29 - Karova Lounge (Ballarat)
