Ashley Schram
Darryl Hawk, Ashley Schram, and Tommy Carter – Owners/engineers of MAGICLAB studios in Vancouver BC.
By Pam Huwig
Chances are you haven’t heard of Ashley Schram yet. After all, it’s understandable as she hasn’t yet released a CD. But, if you hang out in any indie circles at all, it won’t be long before you hear her name. She’s in the process of recording songs for her first record, Urban Rain, and to keep her already-fans satisfied, she’s releasing a demo CD. Schram is a musician, poet, and songwriter in every way, and people are catching onto that fast. Ashley recently talked with FEMMUSIC about her budding music career, poetry, and tying it all together.
FEMMUSIC: Okay, girl, so what’s up? Are you putting out a record or what?
AS: Yeah, yeah, I am. The full-length record won’t be out until next summer, but I’ve recently been recording songs for a demo CD, I guess you’d call it. I’ll have about five songs on it, because everyone keeps telling me that it should have about five songs because that’s a good length. So, that’s the number I’ve decided on.
FEMMUSIC: How will people be able to get a copy?
AS: The demo CD will be available through my website as soon as I’m done. Brian Clary, who does the really cool Indigo Girls website is doing mine, too. I’m really excited about that, he’s really good.
FEMMUSIC: So tell me a little about the songs you’ve been working on?
AS: I usually write the music and the lyrics at the same time. Like, sometimes the first-draft lyrics just stay because they work really well. The first-draft lyrics of “Oregon” worked really well. People have been saying that they really like they lyrics, so that’s really great. “Urban Rain” is another one I like a lot. It’s about a relationship ending, and you still love the person, but you have to forget the days, you know? You try to forget them, but it’s hard. Do you know what I mean? “Undoing, Undone” is a spoken-word one, which will be on the demo and the record.
FEMMUSIC: Yeah, I know what you mean. So, you want people to be able to relate?
AS: I just hope that people can find some kind of inspiration from my songs and from my poems. I mean, I totally want to inspire people, it doesn’t matter what they do, just so they have inspiration.
FEMMUSIC: So, you played with The Butchies in Seattle recently, right?
AS: Yeah, at The Showbox. I mean, I played one set with them. And it was great! I had just been talking to Kaia before the show a little, and we had been talking a little before that through email, so she asked me if I wanted to play with them. Of course I said yes.
FEMMUSIC: Oh, well that’s cool, eh? I’m sure you had a blast?
AS: Oh, yeah, I really did. It was so much fun, oh my God. My mom was even up there smiling back and forth at Alison the whole time, dancing, it was really cute! [Laughs]
FEMMUSIC: Your mom was rocking it out with The Butchies? That’s great.
AS: Oh, yeah, Mom loves The Butchies! My mom wears a Butchies tee-shirt all the time, and so do I. She likes a lot of the same music as I do.
FEMMUSIC: You’re 17, right?
AS: Yeah. How old are you? [Laughs]
FEMMUSIC: Fair enough, 30. You must hate being asked about your age?
AS: Sometimes [laughs] I mean, I want people to hear me for my music, you know? But, I mean, I don’t mind if people know how old I am.
FEMMUSIC: I don’t think there’s much fear of people overlooking your music. You don’t even have a record out and it seems you haven’t had much trouble getting local gigs. You must feel like, at your age, that you have a healthy jump on things, right?
AS: Yeah, I do, and that’s cool. I mean, yeah, I see that, and I think in a lot of ways my age will work for me. I just don’t want it to be the focus of what I’m doing, ya know?
FEMMUSIC: When would you say things starting taking off for you?
AS: If you just stay in your basement playing for nobody, you’re not going to get anywhere. So you have to just keep going. I wouldn’t sing for anyone for the longest time, and then I finally just got over it, and when I did, things started happening for me.
FEMMUSIC: What would your dream tour-bill look like?
AS: Oh, that’s easy, my ultimate dream is to someday tour with the Indigo Girls. That would be so great. I doubt it will ever happen, but that would definitely be my dream, the thing that would make me think I had done something.
Urban Rain
The concrete lies
Littered with regret,
Graffiti signs
Are getting wet.
Steeple streetlights sway
Orange embers stray
From your silouhette
As you walk away.
Our hands are cold
From the urban rain
It washes away
Everything I contain.
All my thoughts of you
They just wont let go
Familiar eyes
I know longer know…
The urban rain has fallen
So many days forgotten.
Your jaded heart could not live up to
Everything
You wanted to…
The late night bus
Only goes so far
From your uptown lights
That stained my heart.
My memory
Takes me back to you
Corner coffee shops
Deserted avenues.
Everything I say
Turns a different shade
And when I talk to you
Its like night and day.
But now my coffee’s gone,
And my memories old
Your urban hands
Were always too cold.