Loop: Witches

Sasha and the Valentines

Album: So You Think You Found Love?
Release Date: 2021
USA

The band has been perfecting their craft for years now. Having performed together since college, the five know their strengths. With Alex Whitelaw on guitar, Bergin on Bass, Billy Hickey on drums, Tim Zoidis doing percussion, and Sarah Addi on piano and vocals, Sasha came out of their two previous bands Spirit Ghost and Calico Blue. Although both Spirit Ghost and Calico Blue are still active, with a new single “Billy” from Calico on Spotify, Sasha is their current focus. Moving away from their garage rock surfer sound, Sasha blends more aspects of dreamy synth pop in to the fabric of their rhythm, drawing inspiration from some of their favorite bands. [Read more on Hooligan Mag]

To start, So You Think You Found Love? is too good to be a debut LP- so, big congratulations! What are the main differences between your LP and EP in terms of becoming or feeling like a complete band?

Thanks so much! It weirdly doesn’t feel like our debut LP — not only have we played some of these songs for over 2 years, but most of us have all been in bands together for about 7 years. So it kind of feels like a culmination of everything we’ve learned. But for me personally, it’s definitely my first time being the principal songwriter of an album. 

“No, I don’t” is my personal answer to your question if you were wondering. “No, I don’t”, and I cope with this bitter fact by listening to your album. This is a great title that could easily relate to every broken (or, yet to be broken) heart, I guess. Will you tell us more about what else the album is talking about?

The album very obviously explores relationship issues and insecurities that can be felt by anyone which I thought was really important, feeling heard or understood is something I’ve always desperately needed since childhood. Part of it is very autobiographical; each song kind of follows my relationship timeline but it also touches on some broader themes, like Tears for Mars explores the relationship with our galaxy and our place in it, Some time and I See the Light explore me coming to terms with my queerness in a very subliminal way (only recently out woohoo!). Overall, I wanted to be open with how fucked up, confusing, and amazing love and relationships can be and it’s OK to be honest about your part in those relationships — how you acted or how you felt at the time.  

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I build a style connection between SATV and one of my favorite bands James in terms of making you happily dance to bittersweet messages (See; Lose Control). How do you achieve this?

Totally, I love wrapping these serious, dark emotions of self-doubt and sadness in glitter and bubble gum. I think some of the best things are presented that way. It’s almost like how a lot of comedians cope, they tell jokes about their real lives and insecurities. It’s super cathartic to dance and sing out your feelings. I deeply relate to that. 

It’s really hard to pick a favorite from such an overall album but we had to go with Witches for our loop songs series. The reason is… After I listen to the entire album full of 11 amazingly cinematic songs, I think it is an interesting and brave choice to open the album with Witches. What was that process like?

Thanks for saying that, because it was definitely a pointed choice to open with Witches. Aside from it being one of the first songs I wrote for the album and the first like being “Hey babe”; it just felt like a very commanding opening. I hoped by starting with the lone staccato organ peoples’ ears would perk up and I would get your attention. Lyrically it feels introductory as well; I’m kind of saying, “Well, you know you wanna talk about it” like thematically I’m about to unleash all my feelings on you. 

What is the backstory of it? And please give us a bit of detail about how it came together.

I started writing Witches on an acetone organ that I had for a brief time and then switched over to my Yamaha DX reface, I got the chords and the riff going and I was like oh this is kinda spooky. So I started writing the lyrics. I thought about how in relationships I tend to be the healer or supporter which can sometimes tread the line of being emotionally manipulative. So I caricatured myself as a witch having a spell over someone and being in control. I know their weaknesses but don’t let them know mine. Even when the person isn’t a great partner or I’m not super into them, I want them to be super dependent on me. So I’m a great listener and very easy to be around. I think that’s my subconscious fear of being not wanted or needed; which is definitely more relatable than people like to admit. 

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Thanks to JB (and everyone else pitching in), you have also been making fantastic videos even though I hate to see they are horribly underrated on YouTube (for now!). Do you benefit from being based in Austin in that regard?

The Witches video was an awesome collab between JB and Alex. JB directed and shot the video on their 8mm camera and then Alex did all the editing and coloring. As for the other videos (Flower and Don’t You Love Me) we met these great filmmakers Lucy and Vincent who own Lemon St. Pictures. They had been doing short films and such and I met Vincent through some freelance work and we all just clicked and they were able to make some really amazing videos for us based on my ideas. I think if we hadn’t lived in Austin we wouldn’t have met other struggling creatives who were willing to create things with a shoestring budget. 

Are you going to be making a video for Angel, too? Because, please do.

We have another self another self-made video coming out soon but unfortunately not for Angel 🙁 That being said I already know what I would want the Angel video to look like so we’ll probably make one at some point.

Lastly, what are your goals for the rest of the year now? Are you going to be playing live anytime soon?

We’re kind of letting the album breathe for a little before we try and tour. Hopefully when everything is really safe, we’ll hit the road and try to play a lot of different cities. Other than that, I’ll be back to writing; I don’t like forcing it, so I’m just gonna live a little bit of life first and then see what comes out. 

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