Please give us a short introduction of yourself?
I'm Margriet, the singer of Asrai from the early beginning. Unfortunately playing in a band doesn't pay the rent (yet) so I have a regular job, and work with homeless youngsters. My boyfriend is a tattoo artist and has got the tattoo shop Burning Heart tattoo in Haarlem. I enjoy that very much and I'm trying to attend as many tattoo conventions as possible. Together we have a son: Devon.

What kind of style does ASRAI play?
It’s not easy to find the right words to describe our style of music, because every description leads to various expectations. Some describe our music as Gothic Metal, but in my opinion that doesn’t cover the music, especially not the way of singing. So in the end and after lot of thinking we prefer the definition Gothic Rock.

Why the name ASRAI?
The Asrai are small, fragile, female beings who turn to a puddle of water when they are captured or exposed to sunlight. Therefore it remains uncaught. ....and certainly in the beginning, many people couldn't label us. So in a way unreachable as well. “Don’t come to close and don’t put us in musical chains, we will slip right through your fingers.”

Every band has an inspiration source, what is yours?
Our influences are from the eighties. I guess the music that you grow up with will determine your life. I used to listen to a lot of punk and wave bands. And we went to a lot of concerts. The bands, (with not so many female fronted bands... that had to change. and it did.), the vibe and energy from that time inspired us to start making music and during playing all those years we created our own sound. Life itself is the biggest inspiration for the music that the rest of Asrai and I want to make. Personally it’s very important that I can loose myself in our music and have a way of translating my emotions in our songs. For that matter, emotions in every kind of music is very important, if I can’t feel the emotion in a song I’m not interested. I need to feel that it’s real.

Is there live after death?
We have to wait for that one before we can answer that question to full truth. But I believe in an after life. I need to believe that, otherwise, if not, life is the biggest joke of all. Why bother to invest in a personal growth, with all the pain, sadness and sorrow, only to finally close your eyes and be lost in the dark forever. Besides that, I find it really interesting that you find the same stories about death, ghosts, near-death experiences and so on in almost every culture. So there’s more to come...

If you have to choose between living with demons or angels???..what would you choose?
Fight with your demons, ride with the devil and sleep like an angel. Demons where ones angels too...

Did you ever heard about BRUTALISM?
Ehm..sorry...I heard about BRUTALISM when you asked me to do the interview.

How many albums/CDs did ASRAI make?
In the first eight years of our existence Asrai recorded
four demo tapes as well:
The Blue Tape
So clear that you couldn’t' tell where the water ended
and the air began
Love is a Lie
Live in a package
Asrai

And our first cd:
As voices speak

And second one:
Touch in the dark

And more to come....

Are there any bands that you love the most?
I love the old stuff of the Cure and more 80 ‘s goodies, the Damned, Birthday party, Apocalyptica, Skunk DF, Social Distortion, Ministry, Kate Bush, Diamanda Gallas and so on and on...

What is your biggest dream?
Worldwide peace and respect for individuals so that everyone has the possibility to choose whatever they want to be or want to become. But all my hope on that ideal is gone when I look at our society; there are so many clowns running the world. I don’t know if I should laugh or start to cry when (the stand up comedians) Bush and Balkenende (etc, you can fill in so many names..) start spitting their rubbish. But for Asrai, I hope that we will get the possibility to quit our jobs and make a living with making music so that we’re able to focus on our music, meet more talented people and develop our music.

What do you think about this interview for so far?
You really wanted to squeeze my brain..

How does the interior of your house look like?
The walls are purple, the chairs are red. I like baroque mirrors, so on every corner of the room you will find some. A touch of oriental influences. Dragons, fairies and living dead dolls. A painting made by Mistral about a women falling to pieces. I bought a lot second hand, but I stopped because we have no space left.

What is the most valuable thing you posses?
That’s a difficult question, there are many things with their own value, so I can’t choose, every piece has it’s own story ....

Last rites?
I hope there’s more and more attention for underground music. There’s a lot of talented band who deserve the possibility to play and get publicity. It’s difficult for a lot of independant bands. So keep music evil.