Dystopian and Danceable

Asa Ransom Plays April Residency at Cameo

Show up to Cameo Gallery on a Tuesday night in April and you’ll find an impressive and immersing sight. Writhing bodies on the dance floor; art installations on the walls; a gigantic sheet of white drooping things hung overhead, crisscrossed by scrims used to project video art resulting nearly 360 degrees of video projection on the walls and ceiling; and the pulsating, dystopian post-punk sounds of five-piece Asa Ransom onstage. The elaborate spectacle is all part of the Brooklyn rockers’ April-long residency at Cameo Gallery in Williamsburg.

“These are the first shows where we’ve had absolute control of the space,”said Jacob Bills, the band’s singer and guitarist. “Cameo has been amazing in working with us, allowing us to set up. The first week was kind of thrilling. Creating that room, it ended up becoming so meaningful that it became so much larger than our performance. It became a collaborative energy.”

Such an energy begins with the band, which is led by the distinctively-voiced (and distinctively–dressed) Bills, who wore a streak of blue facepaint across his eyes during the show. Asa Ransom’s sound could be described as energetic, spooky, at times tribal, and multi-textured. Bringing it all together is Bills’ voice—breathless, urgent, and dynamic, ranging from a coy whisper to a high-pitched and surprisingly martial bark.

“We’re thinking of it as an opera, in some ways,” laughed Bills. “One of our most referenced performances so far is Satyagraha [Philip Glass’s 1980 opera loosely based on the life of Mohandas K. Gandhi]. We’re talking about the potential of staging in that way, where it’s not too theatrical—certainly it’s not opera—but at the same time how poignant visuals can be, and how poignant projections and images can be.”

Futuristic rock music and Satyagrapha: it’s an unexpected—and intriguing combination.

Yet it makes sense for a band like Asa Ransom, whose soundsynthesizes a wide range of influences. Like his bandmates, Bills is a voracious listener. When asked to list a few of his musical influences, he quickly rattled off a lengthy list of bands and musicians including The Velvet Underground, Iggy Pop, Fela Kuti, Laurie Anderson, The Clash, Terry Riley, Sam Cooke, The Talking Heads (“obviously,” said Bills), music from Thailand, gamelan, Mahler.“Anything we can get our hands on,” he said.“We don’t consider genres. It’s more from a place of human experience.”

Bills and his bandmates Daniel Boivin (who plays drums) and Darryl Specht (who plays bass and sings) first arrived in New York in 2002, fresh from Indiana, where they had been attending a Christian college before getting banned from playing music that was deemed “dangerous.”They moved into a one-bedroom apartment in Queens and started playing music. For day jobs, they worked at a video production company. In July 2008, pianist and vocalist Bobby Gray and percussionist Ryan Sartin joined and Asa Ransom was born.

As one might expect, life as a musician in New York isn’t easy. It’s an intense and oftentimes humbling experience, filled with too many bands and not enough people who actually care enough to listen.

“One of the things about New York is that, no one owns New York,” said Bills.“New York keeps going without you. You die and New Yorkdoesn’t stop.In terms of the perspective of making music and creating, you’re constantly faced with a city that doesn’t care about you. And you kind of love it for that. There’s a certain insignificance that it keeps for you. It challenges your pursuits, what you’re making. I think that’s one of the most valuable things about the city is that it will chew you up. You learn about what struggle is. You learn about conflict from your environment. I think in the best music, it’s rank with conflict. Whether it’s beautiful conflict, or not.”

Bills compared the scene in LA to the scene in New York. “There’s more freedom there. [Here] you’re created and haunted by the history of the arts. And that’s an amazing thing to be in the face of. I think it’s important to view your insignificance.”

Though they now live in Bushwick, Bills and his bandmates were initially skeptical of Williamsburg and the North Brooklyn music scene as a whole.

“When we were living in Queens, I couldn’t stand coming over here,” said Bills, over coffee along Bedford Avenue. “We called it the ‘Heart of the Dragon.’ After going on tour, there’s something about here that we’ve grown to appreciate, the conversations that go on. It’s a bit much sometimes, but I think there’s something special about this area.”

“Even if this isn’t going to be my home forever, it’s nice to know there’s a place like this,” said Bills.“Traveling through the Midwest, I would die to spend an afternoon here sometimes, to see someone you know, say hello, go to the bookstore, go to the record store.”

Fresh off a nine-month cross-country tour, including stops in Los Angeles, where the band play played shows at, among others, the renowned Standard Hotel in LA, the band is back in Brooklyn for a while.In addition to their April-long residency at Cameo, they’re working on a series of recordings. Look for a 12” vinyl single from Revtone entitled The Luck of Stoney Bowesin April and another release in August.

“We’re starting to get contacted by promoters in Europe,” said Bills. “We’re doing a couple supporting tours. We’ll see what happens.”

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