Ashia
Pay to be Loved (Remastered)
© 2007 Ashia (796873016308)
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Mixing avant garde approach of Dresden Dolls with intensiveness of PJ Harvey, in walks Regina Spektor to pour in anti-folk. Addiction? Yes. Sensual and provoking vocals with bowed and plucky cello lines blended in a concoction of blues, art song, and folk
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Ashia blends sensual and provoking vocals with various colors of the cello ranging from plucked bass lines to sonorous melodic phrases. With her unique and dynamic, classically trained, ability to play cello and sing simultaneously, Ashia created songs with elements of anti-folk, blues, and classical on her self-released album "Pay to be Loved". This album is described as "exuding a dark outlook that recalls Tom Waits and Edith Piaf...her probing lyrics on the underbelly of romance with delirious results", Brad Walseth, Jazz Chicago.com and "Ashia's unconventional sound is sometimes haunting, alternating among broad ranges of styles, volumes, and speeds at most unexpected moments...an album praiseworthy for its sincere originality and stunning musical range", Melanie Fried, Elmore Magazine. Her sincerity, as well, was felt by Janos Starker, renown cellist and pedagogue, when he told her "you have soul" during his master class.
Coming from a family with a musical and theatrical background, her father a blues singer and mother a former actor, Ashia knew she was meant to lead a life in an artistic field. She was born in Poland, but her family came to the United States via former West Germany in 1984 due to political and social upheaval. Upon settling a few years later, she began her cello studies at the age of 9. While still in high-school, she started to combine singing and playing the cello and continued this distinct duo into college at Central Washington University with a Farrell Merit Scholarship recital titled Non Traditional Cello. Apart from playing and singing she was performing classical cello in the states and abroad in Japan and Canada.
At the age of 21, Ashia left school and ran away to play cello and sing at Cirque du Soleil’s "O" show in Las Vegas, NV for four months. She returned a year later, after traveling to Europe and studying, to join "O" full-time. Outside of working at "O", Ashia performed alongside band members of BlueManGroup and cast members of sister Cirque du Soleil shows, as well as completing a BA in music at CWU. She has appeared in magazines such as Yoga International, InStyle, and the Tacoma News Tribune, among others. As part of a dyamic cabaret style duet act with an aerial hoop artist, Fernanda Mas Montiero, she sings and plays a version of her CD title song "Pay to be Loved". Since leaving the "O" show in December, 2007 Ashia has enjoyed writing and performing her original songs to enthralled audiences.