Interviews: Asylum Sisters
- Electro Punk Industrial Rock

In this episode we chat with Caitlin the vocalist of Asylum Sisters of Melbourne, Australia. Firstly, you can download a free copy of their track "Harder, Darker, Louder". It is featured on the "S.I.N.G.E.D. 2" compilation album. There are links to more music by Asylum Sisters further below.

Interview by DJ Robot Citizen:

If someone were to jump out from behind a tree and ask you to describe Asylum Sisters in one sentence?

Caitlin of Asylum Sisters: Crystal Castles meets Nine Inch Nails with female vox and not typical song structure.

DJ Robot: What collections of music have you released so far and where can people find them?

Caitlin: Our very first EP was called Educate Consciousness which you can download there for free.

We have released some fun covers on our soundcloud @ https://www.soundcloud.com/asylumsisters

And finally our most recent EP A Faith Called You from 2016 was released on Blind Mice Productions.

DJ Robot: Who is in the group and what do they do?

Caitlin: Asylum Sisters were formed by myself and Martin Pike. We have written and released all the music to date. In 2016 we added guitarist Drew to the band and drummer Jamie. Currently Asylum Sisters is: Martin - synth/keys/guitar/producing, Drew - guitar, and myself - vocals/lyrics & guitar.

DJ Robot: Are there any particular topics or themes that you are motivated by or seek to explore in your music?

Caitlin of Asylum Sisters: I guess when I'm writing our songs different sounds trigger different emotions and I start writing a journey toward whatever I'm feeling. A lot of my lyrics I guess are themed around death, war, self motivation and chaos... self chaos, world chaos or general atmospheric chaos... Our songs go on little journeys I like to think... a lot of them aren't your typical structured songs.

DJ Robot: What's the background to your music work? When and how did you commence? What initially inspired you?

Caitlin of Asylum Sisters: For me personally I've always loved music... making it and playing it. Unfortunately for a good 10 years of my life I was a professional basketballer and that took up majority of my time. Once I retired (I retired at 26) I met Martin and Asylum Sisters was originally just me and my ideas which he was helping produce. Over time Martin starting to collab more and more and brought into Asylum Sisters and we became a team and that was that. What inspired me were bands like Linkin Park, Korn, Nine inch Nails and Crystal Castles... I wanted to do something new and fresh and have that energetic music that just gets you going!

DJ Robot: I'm very glad you did! What are some of the key live events you've performed at?

Caitlin of Asylum Sisters: We played in 2015 at Bar Sinister in LA - Hollywood which was amazing! To play at LA's biggest goth club was a dream! Our EP launch April 2016 was epic also, we played at the underground basement at a place in Melbourne called the Grace Darling. It was sold out and the energy was just insane!!

DJ Robot: There's a video clip on youtube for "Harder, Darker, Louder" which is described as "shot & edited on a smartphone"?

Asylum Sisters: The music video for that came about when I met a guy in NYC!! he was talking about how he makes music videos on his phone in a certain time frame and does all the editing and everything just on his iphone. The only problem was his videos kepts getting taken down because he didn't have original music and didn't have rights with the artists to use their music. So I said he could make a video for us... and well he did all in 7 hours!

DJ Robot: What are your plans and ambitions for the near future?

Caitlin: I would love to keep writing more music and performing. I want to go on tours and just play and get our name out to everywhere. I feel we are a very under-rated band because we simply don't know how to get good gigs/if not any gigs. I would just love to see Asylum Sisters really establish ourselves.
And finish our single we have been working on for a good 9 months now - and have a big single launch.

DJ Robot: I've noticed the phrase "health goth" in some of your photos/merch. What does that mean for you and what kinds, if any, reactions have you received from people?

Asylum Sisters: Oh yes "healthgoth" I created a hash tag in 2013/2015 #healthgoth. It became a sub-culture and went viral!

DJ Robot: What do you feel are the main challenges of being independent/underground musicians?

Asylum Sisters: We all work full time and have relatively busy jobs which makes it hard to coordinate regular sessions. It's also exposure and Melbourne doesn't really have a strong goth/alternative-electronica scene so it's tough to find shows which you fit. Finding your crowd is tough. Melbourne venues like Bang/Plastic seem to not want a bar of you when you contact them to play if you're not a 5-piece male hardcore band. I think some scenes are quite snobby and just sit within their own cliques. And are not willing to expand or give others a go. A lot of people are in scenes and feel hard done by so instead of changing it they keep in their little circles and start the cycle again.

DJ Robot: To close, what are your websites where people can learn and hear more?

Caitlin of Asylum Sisters: EP 1 on bandcamp - EP 2 on bandcamp - Facebook - Youtube - Soundcloud

DJ Robot: Thank-you Caitlin, best wishes to you all for future endeavours and I'm looking forward to hearing and seeing more from Asylum Sisters!!