SASAMI announces her new album, Squeeze, with the release of videos for dual lead singles “The Greatest” and “Skin A Rat,” two tracks that perfectly encapsulate the album’s breadth and wide range. “The Greatest” video is directed by Jennifer Juniper Stratford, and the “Skin A Rat” visualizer was created by Andrew Thomas Huang (Björk, FKA twigs), who also designed the album cover. Squeeze is due February 25th via Domino.
Of the power ballad inspired “The Greatest”, Sasami Ashworth says: “This song is about how often the greatest, heaviest feelings we have for someone are in the absence of the realization or reciprocation of that love. Like power born out of a black hole. All fantasy.”
Inspired by violent fantasy, “Skin A Rat” is “a soundtrack to cathartic release of anger and frustration with oppressive systems and humans. Very nu-metal influenced. Wrote and demoed the whole song on my iPad with midi drums and hired an epic drummer to perform it live to tape.” The song features Dirk Verbeuren of Megadeth on drums and gang vocals by Vagabon’s Laetitia Tamko and actress and comedian Patti Harrison.
Both songs were produced by Ashworth and recorded at Ty Segall’s studio in Topanga, CA and Log Mansion in Mt. Washington.
On Squeeze, SASAMI explores her wide spectrum of moods - from raging at systemic violence to wrestling for control in her personal relationships. Throughout, the singer-songwriter and producer surveys the raw aggression of nu-metal, tender plainspokenness of country-pop and folk rock, and dramatic romanticism of classical music.
Squeeze hammers home a sentiment of “anti-toxic positivity” and showcases SASAMI’s vicious honesty and brutally uncompromising vision, partially inspired by the Japanese yōkai folk spirit called Nure-onna (translation: wet woman), a vampiric deity that has the head of a woman and the body of a snake.
Based in Los Angeles, SASAMI is a descendent of the Zainichi people on her mother’s side, a diaspora of ethnic Koreans who lived in Japan during Japan’s occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945. Though some Zainichi moved voluntarily and others were forcibly kidnapped, these people and their progeny continue to experience systemic discrimination and oppression in Japan to this day. While conducting a deep dive into her family’s mixed Korean and Japanese history and culture, SASAMI stumbled upon stories of Nure-onna and was immediately drawn to the water creature’s multiplicitous nature. According to legend, the deity is feminine and noble, yet powerful and vicious enough to brutally destroy victims with her blood sucking tongue.
The fluidity of the Nure-onna can be felt in how Squeeze naturally flows through musical influences - from System of a Down to Sheryl Crow and Fleetwood Mac, to even Bach and Mahler. A classically trained composer, SASAMI constructed the LP in the form of an opera or orchestral work that has different “movements” that take the listener on an emotional journey. Compared to the introspective indie rock of SASAMI’s 2019 self-titled debut album, Squeeze is a full-throttled expansion.
The dark, fantastical elements of the Nure-onna legend feeds into SASAMI’s use of heavy rock elements throughout Squeeze. She hopes that listeners will identify with this new sinister, intense sound and use it as a soundtrack for processing their “anger, frustration, desperation, and more violent, aggressive emotions.” Her ultimate desire is for marginalized folks, including femmes, BIPOC, and queer people, to listen to Squeeze and find catharsis from the oppression and violence that they experience.
In reclamatory fashion, SASAMI assumes the form of Nure-onna on the record’s Japanese horror film-inspired cover art, designed by Andrew Thomas Huang and Rin Kim. She chose to pair this Japanese folklore-referencing image with Squeeze written in Korean calligraphy by Myung-Ja Ashworth, SASAMI’s mother, as another act of Zainichi empowerment. On the back of the artwork, the title is written in Japanese script.
Squeeze was produced by SASAMI, with a handful of the tracks co-produced by Ty Segall. Other notable contributors include Hand Habits’ Meg Duffy, King Tuff’s Kyle Thomas, Christian Lee Hutson, Barishi, Moaning’s Pascal Stevenson and No Home.
Tracklisting:
1. Skin A Rat
2. The Greatest
3. Say It
4. Call Me Home
5. Need It To Work
6. Tried To Understand
7. Make It Right
8. Sorry Entertainer
9. Squeeze (feat. No Home)
10. Feminine Water Turmoil
11. Not A Love Song
