Sasha Raven: “Indian Summer” comes from a place of experience
Sasha Raven was born in the small town Kranj (Slovenia). He lived there for 2 years before his family moved Berenice (Slovenia). As a quiet and introverted child he watched his mother perform as a classical guitarist but showed no interest in learning to play the instrument himself, at the time – something he would do, once reaching his twentieth year. He has since gone on to compose over four hundred songs. In 2005 he started the band Dharma with a friend. They even wrote a song that got picked up by Paul Godfrey of Morcheeba. However the band didn’t last long due to artistic differences. Sasha then went solo, and also embarked on writing poetry and publishing books.
Besides the guitar, he plays bass, sings, and writes the lyrics on his songs. Sasha Raven can be heard on his latest track entitled “Indian Summer”, which is based on a true romantic triangle experienced in the first-person. The song narrates the story of a boy who loses his girlfriend to a wealthy man, and then tries to win her back.
Sasha Raven shows remarkable restraint in his writing. The song “Indian Summer” is a wonderful example of what concise, spare storytelling can do. Add to it powerful vocals and excellent musicianship and you have an artist who is raw, brilliant, vulnerable and, above all, truthful.
The songwriting is remarkably astute, elegantly constructed, and personal enough to retain the aura of authenticity and universal enough to become one of our own songs. Clearly Sasha is within a style of music here, where authenticity is paramount and there’s no question that when he sings, it comes from a place of experience.
There’s something in Sasha’s voice that’s hauntingly honest when he sings: “Indian summer is gone, but, I will conquer you somehow, cause you belong to me.” It’s a poignant, reflective, and frank portrayal of humanity’s romantic impulses.
Sasha has the ability to select specificities in a narrative that will speak to us all universally and put us back in a place where we can reconnect with the emotions of a very personal moment. The hardest thing for a songwriter to do is to write to their vocal strengths—to lead themselves out of their comfort zones so the emotions can come out in their tone and not just their words.
Sasha Raven finds the sweet spot of his voice in the melodic lower registers on “Indian Summer”. It’s potent enough that it doesn’t need additional content to keep you entertained for longer because even when you walk away from it, the song is still playing inside your head, and the emotions it conjures are still ripe.
Sasha Raven is a singer-songwriter that will soon be finding a way to people’s ears. The music industry should be ashamed of itself for not putting emphasis on clear-cut authenticity shown by artists like Sasha, instead of promoting its mostly corporate formulaic garbage. Sasha Raven is part the new paradigm in music where an independent artist can rise to rival industry talent. (Header Photo by Aleš-Košir)
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