There are two separate entities of SASAMI: the all-caps, swagger-packed music artist blending pop and rock music, but also to be factored in is the past life Sasami Ashworth, a conservatory-trained French horn player and classical composer. But, as Ashworth tells Headliner, these two selves converge on her upcoming third album, Blood On The Silver Screen. Described as the “all-out SASAMI pop record”, Ashworth talks about its huge singles, creating the record, and why she often dedicates these new songs to “sad and horny people” at her gigs.
Ashworth joins the Zoom call in a jovial mood, joking, “I’ve sent my AI proxy, so you’re actually having a conversation with AI right now. Humans are irrelevant now!” Growing up and based in Los Angeles, she comes from a Korean and Japanese family. “I’m in London, and as good as one can be in London,” she jokes, and it’s tricky to ascertain if she’s still joking or actually firing shots at the capital.
Ashworth completed her music studies at the Eastman School of Music in 2012, and upon graduating worked on orchestral arrangements for films, studio albums, and commercial work, while also teaching music around Los Angeles. Before making the decision to fully commit to the SASAMI solo project, she played synths for Cherry Glazerr and toured with the band for the best part of three years.
Ashworth then reveals how the rigours of touring her last record, Squeeze, and the vocal strain she experienced, ended up playing a role in how she would approach creating her 2025 record.
“Squeeze was written during the pandemic and recorded during the pandemic,” she says. “I then vigorously toured and vigorously performed it as the world was reopening in a really aggressive, cathartic way that was physically satisfying but also unsustainable. At the end of touring that album with the metal band that I was playing with, my vocal cords were struggling.