AZAR SWAN

Azar Swan is the world-goth collaboration of Zohra Atash and Wierd Records homie Josh Strawn. If the duo sounds familiar you might have previously known them as Religious To Damn. After re-envisioning the project and changing their name, the duo have shed their more rock oriented roots for an equally dark, jungle-oriented music sound. The vocals from Atash are every bit as wonderful as they were before, however. In their first single released (via USA Today?), Zohra sings with a sense of bewilderment mixed with excitement of her experience as an immigrant in America, assumedly hence the title "Amrika". The track has me excited for more from the duo, so here's to hoping they'll drop a few more on us before the world ends next month. - Decoder Mag

When Azar Swan singer Zohra Atash, the child of both Afghan immigrants and the South, would come home from kindergarten, she often only had the miracle of music television for company. In Azar Swan’s new video for their song “Amrika,” the band combines all their early influences and, with the help of Creators Project favorite Jason Somma as director, make a beautiful, adorable, and not altogether uncreepy homage to growing up poor and different with pop music as a distant-but-still-comforting star.

Azar Swan will be performing at the new Wierd party, Nothing Changes, at Home Sweet Home on March 27th. - Noisey

Groove to the ominously sexy grooves of electro-goth group Azar Swan: - BUST

Brooklyn duo Azar Swan unveils the powerful new video for their debut track “Amrika” over at Noisey (HERE). Directed by the very talented multi-media artist Jason Akira Somma, who often contributes to Azar Swan’s breathtaking live visuals, the video showcases his trademark hazy holographic style. - The Venom Blog

Goth-pop duo Azar Swan have really shown the fakers how it’s done with their stylishly boom-bap dance macabre “Amrika.” But for all its dark club sheen, the song is partly an autobiographical account from singer Zorah Atash, who was the first American-born child of an Afghan family and felt stranded between two worlds.

The new music video for “Amrika” opens up a wormhole through which to contact that younger self. In it, Atash’s niece explores an apartment, finding records and the trappings of rock’n’roll and MTV-oriented lifestyles. On the TV, a screen within a screen, Azar Swan beckon with a fatalistic cool. - BlackBook

You may know Josh Strawn through his work in current projects Azar Swan and Vaura but he was also an integral part of WIERD and, before that, a fan of the music. Strawn has played the weekly party with three separate projects (Vaura, Religious to Damn, Blacklist) over the years, so he was able to add some special insight about last night's final WIERD Wednesday event and it's place in the current NYC scene. Strawn's thoughts are below. - Fred Pessaro - Brooklyn Vegan

The Flat, owned by Lit's Max Brennan and The Deathset's Johnny Sierra, opened this spring at 308 Hooper St, just off the Hewes St stop on the J/M line. While it's mainly a bar they do hold the occasional show, like Azar Swan's live debut which happens Saturday night (11/10) and is the official afterparty to the Tamaryn show at Knitting Factory earlier that night (Tamaryn's tour meanwhile hits Mercury Lounge tonight). - Brooklyn Vegan

Zohra Atash and Josh Strawn have disbanded/retired Religious to Damn and have reconfigured their sonic matrix as Azar Swan which is a decidedly more electronic project while retaining that gothy vibe. Azar Swan have just released their first track to the world, “Amrika,” and you can stream that below.

Azar Swan will be making their live debut at The Flat on November 10 which will also serve as the official afterparty for the Tamaryn/Starred show at Knitting Factory earlier that night. Tamaryn will DJ along with Silent Drape Runners. $ 5 gets you in the door and the party starts at 11 PM. Flyer for the show (designed by Weekend’s Shaun Durkan) is below.

Continue reading “Religious to Damn are now Azar Swan, making live debut in November (stream a track)” at brooklynvegan - My Little Mixtape

New York goth-pop duo Azar Swan first caught our attention back in January with album teaser, ‘Lusty’ and its discordant industrial clanks and twisted atmospherics.

Here, Zohra and Josh are revisiting their debut drop ‘Amrika’, matching its trilling vocals and tribal beats to a semi-autobiographical narrative about growing up in an Afghan immigrant family. Directed by their live visual artist Jason Somma and starring Zohra’s niece, the video recalls a childhood living on the breadline where music provided the one form of escapism. Strangely uplifting. - The Line Of Best Fit

Not an album, true, but we’d be remiss in recounting the best dark/weird music of the year if we didn’t mention Azar Swan. From the ashes, so to speak, of doom-folk group Religious to Damn, Azar Swan is a band that’s doing everything, absolutely everything, that’s right about dark electronic rubbing shoulders with pop and every other genre. World music? New Age? Bodega-pop-tronic? It’s impossible to categorize this song, about frontwoman Zohra Atash’s immigrant upbringing, but it’s also impossible to forget it. - Flavorwire

If you liked Björk, try… Azar Swan

And not just because Azar Swan vocalist Zohra Atash’s voice sounds quite like La Guðmundsdóttir’s at times. The Brooklyn duo’s work has a similar sense of gleeful sonic experimentalism, embracing sounds from any number of sources and combining them into thoroughly idiosyncratic pop songs that are both fascinating and hellaciously catchy. - Flavorwire

Azar Swan — “Lusty”
Brooklyn duo Azar Swan’s “Amrika” was one of our favorite songs of last year (they recently dropped a pretty great video for it, too), and now they’re back with this most excellent new track, all clattering percussion and grinding, industrial noise. [via The Deli] - Flavorwire

Brooklyn quirk-pop pair Azar Swan have unveiled their debut track.

Formerly core members of orchestral goths Religious To Damn, Zohra Atash and Joshua Strawn have changed tack with their electronica and hip-hop-influenced new project, as a listen to the Kate Bush-indebted ‘Amrika’ will show:

Atash has said that Azar Swan’s tracks reflect the nature of her upbringing in an Afghan-American immigrant family, with ‘Amrika’ a case in point: “We had moved from a cozy enough house in South Carolina, to a one bedroom apartment just outside of DC. Nine people – uncles and Grammy included – in a one bedroom.

“Why the abrupt move? I don’t know, you’d have to ask my father, but I hear it has something to do with exposing us to other cultures… The smells of kimchi and curry, attacking each other in the hallways, the millions of cockroaches that would come out of the pipes and walls the second you turned the lights off, the racial slurs exchanged right outside your doorway…

“This was just another day in Amrika, as far as we knew. It was better than being home.”

- The Girls Are

Thank God for fresh goth-pop! The dark, deep, sultry, industrial, synthastic electro beats that make up goth pop seem to have been slightly dimming in the limelight as of late (okay, by like, a few months). However, the hype-worthy Brooklyn based group, Azar Swan, is reviving goth-pop to blinding proportions.

The duo, Zohra Atash and Joshua Strawn (formerly of Religious to Damn) don just two songs: “Lusty,” their latest and appropriately titled release, and “Amirka,” their cult-like following inducing debut single, which thrust the band onto the blogosphere’s radar late last year.

Azar Swan recently opened for Tamaryn at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, and rumor has it, their debut album is due out sometime this spring – Eagerly looking forward to it! In the mean time, find Azar Swan on Facebook, Twitter, and SoundCloud. - coco stereo

New sounds from New Yorker electro pop duo Azar Swan and their new track ‘Amrika’. Azar Swan a collaboration between Zohra Atash and Josh Strawn, who’s last project Religious To Damn (no me either) folded earlier this year. The track with its dark and brooding Grime-esq feel and tribal beat has been receiving much love from blogging heavy weights such as The 405 and Decoder Mag. - I Love Pie

Brooklyn duo Azar Swan revealed their debut track ”Amrika” last week, unveiling the re-imagined project’s new sound.

Formerly the core members of sprawling, orchestral goth project Religious To Damn, Zohra Atash and Joshua Strawn changed gears early this year, turning their once instrumental ensemble into a drum machine minded, electro-centric duo. The shift was sparked by a two-fold realization from Atash and Strawn who were looking to consolidate the project, with coordinating multiple musicians often slowing the writing and performing process, combined with a mutual revived interest in electronic music and hip-hop beats pulling influences from acts like The-Dream and These New Puritans.

The self-recorded new tracks put emphasis on different rhythms and percussion to give them the feeling of mixed cultures and a multitude of influences. In a twist of poetic irony, much of the collection was tracked on the 33rd floor of a Tribeca apartment building facing site of Ground Zero / Freedom Tower, a strange tilt to the recording process with so much emphasis on the American fabric and immigrant life.

The new tracks are set to be part of a debut record slated for spring release next year. - Oratory of Sound

Previously working as Religious to Dawn, duo Zohra Atash and Joshua Strawn have regrouped under the moniker of Azar Swan, and they’ve changed their sound to boot. Once renowned for their sprawling orchestral Goth, they’ve moved on to embrace the technical wizardry and unconventional structure of acts like These New Puritans, documented on new song “Amrika”.

Influenced by Atash’s Afghan-American immigrant family, she explains of the track and style change: “We had moved from a cozy enough house in South Carolina, to a one bedroom apartment just outside of DC. Nine people – uncles and Grammy included – in a one bedroom. Why the abrupt move? I don’t know, you’d have to ask my father, but I hear it has something to do with exposing us to other cultures. Maybe my thick little southern accent and my best friend Nikki with the blond mullet was a little too much culture shock for my Afghan parents. This smells of kimchi and curry, attacking each other in the hallways, the millions of cockroaches that would come out of the pipes and walls the second you turned the lights off, the racial slurs exchanged right outside your doorway… This was just another day in Amrika, as far as we knew. It was better than being home.” - DRUNKENWEREWOLF

As mentioned, Azar Swan (formerly Religious to Damn) will open for Tamaryn at Music Hall of Williamsburg on Thursday (2/21) and tickets are still available. The Brooklyn-based duo just released a new track, "Lusty," which is appropriately named, hot and sweaty with a clattering tribal beat that goes wonderously mental as it approaches the two-minute mark. You can stream it below. - Brooklyn Vegan

Brooklyn duo Azar Swan (consisting of Zohra Atash and Joshua Strawn) seem to have an uncanny ability to decipher what makes particular sounds fit together and flow seamlessly off into some musical ephemera. Both Atash and Strawn have made the rounds in previous bands–most notably, both were former members in orchestral goth project Religious To Damn. Mixing an industrial dark-pop sound with Atash’s own indelible vocals, “Lusty,” the latest track to be released from the group, feels cavernous, while at the same time, the track seems to be methodically engulfing the listener note by note–walls and ceiling moving closer on all sides. The group is finishing up material which will be the basis of their debut record, with an eye toward a later spring release. Until then, listen to “Lusty” below. - Beats Per Minute

Zohra Atash of Azar Swan

Album of Influence: Kate Bush - The Dreaming (EMI)

Atash: “As wary as I am of feeding into the “every non-alto woman with a sense of drama who doesn’t put out a Country or R&B record is copying Kate Bush” narrative, I can’t hold it against a wonderful record that I owe quite a debt to, not only as a musician, but as a person who needed the emotional support it gave me. Hearing The Dreaming for the first time was a revelation. There was such beauty and darkness filling the same sonic space. I grew up just wanting to sound like Suzi Quatro, but this gave me a new-found appreciation of the voice that can assume different roles and characters. Hearing the vocals twist and bend from beautiful and operatic to dark and gutteral, from eerie lows to quivering highs, from characters with child-like innocence to the possessed and ghostly – it was just incredible. The production is artful and otherworldly. It’s the kind of record that you can listen to time and time again and still hear things that you’ve never heard before. Of course, this is why it has the staying power it does. And Josh describes himself as perpetually obsessed with the track Get Out of My House, which is about The Shining – he thinks it’s one of the greatest songs ever written or recorded.”

Stream Azar Swan‘s second single, “Lusty” below. - Serial Optimist - SO Magazine

Following the release of their debut single 'Amrika' back in November, Brooklyn duo Azar Swan (former Religious to Damn members Zohra Atash and Josh Strawn) are streaming another new track, the aptly titled 'Lusty', a wickedly playful song propelled by tribal beats, explosive percussion and deep pools of bass that at times threaten to wash over Zohra's ghostly vocals. Stream the track below. The duo are currently mixing their as of yet untitled full length which is set to be released this spring.

Read more at http://hangout.altsounds.com/news/156344-azar-swan-stream-single.html#kv282Xyu70WBr6de.99 - AltSounds

If there's one thing we've learnt from studying music trends from around the world it's that Brooklyn musicians seem to naturally break off into duos to muck about with synths in the hope of stumbling upon some new sounds. First it was all swooshy dreampop, them a more post-punk edge began to creep in and it was like new-wave all over again, and the next scene we've noticed coming to the fore from the productive borough is much darker: gothic synth-pop. Maybe they got too sick of the competing indiepop bands from their neighbourhood singing about sun and beaches so much.

Azar Swan, although a full band rather than a duo, are embracing these moody sounds and adding any number of quirks into the mix to craft something new out of the fledgling revivalist scene. Gloomy beats and synths start things off but the vocals are fairly friendly, almost Kate Bush-like. It doesn't last long, as the song progresses some unusual effects are added and then the darkness really sets in. The drums hasten, the vocals become that more desperate and then the music begins to clang and sound like machine gun fire and aeroplanes being shot down. It builds and builds from there until suddenly ending. Spooky. - The Sound of Confusion

Brooklyn duo Azar Swan have emerged onto the blogosphere with their unique brand of dark, industrial pop music. Reminiscent of the dark pop sentiment of Bat for Lashes and the skewed electronica of The Knife, the duo are a reincarnation of brooklyn orchestral goth outfit Religious to Damn. - The 405

Brooklyn duo Azar Swan revealed their debut track “Amrika” last week on USA Today, unveiling the re-imagined project’s new sound and announcing their first live show In NYC.

Formerly the core members of sprawling, orchestral goth project Religious To Damn, Zohra Atash and Joshua Strawn changed gears early this year, turning their once instrumental ensemble into a drum machine minded, electro-centric duo. The shift was sparked by a two-fold realization from Atash and Strawn who were looking to consolidate the project, with coordinating multiple musicians often slowing the writing and performing process, combined with a mutual revived interest in electronic music and hip-hop beats pulling influences from acts like The-Dream and These New Puritans.
- The Venom Blog

Next, I have for you the debut single by New York's Azar Swan. Formerly known as Religious To Damn, this band basically started the thing you're seeing Bat For Lashes do now, but they've blissfully moved on into a territory that's all their own. It's a totally heady and brilliantly catchy Gothic world music tune about singer Zohra Atash's immigrant experience in America, sung with almost childlike wonder. There's nothing else out there that sounds like this, and if you're lucky to be in a place where it's warm right now this is going to resonate all the more. - USA TODAY

San Francisco's gothy shoegaze queen Tamaryn just got back from a European tour and was nice enough to stop in NYC before heading home to play a show last night (2/21) at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Joining her were friends Azar Swan (who played a Tamaryn afterparty last year) and Milagres. Did you make it to this show? Both Tamaryn and Milagres say this was their last NYC show for a while. More pictures from MHOW below... - Brooklyn Vegan

Formerly the core members of orchestral goth project Religious To Damn (Deli Record of the month in 2011), Zohra Atash and Joshua Strawn changed gears early this year, turning their ensemble into a drum machine minded, electro-centric duo named Azar Swan. The shift was sparked by a two-fold realization from Atash and Strawn who were looking to consolidate the project, with coordinating multiple musicians often slowing the writing and performing process, combined with a mutual revived interest in electronic music and hip-hop beats pulling influences from acts like The-Dream and These New Puritans. The band debuted live on November 10. - The Deli

Brooklyn duo Azar Swan burst onto the scene this past fall with their debut track “Amrika” (STREAM), the first taste of the project’s trademark mash-up of electronic soundscapes and virile songwriting. Today Azar Swan is excited to premiere their second track “Lusty” produced by the very talented Mike Dextro (Zebra Katz, Proper Villans) with Under The Radar, an exploration in anthemic swells and rolling percussion about the disappointment of expecting the underdog to come out victorious only to fail–how ambition can be your best friend and worst enemy.

Formerly the core members of sprawling, orchestral goth project Religious To Damn, Zohra Atash and Joshua Strawn changed gears early this year, turning their once instrumental ensemble into a drum machine minded, electro-centric duo. The shift was sparked by a two-fold realization from Atash and Strawn who were looking to consolidate the project, with coordinating multiple musicians often slowing the writing and performing process, combined with a mutual revived interest in electronic music and hip-hop beats pulling influences from acts like The-Dream and These New Puritans.

The self-recorded new tracks put emphasis on different rhythms and percussion to give them the feeling of mixed cultures and a multitude of influences. In a twist of poetic irony, much of the collection was tracked on the 33rd floor of a Tribeca apartment building facing site of Ground Zero / Freedom Tower, a strange tilt to the recording process with so much emphasis on the American fabric and immigrant life that runs through their work. The new tracks are set to be part of a debut record slated for release later this spring.

For those in the New York area, Azar Swan will play with Tamaryn on 2/21 @ Music Hall of Williamsburg.

“It’s a totally heady and brilliantly catchy Gothic world music tune about singer Zohra Atash’s immigrant experience in America, sung with almost childlike wonder. There’s nothing else out there that sounds like this, and if you’re lucky to be in a place where it’s warm right now this is going to resonate all the more” – USA TODAY

“Brooklyn duo Azar Swan have emerged onto the blogosphere with their unique brand of dark, industrial pop music. Reminiscent of the dark pop sentiment of Bat for Lashes and the skewed electronica of The Knife” – THE 405

“After re-envisioning the project and changing their name, the duo have shed their more rock oriented roots for an equally dark, jungle-oriented music sound. The vocals from Atash are every bit as wonderful as they were before… Zohra sings with a sense of bewilderment mixed with excitement of her experience as an immigrant in America” – DECODER MAG

For more information on this project or to attend the show please respond to this email. - Hellhound.com

Get down to the Afghan-American goth duo of Brooklyn based Zohra Atash and Josh Strawn formerly of Religious to Damn with their outfit, Azar Swan. Zebra Katz's Mike Dextro produces their latest single "Lusty" that attacks with every industrial trick from the hope chest with ominous coasting keys that rise then just as quick bend in the oppposite direction. Keep on the look out for their debut slated for release this spring. - Impose Magazine

Azar Swan was born out of the ashes of Religious To Damn. The dark, Kate-Bush-meets-Fever-Ray track “Lusty” is an exploration of the darkness that came with their previous band’s breakup, mixed with underdog-style optimism. Take a listen to our official premiere below. - Under the Radar

Brooklyn’s Azar Swan were catapulted into the spotlight toward the end of last year after lighting up blogs across the globe with their debut track ‘Amrika’. Founding members Zohra Atash and Joshua Strawn have stepped out of the shadows once more with ‘Lusty’, a pulsating three minute slog through swells of frighteningly resonant percussion and ominous bass rumbles.

The spectre of their past incarnation as an instrumental ensemble appears at the midway point; distorted whirrs of synthesizer and hollow industrial clanks come to the fore, gripping at Zohra’s ghostly pipes and squeezing out the kind of twisted, tribal incantations perfected by These New Puritans on Hidden. We can’t wait to hear their full-length debut in the spring. - The Line Of Best Fit

Zohra Atash and Josh Strawn have disbanded/retired Religious to Damn and have reconfigured their sonic matrix as Azar Swan which is a decidedly more electronic project while retaining that gothy vibe. Azar Swan have just released their first track to the world, "Amrika," and you can stream that below.
Azar Swan will be making their live debut at The Flat on November 10 which will also serve as the official afterparty for the Tamaryn/Starred show at Knitting Factory earlier that night. Tamaryn will DJ along with Silent Drape Runners. $5 gets you in the door and the party starts at 11 PM. Flyer for the show (designed by Weekend's Shaun Durkan) is below.
- Brooklyn Vegan