Sasha Dolage or otherwise known as Hyperchromatic is a musical vessel who has developed her own unique sound from doing the whole process of making a record on her own. In 2018 after releasing a bunch of original music, Dosage gathered some friends to begin performing live, and then in October 2019 independently released their debut EP 'Thorns and Leaves'. Off of the EP is the release “Grass Crown” and it’s mellowed out vibes have us constantly on the edge of our seats - trust us, this one is cool. As the song progresses you’ll begin floating on top of this beautiful calm wave of sound that is being created from these ethereal synths and vocal sounds that leads us perfectly to a verse where Sasha Dolage’s stunning vocals take the spotlight and grabs our hands and takes us across a journey, and we are perfectly okay with it. “Grass Crown” has a really beautiful element to it, with the intricate synth textures, the thundering toms, and the big bold vocals; this record keeps a unique identity to itself that will easily keep in our heads for a long time. Since listening to this, we are hooked and cannot wait to hear the rest of the 'Thorns and Leaves' EP.
Go check out "Grass Crown" here.
Welcome to BuzzMusic Hyperchromatic! Your music has such a unique sound to it where you stand out from the crowd! What was the inspiration behind your sound? Were there any idols that helped influence you?
Thank you for having me! I have always been very attracted to ambient sounds, which is most likely due to my love of Radiohead. Vivaldi has also been another life long obsession and is probably the reason behind me wanting to make climactic sounding music. More recently, I have been enamored with Banks, her production is something I really draw inspiration from. In terms of vocals, I find myself looking to the world of opera, I’m very captivated by their big emotional voices. There is no singer I idolize more than Jussi Björling, his voice is quite unreal. I think it’s probably an unusual combination of influences, so that might explain why the music is sort of unusual as well.
Your release “Grass Crown” has us floating above a bed of sonic textures, what went into the creation of these sounds and your vocal textures? How long did it take for you to create this release?
The choir of vocals at the beginning of the song was a very spontaneous thing that was new territory for me at the time. I layered many different acoustic toms with an electronic kick to create the rhythm section because I wanted something upbeat and atmospheric at the same time. I tend to create eclectic mixtures of dissimilar sounds, which is probably why I ended up with these ambient sounding synths in tandem with more organic elements like the strings. I am slow and meticulous so it took me at least a month to craft a sound I was satisfied with.
It’s really cool to hear that you do the whole record creation process yourself! Where did you learn how to do everything? What kinds of challenges did you face while learning?
I taught my self through trial and error. At first, it was both frustrating and intriguing to experiment with production and mixing. The biggest challenge is the fact that you are by yourself with no one else to bounces ideas off of and to give you feedback. I am a very collaborative creature so it was sort of difficult at first, but eventually, it started to come together for me and became a bit more intuitive.
With having such a unique sound, how do you see yourself evolving in future releases? Do you plan on evolving a certain way or are you wanting to stay the way you are? How do you think you have evolved since you started?
I am experimenting with dynamics currently, I have always had an inclination to create large and bombastic sounds, so I’m starting to incorporate more minimalistic and softer elements. I am also exploring darker aspects both in terms of music and lyrics. But I think my love of climactic and upbeat sounds is going to be a life long love affair. I like things to be BIG and dramatic, that’s just a part of my nature that I don’t think will ever change.