Asher Weiss

http://www.reverbnation.com/asherweissmusic
http://asherweissmusic.bandcamp.com/
http://www.myspace.com/asherweissmusic

Asher Weiss grew up studying classical violin and listening to his dad’s ’60s folk collection. Sometime in high school, when he was immersed in the musical renaissance of the late ’80s/early ’90s, he began to strum a guitar. In college, he majored in religion. People would ask (in a tone ranging from puzzlement to disapproval), “A degree in religion!!? What can you do with that?” To which he would respond, “Play guitar, of course.”

Indeed, guitar had become his primary instrument, but he was not writing songs. Far from it. Instead, he had fallen in love with chord voicings and the harmonic possibilities that only jazz guitar could offer. The jazz education was valuable to be sure, but it took him far too long to realize that his future lay in songwriting, not in practicing scales and arpeggios eight hours a day.

Before dedicating himself to songwriting, Weiss played as a sideman in several NYC bands. Each one brought him closer to a songwriting role. When the last of these ended, he was out of options, so he decided to write his own songs. Singing followed.

Weiss’ first recording, “Bushwick to Boston,” is so named because its six songs were conceived on the road– the Chinatown Bus specifically– from Bushwick, Brooklyn, to Boston, Mass, over a six month period. The songs are folk-based, but are produced with a nod towards a number of other genres. Lyrically, according to one of his friends, they are best described as “songs about life.”