Introducing Sasha Assad

I’ve wanted to be a musician ever since I can remember. When I was younger, around 5 years old, I’d used to sing and dance on the sofa’s in our living room, pretending I was a Rockstar on a massive stage, imagining crowds of people singing and shouting along with me. 

Even now I’ve got that same incredible dream. The only difference is I don’t jump all over the sofas singing my little heart out to 5ive. I grew out of that bit at the ripe old age of 18 – Haha! Only kidding, I was 17. Still to this day I'm paying off the damage on my mums' leather 3-seater. 

 I'm joking of course – for the record.  

When I was 11, my mum and dad started paying for me to have guitar lessons. I went with my best friend at the time because he wanted to learn the guitar as well, so we rocked up with our axes every Monday after school and tore up the neighborhood, (that’s code for playing Smoke on the Water rather terribly). 

Nonetheless, I loved every minute of it. I’d get back from those lessons and I would plug my guitar straight back into its amp. A few years later and I started writing my owns songs. 

 Tokyo, was the first song that I had ever written and was proud of.  It made realize that that’s what I wanted to do, write songs and perform them. So that’s what I did, I joined a band in school when I was 15 and we played a couple of gigs. Nothing spectacular just little local pubs, but to 15-year-old me it was proper thrilling!  

Then one day, one of my friends said, 

“You should really record something, get it released, get out there!” 

For some reason, I’d never thought about it before but then I just thought,  

‘Yea! Why the hell not?’ 

So then came my debut single – Silent Disco. 

Everyone was really lovely and supportive, shared it about and all of that malarkey, it was really heart-warming.  

With my studio-recorded track and newest greatest achievement in hand, I sent Silent Disco off to BBC Introducing and to my surprise, I received an email a few days later saying that they were going to air MY song! And for sure little 5-year old me returned to the sofa stage for a well-needed sing and dance! It was by no means a ‘career changer’ but it was a real indicator to stick with it! 

Fast forward a few months and I record my latest single, Don’t Ask Me to Dance which also aired on BBC Introducing East Midlands and, on its daytime, and nighttime show too which was a massive deal for me.   

Back in March, I played Women in Music for International Womens day at the Bodega. That was a really special gig for me not only because I'd been dying to play at The Bodega for years (It's sort of gold dust for upcoming Nottingham artists) but also because it was the first set, I’ve ever played that was made solely of original songs. Usually I throw a cover in there somewhere so I don’t bore everyone with songs they’ve never heard, but it felt like a cover wasn’t needed that night and it was an awesome feeling. 

One of my sister's good friends Gilbert introduced me to someone in the music industry who has been really helpful and a great mentor. I’ve had so many opportunities that I know I wouldn’t have been able to have without the aid of Gilbert, so it's safe to say I definitely owe him a pint. Not in London though, goodness me those London prices are ridiculous. £5 for a pint are you joking? 

Don’t mind me as I complain about London prices it's just that in a few weeks, I set sail for the scary yet big opportunity city to study songwriting at BIMM. And to hopefully make those dreams of 5-year old me really come true. 

See you in a few years Glastonbury ;)