PREMIERE: Sasha Cay’s Focused Return with “barrel”
Photo credit: Sloane Sherman
Two years after the release of Spin — a DIY debut that rippled through Montréal’s music community and beyond — Sasha Cay returns with “Barrel,” a tense, searching single that sharpens their art-rock instincts. Led by Sasha Khalimonova on guitar/vocals, the band also has contributions from Rhys Climenhage on drums, Clay Middletown on guitar, and Owen Saar on bass.
Premiering today alongside a self-directed music video, “Barrel” further underscores Sasha Cay’s dual practice as both musician and filmmaker. Shot on 16mm and steeped in symbol, the video unfolds like a quiet scavenger hunt through the city, featuring personal objects contributed by friends, collaborators, and familiar faces from the booming Montreal music scene that has captured playlists and listening habits from music critics across Canada. The single was recorded and produced by Monty Munro of Preoccupations, who also contributed synths, and also helmed production with Marlaena Moore on Ribbon Skirt’s latest record Bite Down — who all make a cameo in the music video. In addition to shaping their own visual world, Sasha has also directed videos for Ribbon Skirt (“cellophane”), Bells Larsen (“Might”), Knitting (“Fold”), and more, building a body of work that mirrors the same textural layering and 90’s nostalgia found in their songs. While “Barrel” plays on repeat in our heads, we had to learn more from Khalimonova on the making of the single and what’s next for Sasha Cay.
REVERIE: Your debut Spin built a lot of grassroots buzz across Montreal’s scene — how did that early DIY energy shape who you are as an artist today?
Spin was a very special project and time for me. I didn’t really set out to make an album at first, I was just hanging out and playing guitar with Rhys (my bandmate who recorded and mixed it) all the time. They were slowly building a DIY studio in their basement and encouraged me to record my songs. There were friends on the couch, listening to the tracks as we made them, dropping in to play a line here and there. I guess we just kept going, learning how to make a record from scratch in real time together. You can hear beers cracking and people clapping in the back of some of those songs, and I love that those sounds crept in.
I was writing my way through the loss of one of my closest friends, and recording with Rhys really held me together during that time. I never expected the music to reach anyone, but as we started playing more shows, did a small tour with our friends Dresser, and began getting festival offers, I suppose more people and more started listening. By the time the record came out, people were kind enough to care and share it with their friends.
I’m honoured that people have connected with it and really grateful for the community around us, who are undoubtedly a huge part of the reason it reached outside of our immediate scene. I think music and community are inseparable. We genuinely can’t do this without each other, and I also wouldn’t want to. The Montreal scene is really special, warm, and exciting. It’s not only musicians or bands, it’s all the DIY bookers and folks starting and running and trying to protect venues, local radio hosts, the people doing sound, the people making flyers. It takes so many people to keep it alive. I love that you can walk into any show any night and see a bunch of your friends making this incredible thing happen.
REVERIE: How would you describe Sasha Cay’s sound, and what are the threads that you feel connect the music and visuals you create?
I think the music pulls from a lot of different places, which is probably why we end up on such varied bills. One night we’re playing a sweaty, mosh-heavy show, the next it’s a quiet, reflective crowd. And somehow both make perfect sense.
I’d like to think that there’s a curiosity at the core of what I make, a desire to see how things that don’t seem connected actually are, or how two textures that you wouldn’t think belong together can do something special when they meet. I’ve always loved loud and heavy noise rock and post-punk just as much as sombre and more esoteric songwriters, so I guess the music ends up feeling like a tapestry of those extremes.
I love the question about threads connecting the visual and the music—I do think they’re very much in communication with each other. I’ve noticed that a lot of the work I’ve made for Sasha Cay is viewed from a crack in a door, rather than head-on. I guess I tend to hang a veil in front of a lot of the visuals I make and stories I tell.
REVERIE: With "Barrel," you’re returning after a couple of years—what personal or artistic growth happened between Spin and this new release?
A lot has changed in the time between Spin and now, in both personal and practical ways. I feel more grounded in myself. Life got fuller, but also way more difficult and full of responsibility, so making a new record had to be incredibly intentional.
Spin came together gradually, in a period of grief, and it felt almost accidental, like something Rhys and I discovered along the way. This time I approached things with much more clarity. I had a strong sense of what I wanted to do, and I had more songs than I could record, so I got to make decisions about what would be included or not. It’s so freeing to just let a bunch of songs go. I think destruction and creation have a lot in common. You have to let go of all the things a project can be for it to be anything.
REVERIE: The video was shot on 16 mm and features your friends’ personal symbols—what inspired this choice, and did you learn any stories behind the items shown on set?
The idea came from a theme that kept resurfacing in my writing over the past while, across both prose and music. I was thinking a lot about decisions, chance, and risk. I think something happens when you’re moving towards a big decision, or just falling off the cliff of one; you start seeing, or creating, the sense in everything, how it could all be connected. The world feels like an I Spy book, full of secret clues hidden in plain sight. And that’s also how it feels when something really special is happening, too, I think. I wanted to make something full of clues, of keys. And I wanted to do it with a bunch of friends. I just asked a couple of people if they had any objects or symbols that mean something to them that would otherwise be illegible or invisible to someone else.
People brought a whole bunch of different objects, and I loved hearing the stories behind them. Some were very moving, and others were very silly, and at times they were both—I really enjoyed Adam’s weird bicycle wizard figurine that was found in his grandfather’s trunk after his passing. The narrative that runs alongside people’s symbols follows a character (played by my friend Kyra Sutton) travelling through the city carrying a mini DV camera. I spent a day walking around my neighbourhood with that camera, filming signage for that character, spelling out a hidden message that will probably make more sense in a few months. Kyra’s character is looking for something but ends up getting followed by another message left behind by someone else. I feel like the city and its inhabitants are always speaking together, and it’s a choice whether we listen or not.
As for 16mm, Evan (the DP) and I have worked with each other for years, always talking about shooting film one day. He had been collecting extra stock from other projects, and it seemed like the first video from the next album would be a good opportunity for it. It also felt fitting for the context of people’s objects. I liked that there was only one take of it, that it couldn't be redone, and that we had no idea what it looked like until the footage was developed. As a filmmaker, it was hard for me to relinquish that control, but it felt like the perfect context to do so.
REVERIE: We recognized familiar faces in the video, such as Ribbon Skirt to Sunforger/Knitting and Marlaena Moore. Who’s all featured, and why was it important for you to centre your community in this project?
Yeah! The video features a bunch of my friends, who all happen to be brilliant and talented in a myriad of different ways. Like I was saying earlier, I truly don’t think we’d have any scene without community; nothing would happen without the time and support and joy of these people. It’s such a cool feeling to be inspired by your friends, to be a genuine fan of the work made by the people closest to you.
The video features lots of amazing musicians, as you’ve mentioned: Mischa, Piper, Monty, Marlaena, Zach, Billy. Lots of great writers: Nicky, Alana, Kyra, Sara, Ben, Madeleine. Community radio folks Aviva and Adam. Craftspeople, textile artists, designers, organizers, filmmakers. All kinds of smart and talented people. Sometimes I forget how special it is to be surrounded by them all the time.
REVERIE: What are some bands that you're listening to right now or that inspire you?
I’ve been a big fan of Nourished by Time for a while, and these days I’m playing his latest album The Passionate Ones regularly, alongside Kassie Krut’s debut EP, some unreleased music from my friend Chrissy (girl with dream), and my bandmate Rhys’ last release from Never Better: something happens maybe dies it all changes it all survives.
In terms of inspiration, Trish Keenan of Broadcast has always been a central inspiration of mine. She seemed to have all these distant interests that came across in the music, which in turn had all these markers of different influences, whilst still always sounding distinctly Broadcast. Her songs feel very honest and curious, able to communicate some dark things while still being approachable.
I’ve recently also been really into a bunch of Pennsylvania bands; feeble little horse, Gaadge,TAGABOW, SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE. Also getting back into Unwound’s Repetition. That record always sounds fresh somehow.
REVERIE: When people experience "Barrel" for the first time—either the song or the video—what feeling or idea do you most hope they walk away with?
I think I end up writing a lot of songs about experiences I don’t know where to put elsewhere; like there’s something I’m carrying that I need to put down, so I’m not carrying around my whole life on my back. A song allows me to set it down. And often I’ll hear a song by someone else that helps me put something down, or make it less heavy. "Barrel" was one of these songs, so I guess I hope it can do that for someone.
When I see the clips of everyone’s objects, I feel all the affect coming off them. I hope maybe a few others do, too. And that maybe someone curious catches all the clues I put in the video too.
REVERIE: What's next for Sasha Cay?
A lot of new music! Hopefully, a lot of live shows too, we’re trying to sort that out. If anyone wants to play a show with us outside of Montreal…hit my line!
