From Opera to Metal...Catching up with Ashleigh Semkiw of the Symphonic groove metal band TULIP

TULIP is a band following no stereotypes. A lineup with no limitations delivering their own taste of symphonic metal, spearheaded by ex-professional opera vocalist Ashleigh Semkiw and Colin Parrish on guitar.

Having only emerged in September 2018, the members of Tulip are no stranger to the music scene, having performed for a decade worldwide in their respective past acts; Ashleigh in professional opera, Brandon with ONI throughout Europe alongside the likes of Children of Bodom and Lamb Of God, Ryan sessioning across USA and Canada, and co-lead member Colin having performed across a plethora of recordings and live shows.

TULIP’, their self-titled debut EP (released September 2018) was self written, recorded and mixed, and was mastered by the legendary Troy Glessner and delivers symphonic metal with modern groove oriented guitars and drums.

The band continues to build momentum and have recently completed their debut tour supporting Swedish melodic-metal outfit Evergrey.

Music Madness caught up with Ashleigh of TULIP just before they hit the road…

Music Madness: Congrats on the upcoming tour. Is the band fired up?

Ashleigh: Yeah, we are really excited. We kind of live all over the place. The other two guys are up in Canada, so they are coming to meet us down in Texas and I’m the only girl on a big bus full of guys.

We’re going to bring our videographer with us as well, so we should get some good footage. I used to be an opera singer, so I’ve sung in a lot of these cities for classical music, but I’ve never been to Portland, Denver or Seattle and apparently there’s a good metal scene in all those places.

Music Madness: Were you nervous converting from opera to metal? What’s been the biggest challenge or surprise for you?

Ashleigh: When I was first getting started, I worked with Melissa Cross, she’s the Zen of Screaming, and I still work with her. I could have gone the Nightwish or the Evanescence route, but I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to just sing more like Pat Benatar, like a rockstar so I had to straighten out my singing. I had to put some more heat into it, and I just needed to kind of rework how to do that. But the fundamentals are still the same.

The biggest thing I think I’ve noticed is just, the people in this community are so warm, and the scariest looking dudes are the biggest teddy bears. It blows me away how supportive everyone is.

Music Madness: Tell us about the new EP the band recently released.

Ashleigh: So the EP has been out for a few months. We are a brand new band as of September 2018. We put out the five-song EP in the fall, and we’re working on a full length right now, which should be out by the end of October or early November…that’s the plan. We don’t have a date, yet because we still have to make sure we can get everyone down here to track.

Music Madness: Very cool. Is the whole band from Canada?

Ashleigh: Yeah, we’re all Canadians. I’m American as well. My mom was an American, so I have American citizenship. Colin and I are married, and we moved down to Texas just a little over a year ago from Toronto. The other two guys are still there, one’s up in Toronto and the other one’s closer to Windsor.

Music Madness: Toronto’s a pretty happening city. Did you have any culture shock going from Toronto to Texas?

Ashleigh: We actually love it. We moved here very deliberately, and chose Texas for all of the reasons you could ever think of. We really love freedom, we love America, we love barbecue and we love the heat. We went through a pretty crazy time and we needed to leave that community up there. So we’re back and forth a lot, because our kids go to school up there. We split our time pretty evenly between Toronto and Texas.

Music Madness: I caught one of your videos and it looked like everyone was in different places…like you sent your husband out to the pool while you were inside.

Ashleigh: Yeah. Exactly. That was a fun one to make, because we weren’t going to be together, so we wanted to do the cover. Everybody just filmed their own parts, and then we just put them all together.

Music Madness: Nice. Is the creative process completely different for you now as well?

Ashleigh: Yes, totally. I didn’t even really get into classical because I loved it so much. I got into it because my parents sort of said, “You need to get a degree. If you’re going to go into music, you have to get a degree.” So you can’t really get a degree in anything other than classical voice.

It’s a lot more fun being onstage in a metal band. I also did some R&B stuff before and this just blows it all out of the water. It’s really, really fun.

Music Madness: Creating an album or an EP is a critical part of getting yourself out there and being heard. I’ve always used that as a way pique my interest but its what they do live that makes me a true fan.

Ashleigh: Oh, my God, yes, me too. I’ve actually stopped being fans of people because I’ve gone to their shows and they can’t sing. It’s so disappointing to me. I mean, everyone has the auto-tune, everyone has all these crazy backing tracks and stuff now.

We have backing tracks because we can’t bring a full symphony onstage so we have the orchestral parts piped in. But I am singing everything live. There is no assistance and I’m proud of that. I think that that you’re right, it does show if you’re truly a good performer or not. I’m actually not really into recording either. I find it really tedious, and I’m definitely like, more of a live stage person. I’m happiest when I’m just singing live.

Music Madness: Do you remember your first concert?

Ashleigh: Yes, I think I was five and I went to see BB King.

Music Madness: Oh, very cool!

Ashleigh: I know. My dad has great taste in music and he brought me to see BB King in Toronto. I don’t really remember the specifics, but I do remember being there and, of course, I became a big BB King fan as I got older.

Music Madness: So now you have this whole new genre of music to catch up on. Did you need to become a fan of it first?

Ashleigh: Exactly. When Colin was getting me into metal, that was a really important part, I think, of my education. We would go to shows, we travel a lot, and we were going to shows, probably once every week or every two weeks. So if somebody has toured between last September and now chances are I’ve seen them. I really wanted to study and know what the energy was like at a metal concert. I haven’t seen any female-fronted bands yet.