Singer/songwriter and creative power duo Woven Green create folk-pop-rockin’ jams with an infusion of New Age and World music for a truly transcendent listening experience.
Turn Back Around is the group’s newest single and is an emotionally powerful song with an evocative vocal performance, soaring lead guitars, and a driving rhythm that grabs you and doesn’t let go until we return to silence.
Jim and Ashley Cash are award winning songwriters, sound healers and workshop presenters who use their talents and skill set to create deeper connections through their art. The spiritual element of their music can bring healing while opening and nurturing deeper connections to nature, the cosmos and the greater consciousness of our existence.
I was fortunate enough to get a few moments of Jim and Ashley’s time for the below interview spotlight. We discuss the new single, technology, challenges and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
We are from Sterling, VA USA.
Music is our lifestyle. We are a married couple who have dedicated much of our creative life force to this container that we call Woven Green. For us, music is an opportunity to express, embody, and imbue our inner and outer worlds. When we describe the sound of our music, we like to preface, that at the very source of our existence, down to the subatomic particles, that matter is essentially vibrational energy, frequency, and sound. With this awareness, our music becomes an intentional attempt to enter the slipstream of transmission, which evolves in whatever way the muse strikes. In this way, our sound in not tethered to any particular genre, but rather, has evolved into a blend of styles that we describe as spiritually uplifting music for the soul. For those wanting a point of reference, in terms of genre classification, our sound tends to merge rock, folk, pop, world, and new age – at times evoking a 70’s folk rock revival sound that meets modern rock familiarity, but also evolving into a style of its own that builds off of any of these genres.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?
For both Ashley and I, we both grew up in families that valued music. Our formative years included a lot of exposure to all kinds of music, but especially music from the 60’s and 70’s. When we met, there was a recognition of each others gifts and talents, and love for the same taste in music. As our relationship began to unfold, music seemed to inevitably invite us to combine our creative efforts and vision together in a way where we could make being artists and musicians our lifestyle and livelihood. It’s not been an easy road, but in honoring that call we have also been immensely rewarded on a soul level to create and make this expression our service and offering back to the world. So, whether that’s through teaching music, using sound as therapy and a deep meditational assist, or through songwriting and composition, music has been the foundation and center from which we create and give out. To paraphrase, we are simply doing this because it’s our love and passion, and it feels good to make others feel good. If you’re creating from that space, people are going to feel that, and it’s going to positively affect the enrichment of their lives. To have people say for example, “that your music moved them on a soul level,” is the kind of affirmation that lets you know, it’s all worth it. That’s what keeps us going.
How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?
Turn Back Around was a song we wrote 10 years ago, and it had been sitting on the back shelf collecting dust. We felt an urge to return back to this song and re-inspire and re-envision it with some fresh energy. Releasing a single during a worldwide pandemic, that’s a first, lol. And with that, in a most uncanny way, has taken on a new layers of meaning in that the subject matter lyrically speaking, is a song about the cycles of death and rebirth, trials and tribulations, initiation, fragmentation, the play of opposites (singularity and duality), recapitulation, and resurrection – it moves from an originally intended transpersonal narrative, to one that is profoundly collective. There’s a limitless aspect of creation, in that as you begin to create, while one may have a specific intention or focus, the creative catharsis comes by allowing a piece of art or a song to become its own thing. In some ways, the role of being an artist or the act of creating, is the act of balancing an intention, focus, or goal, while being able to let go and surrender enough of all of that, to allow it to become free.
Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this over saturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?
Originally, we were not tech savvy people. But committing to the independent music lifestyle, we’ve had to really dive into the technical world and learn to wear many different hats, including everything from audio engineer to promotional manager, to retail merchandiser, etc. so it’s really pushed us to develop many technical and professional skills. It’s a lot to wield, and can sometimes create a lot of pressure, especially on a tight budget. But we use that pressure to push us creatively and professionally.
What was the last song you listened to?
Since we’re often teaching music, Ashley’s most recent listen is the soundtrack from “Hadestown,” and for Jim, it’s “Here Comes the Sun.”
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
We grew up on vinyl, cassettes, and CD’s, so we love the nostalgia and the full package artwork that comes with a tangible physical copy. We still produce our work in CD form for this very reason. We’ve thought about offering vinyl too, but it’s really expensive, and there’s just not enough people who are going to buy vinyl to make it worth it. Of course, there’s a convenience that one cannot deny in the digital world, and all of our music is available digitally as well for that reason.
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
Our main preference is for people to buy off our website, but it’s so convenient for new listeners to access our music for Spotify or Apple Music, that we often end up using those platforms the most.
Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?
Our website is the best place, and we also have a great online store there as well. http://www.wovengreenmusic.com We’re also active on social media and are currently working on building up our you tube channel with new video releases on the way.
Anything else before we sign off?
We’re just so excited to share our new single with you. We’re also in the process of creating more music for an eventual full album release. And we’re now in a space where we can hash away at some basic tracks here at our home studio. While touring may be on hold for a little while, we’re in a most interesting transition that may eventually provide new opportunities for indie music exposure, in the virtual context. We’ll see what happens. We’re excited about the possibilities for the future.
