Sasami | A Rock Goddess’s Quest

All-American Asian upbringings provide a unique push-and-pull dynamic for a generation of millennial creatives. Do what you will but expect greater scrutiny if you choose to stray from the norms. There’s an ongoing tension between traditional values and the evolving mentality surrounding cultural awareness. For those who pursue careers in the creative industries, additional challenges arise—from gender and sexuality to the mission of dismantling the status quo while building new worlds. This alchemy is central to shaping the identity of rock goddess Sasami Ashworth, who has embraced the responsibility of forging her own path. A multi-instrumentalist, her journey to becoming the maestro of her own sonic narrative unfolds like an opera in three acts. And from the way she speaks about her work, it’s clear that there are many more sequels to come as she enters her pop era.

Raised with an academic foundation in classical music and jazz, with the French horn as her primary instrument at the prestigious LACHSA, Sasami experienced both the discipline and constraints of formal musical training. “Growing up playing classical music can be this toxic relationship with your ability to perform perfectly, being really tied into your identity and self-worth. It’s a very hardcore, judgmental scene—it’s not really a nuanced type of self-expression in that genre. You’re performing things exactly as they’re written, and your ability to impress people is based on how perfectly you execute something that someone else has predetermined and pre-composed,” she reflects. However, the influence of her younger brother and the alternative rock scene surrounding her school provided a counterbalance, incubating a more liberated approach to music. Escaping to DIY spaces like The Smell and Pehrspace helped her develop her artistic taste and identity, allowing her to break free from rigid expectations and define her own creative voice.

Ultimately, it was her extracurricular exploration that allowed her to embrace a creative world that valued emotional awareness and individualism. As Sasami explains, “I think as I started to experiment, playing in other people’s bands and connecting with LA’s smaller rock scene after I graduated from college, I realized how freeing it is to play a genre where mistakes are not necessarily celebrated, but they’re just part of the rawness and excitement of the genre, as opposed to something to avoid. The coarseness and rawness of rock music became very appealing to me.”

After completing her studies at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, Sasami returned to LA, immersing herself in the underground rock scene that had first sparked her creative spirit during the early years of Indie Sleaze. Reflecting on that time, she recalls, “I went to college from 2008 to 2012, so I was out of town for a bit of that. But when I came back, there was Burger Records, Lolipop Records, the Echo Park DIY scene, the psych rock scene, but also a lot of post-punk bands coming out of that. It was fun, but a little self-serious. It had this guise of being very inclusive, non-corporate, and community-oriented. We all played cool vintage guitars and used analog pedals. We recorded everything to tape.” This scene—both nostalgic and self-aware—provided the perfect backdrop for Sasami to refine her artistic identity, merging her formal training with the raw, unpolished ethos of LA’s underground.

Her return to LA also brought a sense of playfulness that contrasted her rigid musical background, which eventually led her to join Cherry Glazerr from 2014 to 2017 as a keyboardist and guitarist. She reflects on that experience: “Joining Cherry Glazerr was appealing to me because Clem (Clementine Creevy), the founder and lead singer, was pretty goofy, and there was a playfulness to being in that band. There’s something special about being part of a team—you can take more risks because you always have those people behind you, cheering you on and hyping you up. Being in that band was formative because it gave me the opportunity to discover myself and take more risks.”

Eventually, Sasami’s evolution as an artist led her to branch out on her own. Her time in Cherry Glazerr served as an incubation period for a solo project, empowering her to create a fully realized artistic vision. This transition was supported by her brother, Joo-Joo Ashworth, and the community he cultivated. “My brother Joo-Joo had a band called Froth, and has a studio in Cypress Park called Studio 22, which he runs with his partner, Tomas Dolas from The Osees. They were both early supporters of my solo project, which started to bloom while I was still in Cherry Glazerr,” she explains. “Being in a band is great because you’re part of a team, but the downside is that all of your ideas have to be approved by everyone, so you have to compromise a lot. My brother and Tomas helped me produce my first record, Sasami (2018), giving me the space to fully embrace my creative instincts.”

Sasami’s musical journey has seen her traverse multiple genres, from classical to nu-metal, all in pursuit of refining her sonic and visual universe. Her broad musical literacy has informed her approach, allowing her to deconstruct and reshape pop music on her own terms. “The more I collaborate or learn from different scenes and genres, the more vocabulary I gain for creating whatever comes into my brain. I studied classical music and jazz, then got into shoegaze, post-punk, and nu-metal with my last record. Lately, I’ve been really interested in the vernacular of pop music. The magical thing about collaboration is that you can make something so much bigger than what you could on your own.”

Her album Blood on the Silver Screen offers a visceral experience, evoking the heightened emotions of late-’90s and early-2000s teen films—think of romcoms, crop tops, puppy love, mall-weathered denim as anthemic melodies. It’s a soundtrack to the listener’s main-character moment, filtered through the vibrant lens of pop. She describes this sensation further: “I was inspired by cinema and the ego of being the main character in your life. That’s something so special about pop music—it makes the listener feel like the protagonist of their story. People put pop music on when they’re getting ready to go out because it makes them feel empowered. But there’s also sad pop music, like Lana Del Rey, where you’re not always the hero of the story—sometimes you’re the tragic queen protagonist. Every song taps into a different genre, from rom-com to thriller to sad romance.”

Sasami’s ability to reinterpret pop music stems from her desire to challenge and expand its boundaries. “I thought it was the perfect genre to explore love at its most potent and flawed,” she says. “On this album, love is one of the characters. It’s a love so great that you would die for it—there’s this complete, epic expansiveness that I wanted to tap into on that album. There’s moments where our emotions are small, introspective, quiet, and meditative. This album was a huge, extraordinary professions of love at the at the expense of total destruction.”

Sasami’s collaboration with visual artist Andrew Thomas Huang has been instrumental in bringing her cinematic sound to life. “Andrew is an incredible world-builder,” she says. “From Squeeze to my latest project, he’s helped create immersive visuals that match the boldness of my music.”

Her aesthetic evolution continues to shape her identity, blending elements of romance, Americana, and glam rock energy. Her last album embraced a “goth prairie-core” look, incorporating Rodarte’s dramatic lace into her visuals. On her recent tour, she’s pivoted to a playful take on Americana—denim, heeled boots, and voluminous permed hair. “It’s like a campy reinterpretation of Bruce Springsteen’s stadium rock style,” she laughs.

This heightened sense of spectacle extends beyond her sonic influences and into her live show, where she has taken a more immersive, multi-sensory approach. “This is the first album where I’ve worked with a lighting designer to program a fully synced-up lighting show that happens in tandem with my live musical performance,” she shares. Touring with Haim exposed her to the scale of high-budget pop production, where visuals and lighting play a crucial role in audience engagement. “It was so important for me to see how lighting and visuals were a pivotal part of their show, and how people perceive the show. Ultimately, people in the audience are not all musicians. They’re people who absorb with all of their senses.” With this new album cycle, Sasami places just as much emphasis on the visual world as the audio, crafting an experience that is as striking to see as it is to hear.

Despite existing outside the mainstream, Sasami has built a strong community of like-minded artists. “Growing up as a queer Asian nerd kid, I never felt embraced by mainstream culture,” she admits. “I always found my own space and expression.” She also emphasizes the importance of solidarity: “When I was starting out, Mitski, Japanese Breakfast, and Jay Som were already putting out records. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs asked me to open for them. That kind of support is how white men keep white men on top, and it’s important that we do the same for each other. Even if it feels cheesy, rejecting that only upholds the status quo.”

Sasami’s career is proof that success doesn’t require assimilation—it comes from uplifting those around you and fearlessly carving your own path.

Written and Produced by BJ Panda Bear | @bjpandabear

Photographed by Andrew Friendly | @andrew__friendly

Stylist: Britton Litow | @wanna__b

Hair: Paul Rizzo | @comme_des_pr using Bumble and Bumble.

Makeup: Nichole Servin | @thenicholeservin using Westman Atelier and Rare Beauty.

Stylist Assistant: Maddie Collins | @maddiecollins.