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About Dashi
Who Are We?
The Dashi Project is an artist collective--a group of artists working together to create, you guessed it, art! Our art as the Dashi Project is music. We are a group of close friends with the common aim of experimenting, creating, and inspiring others to explore their own passions.
In other words, we're friends who create and share music together. We are always looking for new inspiration as well as new people and friends to join the group. The more minds, the more fun, and the more fruitful the experience.
What the Heck is a Dashi?
The word "Dashi" has a few meanings. The name was Ashley's idea--a combination of the two original members' names (Dani and Ashley). However, the name holds a hidden meaning as dashi is also a Korean word that translates to "again."
Semi-Related Fun Fact: there is a thing called dashima, which is the name of a type of seaweed commonly used in Korean and Japanese cooking for making soup broth.
How It All Started
Our story of "The Dashi Project" began in the summer of 2016 with the two main collaborators, Dani Lipman and Ashley Chong. The two friends were living together in Iowa City, taking classes at the University of Iowa over the summer. As recreational musicians, it was only a matter of time before Ashley brought out the guitar at midnight, and a late night jam session took place. The two spent hours collaborating and writing until the first mashup was completed.
As the summer continued, so did the music making. Dani and Ashley wrote more mashups, arrangements, and even created two original songs over the course of three months. By the end of the summer, the Dashi Project was born--but it was only the beginning.
As the year progressed, more of our friends began to collaborate and make music. We would meet up with each other randomly. Jacob Heeren and Gloria Tanui were constantly part of our creative process, and thus it became apparent that a creative collective had begun to form.
And now, here we are, a group of friends making bad jokes and good music on Friday nights and rainy Tuesdays.
Our Music Process
Our music creation takes many forms and routes. Typically, the best songs come to life randomly and at the least likely of times. All of us have gotten used to getting random light-bulb moments for lyrics, a melody, or a theme and then running to the nearest piano or empty space to figure the rest out.
When together, the creative flow is the even better. Bouncing ideas off of one another adds greatly to the effort of creating a song in minutes. There have been many times where study breaks turn into jam sessions that turn into a new piece of music that ends the night off with a satisfied feeling of success.
Alternatively, the best way for us to generate ideas is always through improvisation. You'll be able to catch our livestream jam sessions on Facebook, and will perhaps see some of the results of those sessions on SoundCloud as well. (See Repertoire page for more)
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