Last August, pop polymorph Ashnikko released their album WEEDKILLER, with a gnarly gritty track, “You Make Me Sick.” Now, they’re back with a new epic version of the song featuring close friend, collaborator and fellow shapeshifting song writer Dora Jar. Today, the duo drops the remix and behind-the-scenes shots here at PAPER. “I was squealing like a little kid when I first heard this remix,” Ashnikko tells us. “I was so delighted at how unexpected and genius Dora is. She literally sings 'I'm empty from filling you up!'"
The latest version of the track leans into saccharine guitar strings, highlighting a slower soundscape accenting Ashnikko’s voice, with Jar adding a lush melodic delivery to the brash lyrics. “She’s the type of person I can imagine writes songs in her dreams and then wakes up and remembers them in their entirety,” Ashnikko says about Jar. “I love her, I love her work, she’s so special and dear to me as a friend and as an artist. I feel very lucky to exist at the same time as her.”
Jar returns the favor, telling us, “Ash has inspired me for so long to musically go all the way into whatever emotion is moving through me. The intensity is turned on bright.”
So, how would they like listeners to feel once they’ve hear the new version? “I hope they feel liberated to feel the sadness beneath the anger,” Jar says. The remix translates Jar’s experience of the track sonically, reflecting her interpretation when she first heard the song. “Before I attempted the remix, I had listened to 'You Make Me Sick' all summer and even cried to it, which surprised me because it’s more of a rage anthem,” she says. “In many ways the raging passion in Ash’s voice became a portal for me to face my own anger and access the sadness beneath it.”
“You Make Me Sick” may have made Jar feel better but when it comes to the question of what does make her sick, she gives PAPER a brief response: “The evil that humankind is capable of and hatred of any kind. [Also] meanies.”
Photography: Blair Brown
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