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Nov 13, 2024 By Mark Redfern Photography by Miriam Marlene

SASAMI (aka Los Angeles-based musician Sasami Ashworth) is releasing a new album, Blood on the Silver Screen, on March 7, 2025 via Domino. Now she has shared another new song from it, “Just Be Friends.” Watch the lyric video below.

SASAMI had this to say about the song in a press release: “‘Just Be Friends’ feels like a really grown up continuation of themes/moods from my first two albums. I returned to some of the stream of consciousness, emotional lyrical writing style of my first album and kept riding the country wave that was in the fabric of Squeeze but with a bit more modern country influence. I love how country songs often tell a story. Longing, lingering, loneliness and lust. When I play this one live I always dedicate it to anyone ‘sad and horny’ in the crowd… if that means anything.”

Blood on the Silver Screen includes “Honeycrash,” a new song SASAMI shared in May via a music video. When the album was announced, she released another new song from it, “Slugger,” via a baseball-themed music video. “Slugger” was one of our Songs of the Week.

Blood on the Silver Screen is described as an all-out pop record. “This album is all about learning and respecting the craft of pop songwriting, about relenting to illogical passion, obsession, and guiltless pleasure,” Ashworth says in a press release. “It’s about leaning into the chaos of romance and sweeping devotion—romanticism to the point of self-destruction.”

Ashworth adds: “I wanted to be more playful and communicate more with pop culture. When I listen to music, I think about how I feel, how I want to feel, how I want to move to it. And that’s what’s special about music—how it connects to culture, how it connects to different styles of music, how it connects to the timbre of the voice of the person singing it.”

Jenn Decilveo and Rostam co-produced the album with Ashworth and she is the sole writer of the songs. Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Kelly Clarkson, Katy Perry, Sia, Prince, Japanese city pop, and Bruce Springsteen are all listed as influences on Blood on the Silver Screen.

“I wanted to go all out with this album,”Ashworth says. “I wanted to, in my tenderness and emotionality, have the bravery to undertake something as epic as making a pop record about love. I hope it makes people feel empowered and embodied, too. It’s important to not box yourself in.”

SASAMI’s last album was 2022’s Squeeze, released by Domino. Ashworth’s self-titled debut album, SASAMI, came out in 2019, also via Domino. Read our interview with her on the album.

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