By Fiona Casbarro
I got the chance to sit down with 3 of the 5 members of Asa Menlove & Sixteen Fluid Ounces at Treefort Music Fest 2025. This culmination of hometown and childhood connections come together to create a full bodied, historically intertwined band. Not only historical in their kindred past, but topically within their music. Songwriter Asa Menlove often writes of things, people, and issues larger than him, accompanied by his country twang, and with a swing you just can’t help but kick your boots to.
Their first ever Treefort show featured 11 original songs, some unreleased, some played without the Sixteen Fluid Ounces, in a brief acoustic break performed solely by Asa Menlove. The set jumped between jaunty ballads like “Country Western hero”, a tune reminiscing on childhood aspirations of cowboy swagger, while simultaneously spitting on the boots of classic western actors John Wayne and Clint Eastwood; “Country Cry” a more serious song protesting the occupation of Palestine, and “Swallows”, a personal favorite, and a light-hearted reflection on the joys of watching birds dance in the air, “even if your head aint all that spun”.
Many of the members boasted their multi-instrumentalist talents as they tossed around a bass guitar throughout the set, pulling out fiddles, pedal steels, and absolute “noodles” on the guitar, as described by one of the Sixteen Fluid Ounces, Hatcher Cox.
This brief interview goes over the sprouting band’s childhood connections and how it strengthens their music ties, some of their touring disasters, what it means to write a song, confines of genres, and naturally, what comes next for the group. (Catch them live in May!)
The band features musicians Asa Menlove, Ruby Netherlin, and Hatcher Cox, as well as Sean Atkins and Ben Bingham who I didn’t get to chat with this time around. All in all, the group had only been playing together for a month, and prior to their debut Treefort show, had only run their set together once, which you would never have been able to tell just by listening. The synergy is there, the laughs are there, and the talent is abundant. The following is some highlights from my chat with the band at Treefort Music Fest, March 28 2025:
Interview Transcript
When asked about travel, touring, and Treefort:
Asa:
This is our first time, first time! [at Treefort]
I’ve been coming to the festival for a long time, so it’s cool to play it, finally.
Fiona Casbarro:
What is it like to cross state lines, to tour, quote, unquote, and play shows around?
Asa:
Kind of logistically challenging, but thankfully, everyone in the band is good at driving and we haven’t gotten into any crashes yet.
Hatcher:
Well we have before.
FC:
You have before?
Asa:
In our old band we used to crash like everytime.
Hatcher:
Two times we moved out to Seattle to play shows, and both times listening to Free Bird, we got rear ended. Both times, not our fault.
Asa:
We used to get in more crashes than we do now.
FC:
So you can’t listen to Free Bird anymore?
Hatcher:
Not in traffic in Seattle.
Ruby:
Yeah, with instruments.
Hatcher:
Instruments were never damaged. I don’t think.
When asked about how they see themselves as musicians:
FC:
How do you guys see yourselves as musicians and where you are now? Where do you see yourself here at this moment? What’s brought you here? Musically, not just like a car.
Hatcher:
Well like it brought me here because it was nice to get a free pass. [laughs] I like playing music with Asa and Ruby and our other bandmates. Yeah, I don’t know, I played a lot of more like looser music for a while, and then it’s fun to play more less, just like non. I guess we still don’t practice, but.
Ruby:
it’s been really special. Playing with Asa and his team. It’s nice being a part of someone’s bigger vision and just being able to expand what their original like, the seed of the song, and being able to expand that in small ways. I think the type of, both the type of music that we play and the type of people that are in the band, there’s a wide range of possibilities that [come from that and get to] branch out. It’s been really nice getting to know all of these people better. Hatcher and I haven’t been in a band since middle school together, and I think our parents are really psyched that we’re in a band together again.
On a musicians role in songwriting:
FC:
How important do you think a musician’s role is in talking about things that they think are important, and writing songs about things that they think that people should hear about?
Asa:
I think all and any art should be informed by the world around it. My songwriting process isn’t very regimented at all. Usually kind of just, I get lucky sometimes I have a song at the end of the day. But I definitely think that some of my songs are pretty political, and as an artist or someone who is creating things, it’s important to me, certainly, to talk about the strifes and issues that exist in the world. I don’t know if it does anything about them but it’s just like maybe more people hear about it.
On genres:
Asa:
I like genres. I think, there’s too many genres. There’s, like, 100 times too many genres. I think.
FC:
Do guys identify with any as an artist? Do you think they’re more beneficial or harmful?
Hatcher:
I think they could lump people into boxes that maybe that’s not where they would want to be. […] If somebody you know, is a certain way and has a certain vibe. […] Like, someone wears a cowboy hat, dumb example, but okay, they’re country. Like, maybe they’re not country?
Ruby:
Yeah, I’ve always felt a bit confined by any sort of like labeling of artistry, and I think genres can be a good way to build community, for sure, to find other people, like minded people, but they’re pretty fun to break apart.
Hatcher:
It’s fun, It’s nice to be able to be like, okay, I want to listen to the blues. And then you can look up Okay let’s listen to the blues!
Ruby:
They’re somewhat necessary.
On whats next:
Asa:
We just recorded five songs, five new songs, live two days ago with Pancake Test House, which is kind of operated by our other two bandmates who are not here, Ben [Bingham] and Sean [Atkins]. So we did a live set of the five new songs that we’ll be coming out, someday someday.
This charming group of 20-whatever-year-olds are not musicians that are stopping anytime soon. Come get ‘em while they’re hot off the press, and if you’re in the area, you can catch the group in Bellingham at the Shakedown on May 16.
To listen to their tunes, find Asa Menlove on most platforms, or at the social links below.
Spotify https://open.spotify.com/artist/6Vc4RFjAl0DzFUlj50HA25
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/sculpdog/
Apple music https://music.apple.com/us/artist/asa-menlove/1740052320