In the video for “Dark Horizon” Ashanti Šabić really gets going. Just as you would expect from the singer of a metal band, since Doro Pesch sang in a leather bodice at the front of the Düsseldorf band “Warlock”. Her voice sounds confident and sensual. No question, you have to be able to rock out like Šabić at the age of 19. And yet you would As it rains not fair as a band if you reduce their music to the fact that there is an impulsively rocking woman at the microphone.
The story of As it rains is the story of five friends whose music is also a product of their shared experiences. The result of the small and big challenges that they talk about in the Unterföhring youth center Fezi with Spezi and tap water. The band is: Luca Bozzato, 20, (guitar) and Cedric Wieprecht, 21, (guitar and vocals), Moritz Törsiep, 21, (drums), Arthur Meitzner, 21, (bass) – and Ashanti Šabić, the does not show up to the meeting in the style of a rock girl, but as an architecture student with a hooded jacket. And also openly admits that she still has a few things to learn about Ionic and Doric columns for an exam. “I can express another facet of myself on stage,” she says calmly. This is the place where you can let go. And let go, that’s what other people should do when they hear the music of As it rains. Let go, unleash emotions.
The band has existed in composition since 2019, and for quite a while the five in the joint Whatsapp group led the mantra to perform in 2025 in “Wacken” in Schleswig-Holstein, where the world-famous metal festival takes place. In 2021, the people from Unterföhring won the “Running for the Best” young talent competition, which the Munich-Land District Youth Council advertises for bands from the city and district. 2022 was also great, they say: three new songs were created, they played at the “Oben ohne” festival and at the “Munich Mash” in the Olympic Park.
It all started a few years ago in Unterföhring, when Wieprecht and Bozzato got together Almost Heaven called and unpacked their guitars in the Fezi because they wanted to know what it’s like to make music together. “It was all about being loud,” says Wieprecht, who is studying mathematics and physical education to become a high school teacher. When the drummer dropped out due to a cruciate ligament rupture, Moritz Törsiep joined the band, whom Bozzato knew from kindergarten and who has been playing the drums since he was seven years old. And because they needed a singer for a music competition, Ashanti Šabić from Munich came along, Wieprecht’s friend, who sang in the school choir at her high school in Bogenhaus and had singing lessons for years. Almost Heaven became As it rains.
Thrilling live act: “As it rains” at “Rock am Klenze”.
(Photo: Simon Wickstead)
Loud music – they still do it. But that’s not classic heavy metal, nor pure alternative rock. The style of As it rains, which the people from Unterföhring call “modern hard rock”, has changed since the first guitar grips in the Fezi rehearsal room. “It’s very blurry,” says drummer Törsiep, who also belongs to the IMAL (International Munich Art Lab) music theater ensemble. In other words, music is not understood as a static entity, but rather as something that is subject to influences and experiences and that develops further. In their song “Demons” the heaviness of metal is broken up with mystical-tender vocal passages, the new single “Fear” blows a breeze of pop, and despite all the dynamic power of drums and guitar, there is also a hint of harmony. Bozzato, who studied “Vocational Education” in Bamberg and connected via video call, leads the Berlin band as a role model Future Palace on. Also with the American alternative rock band formed in 1995 Evanescence As it rains have already been compared – probably not least because there is also a woman singing there. The Unterföhringer not only takes care of many organizational issues, he also writes the songs. “Dark Horizon” was created when he didn’t really know where life was going to take him after school. “It still touches me to this day when I hear it,” he says.
If the other members of the band don’t like a composition, the sound seems too happy or the text doesn’t fit at one point, we correct it together. “Luca does the scaffolding and we bring in ideas,” says Wieprecht. Above all, Šabić should be given freedom of interpretation. The singer wipes her smartphone, shows a photo from a gig. The crowd rages in front of the stage, Bozzato and Šabić appear in profile. You see her laughing. Looks at the great fun they have together. As it rains is still an amateur band that networks with other bands and is happy when the circle of friends comes to the concert in large numbers. But if you want to be involved permanently, you have to draw attention to yourself on social media and build up a fan base, of course you know that. Long gone are the days when rock stars could indulge in rude behavior and scandal. Many bands are now getting “an amazing world-saving message,” says Bozzato. That often seems fake. The Unterföhringer takes a break, then he says: “We’re just five friends who enjoy music.” A challenge will now be to convey coherently that you can be a fun bunch and still write serious songs that sometimes even sound sad.
We will present candidates for the Tassilo Culture Prize by mid-February. You can find all the nominees below sz.de/tassilo.