Daniel Ash of Ashes and Diamonds
Hello, My Name is Daniel
S
ome artists fear cage-rattling change. Others welcome it warmly, adapting with surferavid skill to every new wave that sweeps into, or over, their career. But Daniel Ash, however, remains conflicted. At a seasoned 68, after five decades fronting aesthetically-varied
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— and universally-enduring— projects like Bauhaus, Love and Rockets, Tones on Tail, and his latest edgier outfit Ashes and Diamonds— the British guitarist / vocalist has been happy to explore not only his own instrumental style( with Ashes, he’ s experimenting with saxophone as well as the Big Country-popularized perpetual-sustain guitar device, the E-bow, but a nonstop influx of technological advances. which allowed him during the isolated Covid era to exchange music files with his two fellow A & D members, ex-P. I. L. drummer Bruce Smith and former Sade / Sweetback bassist Paul Spencer Denman and basically construct an entire 12- track album, which they later recorded post-lockdown in a ten-day Los Angeles studio stint. And it’ s a solid, celebratory set, which opens with police sirens on the thumping“ Hollywood,” speeds up the tempo on a hip-hop-crusted“ Teenage Robots,” turns Ash’ s axe up to 11 on“ Boy or Girl” and a jarring“ Plastic Fantastic,” then gets roller-rink cheesy on“ Ice Queen,” including vocals that = echo a skater DJ’ s bark. A throbbing shuffler called“ Setting Yourself Up For Love” follows, tumbling into a jagged“ Alien Love” and a grim, thoughtful closing elegy for a truly dark time we all endured together,“ 2020.”“ Are Forever” was self-produced, with additional input from James Sauter and Joe Dexter( Ash jokingly describes it as the Sven-month record that took an unexpected seven years to finish). And filmgoers might recognize the group’ s name as that of a stark wartime Polish parable from 1958, from noted director Andrzej Wajda.( But there’ s no relevance,” clarifies Ash.“ We just like the way that‘ Ashes and Diamonds’ sounded”.) But there’ s a reliable sense of status quo rippling through“ On a Rocka,” the bonecrunching kickoff single from the trio’ s ** Ashes and Diamonds Are Forever debut on Cleopatra, which drops on Halloween, appropriately enough. It careens in on a stomping Smith drumbeat, prodded by a deep, vocoder-sinister“ Bop Bop Shoo-Waddy-Wop” chant, which segues into Ash’ s jagged guitar slashes and his signature flinty vocals, chanting a simple“ Red hot / White hot / I’ m a rocka / I’ m a rolla.” No deep, complex lyrical sentiments to unravel, an austerity underscored by Jake Scott, the son of renowned film director Ridley Scott; the narrative has the muscular, remarkably youthful-looking performer slip a mirror-visored helmet over his stillpunk-spiky black hair, mount a sleek, futuristic motorcycle in full biker leather, then zoom into the California desert, pausing only twice, once to view the gutted shell of a dilapidated oldhippie bus, and then some imposing saguaro cacti on the sunset horizon. That’ s it. What’ s it about? Who knows? Who cares? It just FEELS incredibly urgent and important, the way all great rock and roll used to. And should. With nothing complicated to overthink, a signature of the man’ s work of late. Ash is proudly his own idiosyncratic man after all these years, and quite confident about his creative, personal, and spiritual beliefs. And no passing fads or trends will ever sway him. In the interview, Ash is curious about how” 2020” will be perceived. Did he
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