WE MET IN THE PARKING LOT
A CONVERSATION WITH DANIEL ASH & BRUCE SMITH OF ASHES AND DIAMONDS
Ashes and Diamonds is a new band, their debut album Ashes and Diamonds Are Forever will be released October 31. Although they are a new band, you will most definitely recognize the three members. Daniel Ash (Bauhaus/Tones On Tail/Love and Rockets/Poptone) on guitar and vocals, Bruce Smith (Public Image Ltd/The Pop Group) playing drums, programming and providing backing vocals and Paul Spencer Denman (Sade/Sweetback) adds his bass to the rhythm section. Ashes and Diamonds are somewhat of an alternative rock supergroup.
I caught up with Daniel Ash recently to talk about the new band and album. Although he has been asked the question hundreds of times, since the band was announced, Ash discussed the origins of the band. “Bauhaus had done a bunch of gigs, Love and Rockets did some gigs, Tones On Tails thing at Cruel World a couple of years back. Anyway,, Paul Spencer Denman, bass player, contacted me because he wanted to work, well we wanted to work together years ago, but the timing was never right. He contacted me about seven years ago, and the idea appealed to me this time around. And his wife, Kim, who I had known from art school years ago, suggested Bruce on drums. So basically, I am like ‘I’m on’, let’s see what happens. I hadn’t met Bruce, I didn’t even know what Bruce looked like, I only knew he had been in PIL for a long time, since 1986.”
Even though the two had never met, they seemed to hit it off immediately, which led to, not only some recording and writing, but the formation of a band. “We met in the parking lot, shook hands and stuff and three quarters of an hour later we were working on a track. It was bizarre, working with a complete stranger. And that was it. He lives on the East Coast, and he literally came off the plane and we met in L.A. I think by the end of that day, we have come up with a couple of different things, that were the workings of a couple of new songs.”
When it comes to writing lyrics, Ash has employed a method he learned a while back, which he has used for Love And Rockets, Bauhaus, Tones On Tails and his own solo releases. “The way I do the lyrics is I would use the cut-up method. You know, William Burroughs used it. Bowie used it. I saw a documentary when I was 15 or 16 called Cracked Actor on TV about Bowie. He was talking then about Burroughs method of ‘cut-up” You just get headlines, put them on the kitchen table, have the headphones on with the backing track, and then sentences from these headlines would come together. If you are lucky, within a few hours you will have a song by the end of the day.”
But Ash did not use just run of the mill newspapers. He found using tabloids much more effective. “I would deliberately use the tacky mags, National Enquirer, People Magazine, Viz, in England, The Sun. Real low-grade stuff, because they get the best headlines. You get the most dramatic headlines from the gutter press. The trashy stuff you get at the supermarket. That’s what I do, if I am in the mood to do work on something, I go to the supermarket and get a few things and then on the check out, you always get those magazines, all the gossip mags. I would buy them all, bring them home and start working on the tracks. So, you know, at least 95 percent of the lyrics would come from that. “Go” from Tones On Tail, which came from Viz magazine. The real disgusting cartoon magazine from England. Very crude humour. It’s been going for a long, long time. So, Love and Rockets and the odd Bauhaus song came from a cut-up. It just sets you free. You don’t have to sit there and say, ‘how do I feel about this?’ The subject matter becomes apparent as the minutes go on and you start. You know that thing where you get those magnetic things on the fridge, it is exactly that, except I use headlines from magazines. It is exactly like those magnetic words you put on the fridge.”
ASHES AND DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER ALBUM REVIEW
It is unique in how he gets those words to fit the music the band comes up with. “So, when I am listening to a backing track, bass and drums, that inspires me, and things start flowing a bit, start getting rhymes happening and melodies, all from this cut-up thing. So basically, your self-consciousness is working. It is great fun. Think of William Burroughs’ Naked Lunch, I don’t think he would have come up with that title if it wasn’t for the cut-up thing, it’s a typical cut-up song. You put things together you would never at all. It broadens your horizons considerably. When I start out, I don’t know what I will be writing about. I have no idea. I just got the bass and drums, and I got headlines. For example, “Teenage Robots,” that would have come from a headline. Then I got a story line, ‘Teenage Robots,’ that suggests something, then you build on it. I thought it was a great title. If things don’t work exactly as you want, you can always get a pen, cross it out and make changes, until you get what you want. For me, it is a real catalyst for thinking outside of the box for sure.”
The new album Are Forever, is very eclectic both in music and lyrics. Something that Ash and the band strived for when they started working on the album. “There’s lots of different stories going on in these magazines. You jump all over the place with what the song is about. It is everything from 2020 about the Pandemic to teenage robots and everything in between.”
And there are some very interesting stories to be found on this album, including the song about “Champagne Charlie.” “It is a story about a young rich guy who supposedly has it all, but deep down he is really not in a good place. It is a symbol, for when you are young and you get too much too soon, it is a statement on that. And it is sad. Because everyone on the outside thinks you got it going on, but deep down you are quite the opposite you know. I never intended to write that song at all, but again, it comes from cut-up. I found ‘Champagne Charlie,’ and I thought that was interesting, I remember that saying from England. We use that to describe a young prat who has too much money and no common sense, because they were born with a silver spoon and all the problems that that creates.”
Touring for the band is not currently planned, but if the album does well, and there seems to be an audience for them, then they are more than happy to tour the new album. “It is very expensive now. These days, you get booked into a decent hotel. When we first started, we were sleeping in the back of the band, in January in some place like Dusseldorf. Thank God those days are over. You would load our gear into the back of a van and throw an old bedsheet on top of it, an old mattress and try to sleep on that. Going through Germany in January, and of course the heater didn’t work. What was it, in those days that we could not get it together to get the heater to work. An absolute nightmare, but that is all done with.”
In the end, Ashes and Diamonds is a band that wants to do their music, their way. They are not jumping any trends or trying to save the world. But they do want their audience to enjoy their own distinct brand of rock and roll. “We are just playing like we play. Bruce is playing drums like he plays and making loops like he does for PIL but adapting them to this style of music. Tracks like “On A Rocka” were inspired by the Glitter Band. You know “Rock and Roll Part 2.” Those great simplistic drums. The starting point was the simplistic sound of The Glitter Band, and also Slade, who had that stomping sound. It certainly was not prog rock. We are allergic to prog rock.”
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