"STORM" VIDEO SHOOT AND UPCOMING ALBUM
[29 AUGUST 2018]
I have just returned from LA, where I've spent the last few days shooting a music video for the first single from the Beauty In Chaos project. The song is called "Storm" and was the first song Michael Ciravolo (Human Drama, Gene Loves Jezebel) & I wrote together. We ended up writing 3 songs together for the album, "Finding Beauty In Chaos" which is scheduled to be released on 21 September! As I've mentioned before, the album features a host of wonderful guest artists including Simon Gallup (The Cure), Wayne Hussey (The Mission), Al Jourgensen (Ministry), Robin Zander (Cheap Trick), Ice-T, Dug Pinnick (King's X), Michael Anthony (Van Halen), Johnny Indovina (Human Drama), Michael Aston (Gene Loves Jezebel), Evi Vine and many more.
Other than the insane LA traffic and a few near death Uber adventures, the video shoot was an absolute pleasure and expertly executed by Vicente Cordero of Industrialism Films, who I have worked with previously on the MGT video for "All The Broken Things". Vicente and his lovely crew succeeded in making us look and feel good for the duration of the rather lengthy shoot. After 2 days of trying to look cool (and awake) for 12 hours at a time I crawled onto a plane and am currently back home with my third caffeinated drink of the day.
The video for Storm will be released on 7 September. You can have a preview listen to "Storm" here and pre-order the digital album if you like. The album will also be available on CD and beautiful double vinyl! More info on that coming soon.
At this point I must thank: Michael & Tish Ciravolo for allowing me to not only join their musical family but hosting my stay as a blood relative, Vicente and Fernando Cordero, Leslie and Cat and all at Industrialism films for a fabulous shoot, Dan at Prop Heaven for letting us play in his space and all at Schecter Guitars for not only making my favourite guitars but helping with day 1 of the video shoot. A very big thank you to Michael Rozon for his recording and production wizardry on the album and to Kiki Remsen, Dirk Doucette and Leslie Gladney for their fabulous acting skills. Last but certainly not least, thank you to Anabel DFlux for shooting the behind-the-scenes photos on Day 2, mere hours after flying home form Germany!
I am really looking forward to sharing the new music and this new video with you. Until then, I generally post most regularly on Instagram, so please follow if you have a moment.
With love
Ashton
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LETTERS FROM ASHTON
[4 APRIL 2018]
I've been really bad with these. Once upon a time I would write regularly and share thoughts, dreams, frustrations and tribulations, among other things. Sometimes they were poems, sometimes they became songs and sometimes they were just letters to you. Sadly, in this age of incessant noise, celebration of the self and deafening sales pitches, we feel the need to "get to the point" in as few characters as mechanically possible. I get it. Who has time to read an epistle in 2018? In fact, who has time to even read those little captions below the pretty pictures on our favourite social media platforms? Who indeed.
Suffice it to say, it has been a busy few months for me. Firstly, the album I created with Mark Gemini Thwaite (previously of The Mission, Peter Murphy, Tricky etc fame) has been released on Cleopatra Records. The album is called "Gemini Nyte" and the artist is called "MGT". We have released 3 videos for this new venture so far. If you have a moment, you can watch the videos here. The most recent video was for our tribute to the late Scott Weiland. It was a joy singing my favourite song of his with Stone Temple Pilots - the beautiful "Atlanta". Hopefully the love comes through in our little video too.
And then there was the MGT tour with Jyrki69 (of The 69 Eyes). We just finished that a couple of weeks ago. The final show was at the infamous Whisky A Go Go in Hollywood, California and it was wonderful. It was surreal standing on the stage of the venue that has hosted The Doors, Led Zeppelin and so many other legends. As you have probably deduced, the photograph is from that show, taken by the very talented Anabel DFlux. The tour itself was pretty fabulous and a pleasure to work with such accomplished musicians and such lovely people in general. Our live band (MGT) is: Mark Gemini Thwaite on guitar, Rich Vernon (also previously of The Mission) on bass, Jared Shavelson (BoySetsFire) on drums, and yes, me on vocals. Jared joined the band 48 hours before the tour started (it's a long story) and is not only a phenomenal drummer but a phenomenal human being.
So that is the MGT side of what I've been busy with over the last few months. In the interests of brevity (well, almost) I'll save the other projects for the next letter. I would like to mention that some of those poems and songs I referred to are indeed on their way. I haven't retired my other artistic personalities just yet.
Thank you for reading. If you partake in social media, you can find me (reluctantly) on some of those platforms too. I find myself mostly using Instagram these days. It's not quite as painful as some of the others but I'm sure it's just a matter of time...
Lastly, I'm still a huge fan of the "put down the phone and do something in the real world" app. Hopefully our paths will cross there some day. At the very least, I hope my music, or something I've created can make that place a little more magical.
With love
Ashton
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