ASHENMOON INTERVIEW
Twinmusix got to speak to Toby Rand from AshenMoon
TM - Hi this is Elizabeth from Twinmusix.
TR - Hi, how are you doing there?
TM - Good, how are you?
TR - I'm doing great, always good to hear a good old Aussie accent.
TM -Are you in Los Angeles?
TR - I am, I'm enjoying a nice 26 degrees days.
TM - I'm jealous, it's raining here.
TR - Where are you?
TM - Sydney
TR - You guys are getting battered aren't you?
TM - Yeah, but your coronavirus laws are insane.
TR - we're still on Lockdown. I was talking before and we don't know when we can come back to Australia without going into quartine. I understand you guys are opening up now, aren't you?
TM - Yeah we are.
TR - That's awesome, we just had a festival in July cancel and we are waiting to hear about the other dates. We are all in this together, we have all these interviews and Spotify so hopefully, we can build a brand that way.
TM - How have fans responded to your new Double-sided single?
TR - Its a slow process but we have a bit of legacy involved with Garry Beers so we knew there would be a bit of a fan base. I think the two new songs are going great and we choose two awesome songs to release out of the 13 we wrote. Some radio stations are picking up the songs and the feedback is it sounds familiar but fresh.
TM - What was your writing and recording process for your new songs?
TR - Gary had a lot of songs that INXS had never recorded. I went into his vaults and had a sniff around and tried to see if we could get some ideas off the music he had written without any vocals. Then he saw my ideas and it gave him the light of day, so he gravitated to a few of those. We went to Gary's studio in the valley and we just put some stuff together. we were singing, writing, putting stuff out there and drinking a lot of wine and pretending that we are awesome. Before we knew it we had 17 solid ideas which we brought down to 13. We will be bringing out our new album early next year.
TM - What was it like working with Mixed by Grammy award winner David Reitzas and mastered by Howie Weinberg?
TR - David's Awesome, he is a Legend because he does all the vocals for Barbra Streisand. He is a friend of Harry's and when he heard my voice at a show he said you know what man I want to record your voice, so we got him to record my voice and it was an incredible experience. He captured the authenticity and tone of my voice and that was a dream.
We recorded a lot of the vocals at West Lakes studio, where Michael Jackson did Dangerously and Madonna used to record there. It was awesome recording with him because he has such a great Legacy and Howie mastered the record. He Is eccentric and he's like, I don't want anyone near me. I want to record with no one in the room and we were like all right mate. He has worked on Nirvana's record and Jeff Buckleys record. we were lucky to have these high-class guys work on our record. When the world hears the record the whole world is going to be stoked.
TM - What can fans expect from your new album?
TR - It is kind of new wave meets classic with a fresh aspect.
TM - If you could have any band play one of your songs what band would it be, what song would it be and would it be in your style or their style?
TR - Radiohead cover a song from our new album in their style. Thom Yorke voice sounds amazing, it would make me emotional.
TM - What's your favourite memory of watching someone else perform live?
TR - My favourite concert was a few years back when Soundgarden opened up for Nine Inch Nails. I got given tickets and I was in a box right in front of everything. Chris Cornell came out of the stage and sang like nobody else does and it was the last time I got to see him live.
I was lucky enough to go to a YouTube show where they had 300 people at the Roxy and my brother flew over from Melbourne and hi-fived Bono so that was a cool moment. I sacrificed my moment with Bono for my brother and I'll never let him forget that.
TM - Do you have any new videos coming out?
TR - We just finished filming our new video Dust Bowl. We captured the city in lockdown, we got drinks out in the street and captured everything and it's being edited now so it will be out soon.
TM - Is there anything else you want to say to your fans?
TR - We appreciate all the support with our new singles and we hope everyone likes our new album and video coming out soon.
https://www.facebook.com/ashenmoonmusic
Dustbowl