This time we’re gonna hit it up at Nambucca on Thursday the 17th of May. We’ve not played there before, but we’ve heard very very good things about the venue. So, once more into the breach dear friends!

ROCK!!   \m/

Our facebook event is here: https://www.facebook.com/events/172961986153365/

And Nambucca’s events page is here: http://nambuccalondon.com/events-2

Tickets can be bought directly here: http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/user/?region=gb_london&query=detail&event=494839

The UBR Interview

How did you first get into playing music?

We all started playing when we were quite young. I (Steve – Guitars) and my brother, Geoff (Drums), started playing various instruments by the time we were 6 or 7. Mals started playing guitar at a similar age, and Gids was learning clarinet from quite young too. So all of us have been musically active for some time!

How long have you been performing?

As ‘From the Ashes’ our first gig was back in September of 2010 at a pub in Camden, North London. We’d all played in various other bands before that though.

How would you describe your sound in one sentence?

Heavy, Blues, Rock, Sex, Beer.

What makes your music unique?

Its where we all come from musically, in my opinion. We all have very varied different tastes and influences that come together to create something that is distinct and unique. Its the great thing about playing in a band where everyone’s an equal partner in the writing of the material. In fact, its the great thing about playing in a band. A band is, essentially, the interaction between the sum total of everyone in the band’s musical tastes and experiences. You change any one person in a band, and the sound should and does change to reflect that.

What inspires you to write songs?

Every day events, life changing tragedies, and everything in-between. Mainly though, we’re trying to have fun and want the people who hear us live or on recording to enjoy themselves too. I think our singer, Mal, put it best when he said that “There’s already more than enough complicated stuff in life, Rock music shouldn’t always be as well”. That’s a sentiment I totally agree with. Of course that doesn’t mean we can’t or don’t write weightier things, its just that we don’t feel the need to make every song an ode to the tragedies and complicated nature of modern existence. We’re too busy having fun for that!

What have been your best and worst gig experiences?

Worst gig experience? Don’t want to name the venue but we had an utter balls up last year where we didn’t get a soundcheck, and then the sound engineer was overly fiddling with our levels in the middle of songs so the dynamics ended up all over the place. Not a great experience to be honest. Best gigging experience….there’s been so many highlights its hard to pick one. My personal favourite was when we played the Underworld, Camden in December of last year. Amazing sound team, and a kick ass venue, and of course we rocked the hell out of the place!

If you had to listen to one album for the rest of your life what would it be?

Uhhhhhhh….if you ask each one of us I suspect you’ll get a different answer each time. For me (Steve) it would probably be Guns N’ Roses’s Appetite for Destruction. One of my favourite albums of all time!

What do you get up to when you’re not making music?

We all do lots of different stuff, obviously we all work (which is a horrendously tedious thing to have to do, but there you go). Myself and Gids are Archaeologists, Mal’s an IT guy and Geoff works in theatre. Hobby wise, there’s a random mix of video game,, martial arts, cinema, theatre, reading, comic books and all other sorts of stuff.

What are your goals at the moment?

Well, the obvious long term goal is nothing short of world domination, but in the short term we’re trying to get more exposure, some radio play, playing high profile gigs. We have made a real push to try and get on a few festivals this summer, but when you’re unsigned and don’t have a label’s worth of contacts behind you helping to push for those slots, it can be tricky. That doesn’t mean we’ve given up though, we’re on the reserve list for a slot at the Cockermouth Rock Festival, and still waiting to hear back from a few others.

What have you been working on lately? Any new tracks or gigs lined up?

We were in the studio recently, recording out new single. We want to do a double A-side release, so it needs a couple more days to finish various parts off. Then we’re shooting a video for it, which is something none of us have done before and is giving us all the expected mix of excitement and nerves! We’re playing a gig this week at Nambucca in North London, then a gig in South London next week, and then our first out of London gig down in Bournemouth is pencilled in for June.

What do you think of Unsigned Band Review?

I think its a great resource for finding new bands, and for being in new bands. When you’re unsigned, every bit of help is appreciated!

That was our collective respnose when it was announced on Sunday the 13th of May that we had succesfully gotten into the 150 bands that will take part in Total Biker FM’s ‘TBFM Factor’ battle of the bands competition. Over 15 weeks, 10 bands a week will be featured and voted for by you, the public. Details of how to vote on the TBFM website:

http://totalbikerfm.com/

Will be announced closer to the start date of the competition. Here’s the confirmed lineup for our week, heat 8, taking place on Sunday the 29th of July.

We’ve heard most of these bands, and the quality is damn high. So, of course, we’re damn glad to be a part of it. We’ll do more as we get closer to the date, but for the moment everyone pencil the date in your diary, we’ve got some rockin’ to do!

Peace

Actually, I told a bit of a lie there, we are currently in the studio recording!

We have called upon the expertise of the brilliant guys down at cafe music studios (http://www.cafemusicstudios.com/) to help us kick on with our next phase of rock n’ roll revolution!

So, be sure to check back in the not too distant future when we unveil our new single.

See ya from the stage

Steve for ‘From The Ashes’

“Do You Know Jack?” Radio Show

this Sunday at 8pm in Europe and 3pm in US / Canada.

Listen online on Insane Realm Radio:

http://loudcity.com/stations/insanerealmradio

It was our first time at this venue and we absolutely loved it! We played with some sterling bands on the night, with a special shout out to ‘A Fable For the Curious’  (https://www.facebook.com/AFFTC) who were utterly kick ass on the night!

And thanks to the fantastic Mr Chris Rowe (http://www.midnightcrow.co.uk/) we have a plethora of kick ass live shots taken!

So, a big thanks to everyone who came out. You’re the reason we do it, and the reason it’s so much god-damn fun!

Tweet us:
http://twitter.com/#!/_fromtheashes_

We were really pleased to be featured on Total Biker FM on Sunday 1st April. Two of our EP tracks were played: Slipshod Blues and Starfighter.

We got a great reception and some great feedback. Our thanks to DJ Mucka Jay. If you missed the show, you can listen to our segment below:

 
You can listen to TBFM online right here:

And this one time, at band camp…

On Thursday the 8th of March, we headed off to the depths of the East Anglian countryside for a long weekend of extended rehearsals. We try to do this a few times a year, as it’s a great opportunity to tighten up our live playing, as well as working on new material, and generally having a good time together, away from work and London.

Four or so new tracks were in the pipeline before we went away, and we managed to get three of them completed and some solid work done on the other! They include:

• “Sky Fallen” – sequel track to “Superzero”, quite anthemic
• “The Shit People Say” – hopefully a massive loud/quiet one, epic final riffage
• “Thieves Get Rich” – some decent riffs in here, with a loud and catchy chorus
• “Pick Your Poison” - very classic rock, how many licks can we fit in one song?

• Shure mics
• Gibson Les Paul VOS guitar
• Fender Stratocaster guitar
• PRS SE guitar
• Gibson ES335 guitar
• Overwater Aspiration Elite IV bass guitar
• Marshall DSL 150 guitar amp
• LM-300 Tech 21 bass amp
• Z-VEX, FullTone, Electro Harmonix and Colorsound effects
• Peavey PA
• Mapex Mars Pro drum kit in rock sizes
• Black Panther Phat Bob snare drum
• Paiste Cymbals
• Yamaha DFP9500D direct drive bass drum pedal

We managed to get a lot done in terms of working on material, although it will be a while before these songs are ready to be gigged we hope to try them out on you sooner rather than later. Equally important was all the quality jamming and experimentation we did, as well as the hanging out and drinking beer. Lots of beer… No livestock was harmed during the course of the weekend, but some chickens may have been surprised.

Have a look at the photos below to see what we got up to and don’t worry, they’re all SFW…

Baby got back

Well, who’d have thought it, but we went back to the Barfly!

And it was a whole different experience. That’s not to say the gig we had at the Barfly back in October was bad, it was just dissapointing. This time, though, it was bang on! We had a proper sound check in good time, done by an engineer of absolute quality. That meant we had time to chill before the gig. One of the important things we’ve learnt is that its good to get away from the venue for a bit before the evening starts. Grab a bite to eat and a beer, before heading back to rock out.

Also, we feel that it’s really important to check out the other guys you’re playing with and show some solidarity. At this level, none of us are millionaires yet, so it’s good to offer support when possible. The other bands on the evening were all of a high standard, so everyone who came to the gig got more than their money’s worth!

When it was our time to play, we got up and just rocked out. It was our first gig of the year, and we’ve been told that it was one of the best sets we’ve played, period! It was also Steve’s first time trying out his new PRS guitar live. He was very pleased with how it sounded (his exact words being “Oooooh, GUITARMAKELOUDHEAVYROCKSOUND!!”).

So, that’s the first one of the year down. We’re gonna have a bit of a gig hiatus until April while we work on new material. But then we’re gonna be back, and ready to rock n’ roll!

FTA

Underworld: Here we come

We’ve been building up through some great venues over the course of 2011, and on the 14th December we broke down the doors of The Underworld! (Figuratively speaking of course – we aren’t yet signed so can’t bust places up…for now…)

No denying it’s a big venue – and it was a big deal for us on many levels. Not least because we all know the venue as punters/listeners, so it was great to be able to play a venue where between us we’ve seen the likes of Acid Drinkers, Queens of the Stone Age, Orange Goblin and more. It was a culmination of what we have been working on this year; e.g. new material, better performance, better live sound, more fluidity in our sets, etc.

We were so pleased that so many people could make it along to see us. Hope everyone had a great night!? It was good to catch up before the holiday season fully began, and we all go our separate ways visiting/partying/recovering etc. All four of us had an amazing time playing, and we thought the gig went really well. We were chuffed to work with such a great in-house sound team and use good equipment – it really makes a difference to us – and we hope it showed and was beneficial from the other side of the stage!?

Hope you liked the new song – ‘Fool’s Chain’? There’s some kind of in-joke in there for those in the know btw… It seemed to go down well and we’ve had some great reactions and comments. Hopefully it shows our progression as a band and musicians – it’s pretty diverse in 4 or 5 mins or so – as well as keeping to our subconscious mantra of our music being fun. There’s enough stress in life without having to decipher rock music too! We’ve been refining some of our other tracks along these lines as well, and we were really glad to see the tweaks worked for the better.

We really appreciate all the support we have received this year, and want to thank anyone and everyone who has come to a gig, dropped by to hear a song or two, lent a hand carrying instruments and equipment, made merchandise, helped with promoting, and more. A special thanks to Jess Bryan for not only performing the impressive task of domesticating Steve but also finding the time to make fantastic t-shirts/bags during Surface Festival and often doing flyers/posters for us.

We are not entirely sure what 2012 will bring for FROM THE ASHES – but it will certainly include more new material, more gigs, more venues, more rock and roll, more good times and more friends. Thanks again to everyone who supports us. Peace.

There’s some cool photos from ‘The Photographer of Bands’ who was there on the night here: http://thephotographerofbands.com/from_the_ashes.html.

If you have photos or video from the night, share the love:
mail@fromtheashesband.com
@_fromtheashes_
facebook.com/onlyfromtheashes