Premiere: FVKVSHIMA – KUATO

FVKVSHIMA are a new metal band based in Wellington, New Zealand. I am very excited to premiere their debut single, “Kuato”, and have interviewed vocalist Mark Mundell so that you can learn a bit about the band.

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Will Not Fade: How are you?
Mark Mundell: I’m staying frosty, mon frére. Simply splendid. Top of the world. 2024 is shaping up to be a far better year than the ones we’ve had recently.

How did FVKVSHIMA come to exist?
The band had been around as a three-piece for several years – it’s only in the last year or so that the band has numbered five. The guitarist, the bassist and the drummer all knew each other of old – Nathan and Greg were formerly members of Backyard Burial, while Peter was the drummer for Shakahn, as well as playing in a million jazz bands. Our keyboardist, Dayle (aka Jellybones) is also an extremely talented and prolific musician, having been involved with blues, honky-tonk, ska and Balkan brass.
And then you have the hanger-on that is me. I stand at the front and shout at people. I’m also in Planet of the Dead. Around eighteen months ago, Planet was on a hiatus – we were all pretty burnt out by the pandemic and sorely needed a breather – and I wanted to keep on with a musical project. Pete had put a note on Facebook that they were looking for a vocalist, and I thought I’d give it a shot. For some reason they kept me around. Dayle joined us around a year ago in April, and not long after that we performed our first shows in October.

How would you describe your sound?
A fine question, and one I struggle answering all the time. I’ve heard some people compare our sound to Meshuggah, because it’s heavy and progressive, which I am not mad at in the slightest. Personally I’d say there is a definite industrial influence, as we have sharp edges on the guitar sound and the synths. But I don’t know, I’d rather people heard our stuff and judged for themselves.

I’ve seen FVKVSHIMA play three times now, and I’ve got to say I’m a huge fan and have been telling all my friends they need to come to your shows. I’m very excited to help introduce your debut single to the world. Why did you pick “Kuato” as your lead single?
As we’ve played live shows and worked on new material, I think there has definitely been an evolution of our style – particularly when Dayle was on board. His synths have been a real game-changer for our sound, and we discussed that the first songs we would release would be taken from those we had developed together.
To be honest, it was a two-horse race between “Kuato” and “Dominator”, which isn’t far behind. I think both of these songs do a great job of personifying where we’re currently at and giving everyone an idea of the versatility of our sound. I’m super excited to find out what people think. The plan is to roll out all the songs we’re playing in our live shows, and we have lots of new songs waiting in the wings. We’ll be busy this year!

Your first single – “Kuato” – is a Total Recall reference. What is your official statement on the 2012 remake starring Colin Farrell?
If “Rekall” was actually a thing, and they could erase the part of my memory where I watched the 2012 version, that would be great. Some films just do not need a reboot.

And are you aware that a recent Rick and Morty episode revolves around Kuato as well?
Yeah, I saw that episode. I did enjoy the reverence to the movie, but I wouldn’t have needed the excuse to watch it – “Rick and Morty” has always been bloody hilarious. Now I just need a Recall-themed Futurama episode.

Tell me about the artwork.
We opted to develop artwork that was specific to the tracks we’ll be releasing initially. Our drummer has a good friend who has come up with some awesome imagery for “Kuato”, featuring the titular mutant himself – we’ve also worked that into a lyric video that will drop with the single. We want the visuals to be as striking as the music.

Tell me about the songwriting process. Do you write music with a theme in mind, or come up with lyrics to fit the music?
Nathan and Peter are the creative engine when it comes to writing the music, and when I first started writing lyrics for FVKVSHIMA, it was a challenge to make them fit. The music is quite technical and it took me a while for it to click – I spent hours listening and re-listening to practice room cuts trying to feel out where lyrics would fit. My approach to writing lyrics has typically been to write them like poetry, and then I’ll work out how to make them fit the music later with Nathan. Nathan and Peter normally have a good feel for where they want stuff to go, and we’ve always been able to land on an arrangement we all agree with.
I find I’m generally always writing lyrics. I get a spark or two every so often – it could be a passage in a book, or a particular scene in a film (the first part of “Kuato” is actually the first scene of the original “Total Recall” movie, where Quaid and Melina are walking on the surface of Mars) – and I’ll just write. It can end up a bit more abstract in some cases, but people have always managed to pick up the themes. When I joined FVKVSHIMA, the guys already had heaps of music ready to go, so I went through a process of deciding which lyrics fit which tracks – I definitely wanted the feel of the track to fit the lyrical theme. So far I think it’s turned out pretty well, but we will let you be the judge.

I’ve seen you use a vocal effects pedal during your live performances to add different sounds to your vocal delivery. How do you settle on the sounds and effects that you choose to use?
I use the TC Helicon VoiceLive, which has served me pretty well so far. When it comes to vocal effects, I’m a firm believer that “less is more”. I initially just wanted a little gain and the occasional bit of reverb, but I found some sections of the music that I felt would benefit from a little something extra, to add to the atmosphere – especially in a live show. I tried a few things at a few live shows and people seemed to dig it. As we continue to write new material, I’ll often experiment with effects in the practice room and see if I can land on something that suits the theme. I’d like to say the effects I land on where targeted, but to be honest it’s often a bit of trial-and-error. With the layers that Dayle adds on keys, vocal effects don’t feel out of place to me.

Obviously you’re a huge sci-fi fan. Please list some of your top recommendations for our readers who’d like to explore the genre.
Oosh. There are so many! People who have heard my other stuff will know I’m a massive Frank Herbert fan, but we won’t go there. I’m a fan of a lot of old school sci-fi writers – Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut – but for my money, you can’t beat Philip K Dick. It’s no surprise that several of his books were the inspiration of many great movies.
I think one of the more modern sci-fi book series I’ve read and liked is The Gap Cycle by Stephen Donaldson. It’s definitely not a space opera – it’s pretty near the knuckle at times – but I think his characters are really interesting and it’s a story that holds you until the end. The other series I’d recommend is William Gibson’s Neuromancer books, which are more cyberpunk in nature.
For graphic novels, my go-tos would be Otomo Katsuhiro’s Akira, Watchmen and V for Vendetta. I’m also a big fan of 2000AD, so I was reading stuff like Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog, Rogue Trooper and the ABC Warriors as a kid. All of the above have inspired or featured in my lyrical themes at some point or another.

What lessons did you learn from your previous bands that you brought with you to this band?
Tolerance is the main thing. Bands are really like a family and often you will disagree on things, so I’ve tried to be better at being flexible and knowing how to pick your battles. When I was younger in bands I’d argue about a lot of crap that I wouldn’t give a shit about these days. I guess another aspect is how you keep everything above the grind so the band doesn’t end up becoming a chore or like another day job. Some folks want to write, some folks like gigging, others the promotional and the socials – I guess as a band you collectively have to find what makes people tick and let them pursue their passion, and that helps keep it fresh for everyone. I think I’m lucky with Planet of the Dead and FVKVSHIMA – we’re all of a similar age, we all seem to manage to pull in the same direction, even with our various real-life commitments, and we all still find joy in what we do. I sincerely hope it stays that way for a long time.

Your other band, Planet of the Dead, had a lot of plans disrupted around the time of your last album release due to covid-related events like lockdowns and reduced capacity shows. Has this made you more cautious with making plans going forward, or do you think the major impacts of the pandemic are behind us now?
New Zealand has been slower than other countries (at least in my opinion) to come out of the covid cocoon – you only had to walk the streets of Wellington last year and the one before to see that for yourself. However, I honestly believe we’ve turned a corner and I think we’re starting to get there. There are great promoters doing righteous work and pushing hard to bring international acts to New Zealand more recently, and those shows I’ve attended have been jammed. It’s been a wicked year so far for live music. I always jinx these things though, so I’ll state my position as “cautiously optimistic” and we’ll leave it there.

I know that you’re a fan of physical media because I see how much your record collection has grown every time I come to your house. Have you got plans to release FVKVSHIMA music physically?
Digital will be the way initially, but I would love to see FVKVSHIMA’s work on a CD or a bit of wax. That’s a medium-term goal though, I think initially the priority has to be just getting our music out there in the first instance. Once we’ve got an album’s worth on Bandcamp, then we’ll maybe look at getting some vinyl pressed.

This is just the start for FVKVSHIMA. What have you got lined up for the future? Touring, releases, world domination?
More tracks, more shows. We’ve got a year of real mahi ahead, but none of us are work-shy in the slightest and we’re finally getting our sound out there for everyone to check out – we seriously hope people will dig it. We’ve had some great live shows in the last six months with some amazing NZ metal acts, and we’re generally always up for jumping on a bill with whoever. So I think our plan for the next year is to be seen and heard as much as possible. After that … world domination? Sure, why not. Can’t hurt.

Here’s your chance to say anything that we haven’t covered.
Thanks for the chance to have a chat. Music sites, blogs and fanzines are part of the lifeblood of our scene – it’s how we get heard. So we appreciate you writing about it, and we appreciate all the people who take the time to read it.
Stay frosty.

Kuato available across all platforms including:

Youtube:
https://youtube.com/@fvkvshima?si=mYNTq0k211Q14RSF

Bandcamp:
https://fvkvshima.bandcamp.com/track/kuato

Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/6QzpIJeK3qDYNCkKaGg0wL?si=Om8MLMQoQg2AqYQveMoSgA

Distrokid:
https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/fvkvshima/kuato-2

FVKVSHIMA links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064268550642

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fvkvshima_band/

Photos by Joseph James/Will Not Fade and Jechtography

Inside Voices: An Interview with Just Neighbors

Just Neighbors are an awesome math-rock band from Gainsville, Florida. They play wonderful happy tappy music with care-free vibes. They are about to release a new album, Inside Voices, which showcases a slightly different sound for the band.

Will Not Fade: Here in New Zealand, we put a “U” in “Neighbour”. I read somewhere that Americans stopped putting “U’s” in some words because when putting listings in classified ads they had to pay by the letter, so began dropping letters that weren’t vital in order to save money. No idea how true that is, but it’s interesting. Also, partly off topic, but the band Living Colour has a “U” because their guitarist Vernon Reid is English. [Real talk, I discussed this in an interview with Living Colour drummer Will Calhoun, and someone cited me on the Living Colour wikipedia page. Am I an academic now?]

Just Neighbors: Interesting fact, we always assumed it was another way to rebel against the Monarchy.

I’ve listened to Inside Voices a handful of times now. It’s quite a departure from your usual style. What motivated you to write such different music? It’s still got the chill vibes, but it’s a lot more straightforward.

Inside Voices is beginning to feel like a detour as opposed to a departure. Some of these songs were written years ago and some came about during the process. I think we were partly motivated by wanting to try our hand at home recording and wanting to change up what we were doing. Another reason this album came together was that two members were moving at the time and we wanted to get some ideas recorded before they left.

What is your stance on 4/4?

Overrated (we can swing it ;()

꧁༒•based•༒꧂

ᗷᗩSᘿᕲ

What artists have you been listening to lately?

Aerial M, Charlie Martin, Homeboy Sandman, Russian Circles, SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE, Cassandra Jenkins

Who influenced your songwriting with this album?

Land of Talk, Silver Jews, George Strait, Fog Lake

America confuses me. Places considered Midwest are on the eastern side of the country. Anyway… Do you get Southeast vs Midwest emo beef? Like West Coast/East Coast hip-hop where rappers do drivebys and gun down each other and also say hurtful things with their words?

While the west coast/ east rapper beefs died in the 90s, the southeast Vs Midwest emo beef is very much alive. Most southeast emo bands get labeled Midwest because they wrote a riff that sounds like American football. This is unfair because the last place we want our music to be associated with is the Midwest.

Did you grow up on MTV Unplugged albums?

I am a bit young to really say that I grew up on the unplugged albums, but I did grow up getting ready for school and watching MTV. Like I remember when Dashboard Confessional dropped ‘vindicated’ for the Spider-Man 2 soundtrack – that was big for me.

Just Neighbors is mostly an instrumental band. Do you find it scary or daunting writing music that features singing? [I’m a drummer. I did some backing vocals when my new band played recently and although I’d practiced a lot, it was terrifying.]

Justice Diamond: In a way it’s scary and daunting. It’s also exciting and challenging which has been the appeal to pursue it lately. It’s really nice to be able to add vocal melodies and lyrics to our songs.

Dan Lohr: It’s scary in that it’s so damn vulnerable. Rather than sitting, meditating, and writing a song based on a feeling and having the melodies do the talking – I am actually directly speaking about it; that’s a lot.

How did the writing and recording process differ with this album? Have you been stuck at home much over the past year?

Our past albums were huge undertakings for us with a lot of time spent preparing parts and tracking them in a studio. With this project we didn’t set out to make a Just Neighbors record in the traditional sense, we were really just interested in recording some song ideas we’ve been sitting on for a while. Inside Voices was recorded at home and was much more of an intimate recording process. We’ve all been stuck at home over the past year so it was nice to be able to continue writing and recording despite the circumstances.

I’ve noticed you have a visual theme of lights from what I’ve seen of this album. Do you have an overall theme or message with the music?

We don’t have an overall theme with this music but sometimes they emerge unexpectedly after the fact.

I remember that for your last album, If It Ever Comes Back, you made the album available for purchase and download on Bandcamp a week or so before you put it on streaming services. Talk me through how you settled on that decision.

We’ve always appreciated Bandcamp as a service that connects music supporters with the artist. Spotify and streaming services lack that connection, so we wanted to try and direct fans to our Bandcamp where they could purchase the music and more directly support us. It also helped us fund our tour to Mexico.

You also made extended versions of songs available for the people who supported you by purchasing your music. Is this like how Japanese CD’s often have bonus tracks?

It’s similar, we really wanted to provide something additional to anyone who bought the album and keep the streaming experience more succinct. Appreciate that you took notice! Those tracks have become some of our favorite moments from the album.

I notice that your URL link on your instagram leads to “Capture” on Spotify. So you still want Spotify streams?

Despite our criticism, yes. The fact is most listeners are on streaming services so it only makes sense to bring the music to the masses. It’s sad, because Spotify really has the opportunity to throw it back to the artists by *actually* paying them or integrating merch shops for any artist.

While we are on the topic of different listening formats, I love that I can support you through Bandcamp without needing to pay for expensive shipping fees by buying digital music. But you also have CDs and Vinyl for sale. How do you personally prefer to listen to music? I have a record collection, but just can’t afford to buy records most of the time. I saw on the witter page that someone recently bought Weezer’s Pinkerton.

We love listening to records on vinyl. It’s also a good time to pop in a CD while driving.

Have Bandcamp Fridays made much of a difference for you as a band over the past year?

In all honesty, not really. It’s a nice gesture from Bandcamp but it hasn’t made a particularly big impact on sales or revenue from us.

What is your relationship with Refresh Records?

Refresh Records are good friends and partners. They pressed a limited vinyl release of Being Where I Thought I’d Be and have done a great job at managing orders. They have some other kickass bands as well, shout out Cuzco and Catholics.

Tell me about the Gainesville music scene. I’ve never been to Florida but I have spent some time traveling around America with bands and I loved seeing DIY music communities and how the musicians support each other over there.

The Gainesville music scene is pretty eclectic and it has always felt very supporting. You can find just about anything here. Impressive how many scenes can exist in what started as a small college town. We were lucky enough to be a part of a mathy/progressive side of it. There are too many good bands we’ve shared the stage with getting started; you know who you are 😉

Have you got connections to the hardcore/punk scene? Do you know about the legendary band Jud Jud? [if not, please educate yourself and report back]

Not really and no but holy shit Jud Jud rocks.

My friends in Tides of Man are from Clearwater. That’s not a question, it’s just Florida related.

Go gators.

How are the local venues doing? Do you see yourselves playing shows or touring at any point in the future?

It’s hard to say at this point. It seems like shows are going to come back this fall so we are hoping our favorite spots survived. Shout out to the hardback cafe. As of now, we’re no longer all in Gainesville so we have no plans for shows or touring in the immediate future.

You featured on a Ripcord Records fundraiser compilation recently. Tell me about how that came about.

They actually reached out via email and we sent them a track to feature on the compilation. When the compilation dropped we couldn’t believe how good it was. It also raised a lot of money for a charity called Refuge that helps victims of domestic abuse. Both the link for the compilation and charity are below in case anyone is interested https://www.refuge.org.uk/

https://ripcordrecords.bandcamp.com/album/refuge-part-i

What have been some of your most effective ways of reaching wider audiences? [ I can’t even remember how I discovered your band.]

Releasing music has always seemed to be one of the most effective. The internet has its ways.

Some of the best math-rock bands come from Japan. How was your time touring there? [I went to Tokyo in 2014 I think. It was incredible. Toe are also on top of the bucket list for bands I need to see before I die]

Our time touring Japan was incredible. It’s wild how different the shows are from the US and It’s honestly surreal we were there in the first place. We wholeheartedly enjoyed meeting so many new people and bands. We got to play with so many kick ass bands like Paranoid Void, Nengu, pFpG, momoku, and the enigma RIL.

And you’ve played in Mexico a bit, right?

We’ve played in Monterrey, MX twice and absolutely loved it. We’d like to extend further down next time but it is a massive country. Our friends down there have a collective called Monterrey Emo Club and play in a band called ‘Local Champion’.

Let’s hear some tour stories! Got any crazy things that happened to you on tour? Interesting foods you ate? Strangest venues?

Well on our first tour we all got Norovirus *redacted* after one member (Justice) ate street clams so things got pretty hairy. We also have fond memories of muffulettas on the Mississippi, tacos in Mexico, and ramen in Japan. We’ve played just about any venue at this point: Rooftops, apartments, basements, ballrooms, verandas, offshoots, fouriers, truck stops, bowling alleys, Applebees, Chuck e. Cheese, Red Robin, Ace Hardware, Amazon Fulfillment Centers.

Nintendo time. What are your go-to characters in Super Smash Bros? Favourite video games? Fave video game soundtracks?

Justice Diamond: Ice climbers are my main and falco comes second.

Dan Lohr : I run villager

Reid Casey: Lucas that guy

Justice Diamond : Spelunky and spelunky soundtrack

Dan Lohr : FORTNITE!!! Was a good game :c

My friends in Man Mountain managed to get onto the Borderlands 3 game. What game would you most love to get your music onto?

We’d love to get featured on the Borderlands 4 actually, dm us.

Which band member is the most neighborly and why?

Jrok (Jarrett) because he was always the one to get the mail and he introduced himself to our current drummer (Reid).

If you were to get a face tattoo, what would it be?

(っ◔◡◔)っ ♥ based ♥

Thanks for taking the time to do this interview. Anything else you’d like to say?

Thanks for taking the time to interview us, this was really well done!

Just Neighbors links:

Buy Inside Voices on Bandcamp: https://justneighbors.bandcamp.com/album/inside-voices

Twitter: https://twitter.com/jneighborsband

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JustNeighborsBand/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justneighbors/

Scattering The Rats: An Interview with Donita Sparks of L7

Here’s a playlist of Mina’s favourite L7 songs:

Ticket link for L7’s upcoming Australia and New Zealand tour: https://sbmpresents.com/tour/l7/

Spiritual Instinct: An Interview With Neige From Alcest

Daniel Hay: So the main reason I’ve been handed over this interview is because my band actually opened for Alcest on your last New Zealand tour, and you’re one of our biggest influences, so I was given this opportunity.

Neige: That’s great, what was the name of your band?

The Dark Third, we played the Auckland show, which if you recall was in quite a small underground venue.

Ah yes, that’s so cool.

So I wanted to talk about the live side of the music first. I actually went to both shows on that tour, in Auckland and in Wellington, and they were both quite different, which I felt was quite interesting. Wellington was quite a meditative show, whereas Auckland was quite aggressive and a lot more metal. And I recall, you actually changed your encore song from Deliverance to Percees de Lumiere, is that something you do often, changing the songs to fit the room?

No actually, we never really do this, so that may have been the only time. Because we work with a computer project, it’s not simple for us to just switch to another song if we want. So that is strange. But yeah, I remember as you said these two shows were completely different. The first one was quite atmospheric and intimate, and the other one was intimate in a very ‘punk’ style.

It was moved to that venue last-minute. I greatly enjoyed that show, because it showed a different side to your music. The heavier songs, everyone got quite into it, as if it was a punk show, as you said.

Yes, but it was a great show. It was so much fun. People were actually doing mosh pits and stuff.

Yes I remember then fondly. One other thing I noticed from your live setup then was, in contrast to a lot of bands in your area of music, you didn’t have many guitar pedals.

No, no. It’s because I think having like 20 pedals is bullshit. I mean, you don’t need 20 pedals, I have always had two or three. Distortion, delay and reverb. I am then using my guitar volume and tone control to get different gains during the songs. I’m trying to do more with the least amount of gear possible, because when you travel and when you play that many shows, the more gear you have, the more chance there is that something doesn’t work properly. So we try to have very limited amounts of cables and pedals.

And for me, a song works fine just how it is with melodies, and all the rest is just to embellish the sound and make it even better, but that’s something you do more in the studio.

And with the new record, this is a bit of a heavier one, are you going to change any of your live setup to reflect that?

It’s more or less the same, but I am using a different distortion pedal, so the new one is a bit more metal. But the rest, the reverb and delay, they are the same. My shitty Bose delay, and I have a Hall of Fame reverb pedal that I really love, it’s very simple.

So onto the new album, which I’ve been loving recently. It is a bit of a heavier record, which interests me – a lot of bands in your area of music tend to either get progressively heavier or progressively softer. You’ve sort of jumped around a bit and gone from one extreme to the other, with this being probably the heaviest record under the Alcest name, what inspired you to take this direction this time around?

Yeah, that’s a really good point. I mean, we’ve already done the heavy band going soft with Shelter, so that’s something that I’ve done already. And this time it’s heavier and darker because I was in a moment in my life when I had a lot of anxiety and a lot of darker types of emotions. And it was after the very, very long touring cycle of Kodama, so I was feeling really exhausted. I kind of lost touch with who I was, because you are on tour, you are always surrounded by people and you’re doing very down to earth things. And I feel I lost touch with my real essence, because I’m a very spiritual person. I like to spend some time in nature.

And you don’t have time to get to nature when touring.

Yeah, or even just being alone and reflecting. That’s something that you just can’t do, so I had this frustration and anxiety accumulating. And when it was time to write new music, I guess everything just came out. In a very violent way, actually.

This almost feels like the first Alcest record with actual metal ‘riffs’ on it, not just black metal tremolos.

Absolutely, yeah.

One other style of music I’ve noticed in this record is at times it feels quite post-punk, particularly in the prominence of the bass guitar. You’ve mentioned The Chameleons as an artist you admire in the past, was that a conscious influence on this record?

Absolutely, that kind of music I’ve been listening to since I was a teenager, so it’s been a really big part of my influences, especially the guitar leads and the guitar sound. I’ve never really been into like ‘heavy metal’ or things like that, I’m more like an indie kid with some black metal. So my type of guitar leads are more like the type of guitar you can hear in The Chameleons or U2 or The Cure, as opposed to Iron Maiden or Metallica.

So all their guitar work has influenced me, for example the chorus that I put on leads. And I love the bass in post-punk too, the rhythmic patterns. But it’s very subtle, it’s not something you can really hear in Alcest’s music clearly, but it’s definitely there.

I think this is the album I’ve heard it the most out of your material. It’s actually quite a groovy record, which isn’t a description you’d expect to put on an Alcest album – for example Sapphire is carried quite a lot by the bass in it.

Definitely, yeah that song has quite a bit of it.

And obviously, I have to throw in the obligatory question about touring New Zealand again. You mentioned Kodama having a long touring cycle, is this one going to be the same?

I really wish we would go back to New Zealand, and I think we will. It’s a part of the plan, probably next year actually. That would be awesome, we really loved touring there, it was the first time for us and we have so many great memories and met great people. And the crowd was very good too, they were… enthusiastic.

Yes it was a great tour, and you’ll have to find a way to the South Island next time. Much better nature there if you need a break too.

Hopefully. Both shows were a success last time so perhaps we can.

Well thank you for your time, and good luck with the new album release. I’ve been enjoying listening to it and I think the fans will appreciate the new sound. I hope to see you on the tour as well.

Thank you!

Spiritual Instinct is out on Nuclear Blast Records October 25th

iTunes preorder: https://music.apple.com/au/album/spiritual-instinct/1474788010

Interview by Daniel Hay

Ash Grunwald Discusses His Collaborators On Mojo

Australian blues musician Ash Grunwald was the first person I interviewed for Will Not Fade, back in 2015. It was just before his upcoming NZ tour. During our talk he mentioned plans for his upcoming record, including some people he was hoping to collaborate with. Fast forward four years, and he has just dropped said album, Mojo. I asked Ash if he would like to give us a guide to who he collaborated with on Mojo, touching on the process of working with them, and his favourite songs by some of the respective musicians.

Terry Evans (featured on tracks “Hammer” and “Whipping Boy”)

One of my favourite singers ever, big tall African American man from Mississippi, work that he did with Ry Cooder in the late 80s was very influential on me and I LOVE his song “Down in Mississippi”. Recording in LA with him was one of the best days of musical life.

Joe Bonamassa (featured on the track “Waiting Around To Die”)

Was a massive honour to have Joe Bonamassa on “Waiting Round To Die”. Although he’s probably known as the most impressive, flashing blues, rock guitarist on the planet he treated this song with a real subtlety and restraint. I mixed his performance with Ian Collard who in my opinion is one of the best blues harmonica players in the world and I get a kick out of hearing them trade blues licks.

My favourite song of his version of his is ‘I’d Rather Go Blind’ with Beth Hart. You hear the soul in all the notes he plays in that song.

The Teskey Brothers (featured on the track “Ain’t My Problem, with Josh also playing on “Waiting Around To Die”)

A huge honour to have the boys play on “Ain’t My Problem” the band have a real dedication to their craft and recorded the tracks in their old school analogue tape based studio, in that real Motown style that they’re known for. Josh Teskey has the best voice in blues and roots in Australia in my view and I’ve had the opportunity since that track to do some more collaborating with him including some more . It’s been really good getting to know the guys better and in discovered they used to come watch me when they were little kids (10) before I even had a professional music career which is pretty funny.

Favourite song: “So Caught Up”

Kasey Chambers (featured on the track “Whispering Voice”)

Yet another huge honour to have Kasey who was rightfully honoured in the ARIA Hall of Fame. A national treasure, she’s the same age as me and for her to have mainstream success back in the day showed you didn’t need to be a pop musician to have success.

Fav song: Ain’t No Little Girl’

Harry James Angus (featured on the track “Human”)

Harry is one of the most proficient musicians I know. Famous for his work as the co-frontman for The Cat Empire, he comes round to my place and I never play guitar, I let him play as he knows a million chords and can pay any song from memory including the solo, and he’s a trumpet player. He recently played me some new tracks from his solo album (not out yet) and they completely floored me and I would probably call it modern, jazzy, cross over pop. I want him to produce/record do something with me.

Mahalia Barnes (featured on tracks “Human”, “Trouble’s Door” and “Mountain”)

Mahalia has an absolutely huge voice. I love what she’s done on this album (three tracks) – she’s got the whole Aretha thing going on with just a little bit of the old man rockiness chucked in there. She also tours the world singing with Joe Bonamassa most of the time so she’s no stranger to wailing guitars. I love her Live At the Basement album.

Kim Wilson (featured track “Goin’ Out West”)

Along with Charlie Musselwhite probably the most renowned harmonica player in the world and most famous for playing with Jimmy Vaughan in the fabulous Thunderbirds. I used to cover one of his songs in my first blues band I played in called ‘She’s Tough’.

Ian Collard (featured on the tracks “3AM” and “How Many More Years”)

Ian is a mentor and a friend and also a huge influence on me, His first album ‘Collard Greens + Gravy’ in particular is an AU seminal blues album in my opinion. My favourite EVER Australian blues album.

Fun fact, his parts were recorded by Jeff Lang (on that album), Jeff is probably Australia’s seminal roots artist.

Eddy Clearwater (featured on track “How Many More Years”)

Eddy ‘The Chief’ Clearwater. He sang on the Howlin Wolf song and was great on it. A real genuine blues man, the real deal but sadly is no longer with us. He passed away in June 2018.

ASH GRUNWALD LINKS:

Website: www.ashgrunwald.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/AshGrunwald
Twitter: twitter.com/AshGrunwald
YouTube: www.youtube.com/ashgrunwald
Bandcamp: ashgrunwald.bandcamp.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/ashgrunwald/

Buy/stream Mojo: http://smarturl.it/agmojo

ASH GRUNWALD
MOJO TOUR
NEW ZEALAND
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019
With special guest Swamp Thing

Thursday 28 November
Anthology Lounge | Auckland
ticketmaster.co.nz | 0800 111 999

Friday 29 November
Yot Club | Raglan
ticketmaster.co.nz | 0800 111 999

Saturday 30 November
Totara Street | Mount Maunganui
ticketmaster.co.nz | 0800 111 999

Sunday 1 December
Leigh Sawmill | Leigh
ticketmaster.co.nz | 0800 111 999

Will Not Fade

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