Daniel Ash Exclusive!

Culled from my recent interview for the upcoming issue of The Big Takeover, below are a few Ash exclusives on the state of 'the album', his penchant for 'girly songs', his favorite biker movie, and what he really wants to be doing...

2010 solo release:

I don’t really believe in albums anymore. I think it’s all about single tracks. Or EPs. I’ve got a MySpace called The Real Daniel Ash and I’ve got about four or five songs on there I’m going to put on an EP and have those available on iTunes in the near future. But the idea of a whole album? I haven’t got much faith in that. I think that people these days are more interested in single tracks than whole albums. I like the idea of that. 3 ½ minute songs, one at a time, that appeals to me. Most albums you’re lucky to get three great tracks. Most of it is junk. Every time I get something new there’s only three tracks on it that I really like. I think it’s great if you can hone all your energies on making one song sound great instead of doing ten songs and eight of them might as well not have been recorded.

Stylistically, [the new album] is a big cross-section. One of the tracks called “Flame On” sounds to me like it could have been on Raw Power by The Stooges, it’s very much inspired by Iggy Pop, and then it goes right into another track called “Candy Eye” that I would describe as ‘Europop’. I’ve always been a sucker for girly songs. It’s sort of romantic, sort of French sounding to me. It was something that I had recorded, the instrumental part, a couple years ago, and I had the chorus and everything but I sort of had writer’s block lyrically in the verses. Christopher The Minister hooked me up with Angelique [Bianca] and she came in and wrote the lyrics on the verses and sang them and it all fell into place.

Favorite biker movie:

The Loveless. Easy Rider is right up there, but those two. The Loveless is often one most people haven’t heard of. The main character in that is Willem Dafoe. You’ve got to check it out. Set in the late 50s, made in the early 80s. The Loveless is in a different league. It’s not that hard to find but it’s a very underrated film. And It’s got a great soundtrack.

Are Love and Rockets//Bauhaus really over?

I really really really really really really really hope so! That’s like a million miles away from me. All that stuff's too old for me to get excited about. Music that’s over 30 years old? I can’t listen to that stuff anymore.

What about Tones on Tail?

We had the Bauhaus thing that's regurgitated itself several times and Love and Rockets have done the same, so the natural question is what about Tones? No, it’s not gonna happen. I would be so surprised if anything would come of that. I mean, “Go,” has been such a used track in commercials. Lincoln Mercury most recently. I love the fact that it’s being used for that stuff. It’s fantastic, I’m so pleased. Apparently in that ad, the girl in the car, she says, “Hey, play that Tones on Tail song.” I mean, who out there has heard of Tones on Tail in the real world? Like, nobody, it’s a super obscure band. It’s like the car company is trying to be super hip.

And what he'd really like to be doing...

TV and film scores. That’s my goal. That’s something that I’d love to do. Put it this way, if someone turned 'round to me and said, "OK Tarantino wants to use you to score such and such a film," I’m like, "I’ll be there in a New York second!"