Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / FROM ASHES TO NEW: Personal Warfare, Scrapped Demos, And The Aussie Invasion

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FROM ASHES TO NEW: Personal Warfare, Scrapped Demos, And The Aussie Invasion · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I mean, Matt B. from Ashes to New, and we're
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: coming to Australia, baby.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: That you are indeed, mate. Thanks for joining us today, Matt.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Thanks for having me, man.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: My pleasure.
• 0:12
  Speaker 3: So as you say, from Ashes to New, return to
• 0:14
  Speaker 3: Australia this October for your first run of headlining shows,
• 0:17
  Speaker 3: starting in Sydney on October 9th, then heading to Melbourne
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: and Adelaide before finishing in Brisbane on October 15th.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: So not that long now, are you packed and ready
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: to go? I'm not.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: No, I'm the packed last minute kind of guy. we're
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: only going to be there for like, you know, a
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: week and a half. So it'd be real easy, man.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: So it's completely different than a U S tour relief
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: for six, seven weeks. You know, it's a, it's gonna
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: be real. I just, I think I'm just going to
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: bring it, uh, a small travel suitcase and that's going
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: to be it, man. It's going to be real simple.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Wow. Life is good when it's simple. Yeah.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: It's exciting, man. It's exciting to not have to pack
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: my entire house into, into a bus and go.
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: And have to worry about if you're going to be
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: allowed to carry it on the plane and that sort
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: of stuff.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, that's the other thing too, is keep a
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: close eye on it.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, nice, man.
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: I think the last time you were out here was
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: Good Things in 2024, and that was your first ever
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: tour of Australia. So not a bad effort, mate, going
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: from your first tour two years ago as part of
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: the music festival to headlining your own shows now.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah. When you go to a new place, you never
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: really know what to expect. And, you know, as we
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: grow as a band, we didn't know what to expect
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: when we came down there for Good Things. Insanely great reaction.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Everything went so well. Australian cities then creeped into our
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: top 10, then our top five on our Spotify listener base.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: We got some great recognition and we thought we were
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: going to come back in 2025 to do a headliner
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: based on the reaction of the Good Things festivals. We
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: just weren't able to make it happen. This year almost
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: didn't happen either. It was a lot of back and forth,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: but we were able to make it happen and you know,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: we're going to sell this whole tour out. And it just, it,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: it feels, I, you know, I don't know if that
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: is what happens with every band that goes there, you know, but,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: but it feels awesome, man, you know? And, and it's,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: you know, it's just a testament to hard work and
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: sacrifice and dedication and just sticking to it and just keeping,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: you know, the belief system that we've had for us
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: is not only a band, but individuals and, And it started,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: you know, we were just in Europe earlier this year
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: for the first time and we sold out that whole tour. And,
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: you know, we're doing the same thing for our first
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: headline tour in Australia. And I just know we're going
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: to do it for our next headline tour in the
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: States too, man. So it's, you know, you know, we've
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: been doing this for some time, but, you know, I
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: take inspiration in a lot of the bands that really
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: rule this side of the industry and with the exception
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: of a few but when you look at like you
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: know emotionless and white or you look at ice night
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: kills or bring me the horizon or um you know
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: i'm probably missing some that have been around for a
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: long time that didn't experience breaks until 10 20 years
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: into their career man so like we're at year 10
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: and uh yeah yeah and uh and and it's starting
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: to get real good.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: How does that go with your mindset before you head
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: out on a tour, though, Ray?
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: Sometimes when you start, you go out, you don't know
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: if people are going to show up, you don't know
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: what the crowd is going to be like, but you're
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: going into a tour knowing that it's sold out, so
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: knowing that every night you're going to have people there
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: screaming for you. It would have to do something different
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: to your mental psyche going into it, wouldn't it?
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: No, I don't think so. I don't know. I mean, listen,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: if I go and there's only five people, that does something, too.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Like, you know, not only
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: about like, oh man, no one wants to come see us,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: but now I've got to perform to the same five people.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: This is going to be weird. You know, so it's like,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: you know, if that were the case, but no, you know,
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  Speaker 1: I want it to be sold out. I want there
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: to be a lot more people there. I want to be,
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  Speaker 1: I want to come back the next time and play
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: rooms that are five times the size, you know, and just,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: and just keep doing that. And I'm not going to
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  Speaker 1: change my approach. It's going to be the same approach
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: no matter if there's 100 people in the crowd, 1,000
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: people in the crowd, 10,000 people in the crowd. I'm
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: going to perform, and I'm going to approach it the
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: same exact way every time.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, sweet.
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: So what's changed with the band since you were here
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: last two years ago?
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Oh, man, a lot. Well, our album Reflections came out
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: since we were there last. We've had multiple viral scenarios
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: outside of our music, so there's a lot of that
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: going on. Um, and yeah, man, I mean, there's just
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: continued growth, continued growth and success. And, um, was Jimmy
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: a permanent member? I think we made Jimmy a permanent
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: member since we were there last, but maybe he was
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: a permanent member then. I'm not sure. Um, and I
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: got a couple of years older. I'm a couple of
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: years older.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: That will be all, brother.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: That will be all. Those shows, as part of good things,
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: they were outdoor festival shows. So these ones are going
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: to be indoor venues.
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: So how does your live show change to suit the environment?
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: It doesn't. No? I perform the same exact way that
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: I do on any stage. You know, maybe there's a
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: little bit less room on these stages, so I'll be
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: definitely running around a lot less. Maybe I don't have
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: the opportunity to do that, but... I'll probably also be
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: a little less gassed because I'm assuming that we're going
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: to have some air conditioning. So, you know, which is
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: insanely important. And you're playing outside. You're playing with the elements.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: So you don't know if it's going to be raining,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: which it was when we were in Sydney. It was raining.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: Or if it's going to be really hot, you know,
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: or whatever it's going to be. But the way that
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: I play, it doesn't change. I think the only thing
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: that might change a little bit is– is I hurt
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: my knee on the last tour, which I haven't disclosed.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: You're the first person I've told this to. Um, I've,
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: I've hurt my knee. I hurt my knee on the
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: last tour and, um, we'll see how that plays out, uh,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: on stage because pretty sure I've, I've got a partial
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: tear in my meniscus. It's pretty painful when I do
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: certain things. So, um, uh, so, but I don't know
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: how to turn, turn that part of me off. So
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: we're going to find out if, uh, if I'm going
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: to be able to perform a little differently to kind
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: of baby that knee a little bit.
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: It's probably going to be people out there in the
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: crowd now throwing knee braces at you instead of flowers.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: Hey, man, you know, I think that the resale market
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: for knee braces is probably a lot higher than flowers.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: I'm an opportunist. If you want to throw me knee braces, man,
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: that's your money.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: How nice.
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: You're taking out Melbourne's Banks Arcade as your special guest
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: for the whole tour. So what drew you to their
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: sound and what sort of energy do you think that
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: they'll bring to the package?
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  Speaker 1: Well, they seem like they're going to bring a lot
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: of energy and I've heard nothing but good things. So
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: I think that I might be right in thinking that
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: there's going to be a lot of energy with that band.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: You know, they got a great fresh sound. So when
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: we were given the you know, you get like an
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: avails list and people submit to your tour. Right. And
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: we were given that, that list. That was the one that,
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: that was the band that stood out among that list.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: It was like, okay, you know, these guys, these guys
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  Speaker 1: got a future ahead of them with what they're doing. So, um,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: super stoked to have them a part of the tour and,
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: you know, can't wait to see what they're going to,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: what they're going to do every night. You know, we
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: had the same situation when we went over to Europe, um, Man,
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: the band was so cool, and they're going to kill
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: me for not remembering their name right now. But, you know,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: I've got a million and one things happening inside my head.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: But we had a young band come out and open
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  Speaker 1: for us in Europe. It was kind of a similar scenario,
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  Speaker 1: and they were just so good. Such cool guys. You
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  Speaker 1: would think they had been touring for 20 years. Their
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: etiquette was phenomenal. Like, it was just, you know, it
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: was a great tour. It was a great thing to
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: be a part of. And I feel like it's going
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: to be a lot of the same when we get
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: down there and do the Australian tour with Banks. Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Your fifth album, Reflections, dropped earlier this year. It's been
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: described as a step into deeper, heavier, heavy, alt metal terrain.
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  Speaker 3: What pushed you to stretch beyond your familiar radio rock
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: sound for this record?
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Well, I think that, you know, it's funny. We toured
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: with Motionless and White in 2024 before we came down
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  Speaker 1: to play Good Things Festival. And, you know, I was
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: talking to Chris, and he hadn't been overly familiar with
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: our catalogue. And he, you know, one of the things
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: that he said to me, he's just like, man, you're
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: so much more than a radio rock band. He's like,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: and I wasn't really aware of that. And I think
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: that that's what a lot of people don't know about
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: us is because we came up through the radio rock
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: market with the record label that we have. You know,
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: the record label that we have is a very radio
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: rock record label. And we've done a lot of radio
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: rock tours. And some of that was because of the
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: record label. And some of that was because of tours
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: that we had done prior because of the record label.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: but we've always been like an alt metal metal core
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: band with, you know, infused new metal and active rock.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: It was, we've got so many different elements to us that,
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: you know, when we started branching out into the metal
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: core and alt metal scenes, it started to make more
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: sense than when we were actually just kind of shocked
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: to the active rock scene. Cause we are so much
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: more alt metal and metal core than we are active rock. Um,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: And I think that people didn't really know that about us.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: They thought that we were something that we weren't. And
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: then they discover and they go, oh, wait a second.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: I didn't know that this band sounded like this. That's
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: the kind of music that I get into. And I
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: think that that's kind of been a blessing and a
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: curse in a way. The curse side of it, and
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: we'll just start there, is that we've had to prove
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: ourselves to people who didn't know what we were. And
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: I think the blessing is that we've got the ability
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: to be able to prove ourselves to people who don't
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: know who we are. And I think that it keeps
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: us fresh, it keeps us innovative, it keeps us evolving,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: and it keeps us climbing. And that's just what we've
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: been doing throughout our entire existence is just climbing that ladder, man.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: And it's just been one rung after another. And great
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: things have been happening along the way.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: Songs on the album like Villain have got.
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: A very distinct raw emotional weight to them. So how's
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: the band Reception been to the new tracks live so far?
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: And which are the new ones that you're sort of
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: most looking forward to playing for the first time to
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: Australian audiences?
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, Die For You, for sure. because I
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: know that everyone's going to know it's going to be
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: cool to see everyone singing it. Um, the, the reception
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: of the new songs has been phenomenal. It's, it's, you know,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: it's who, it's who we are now. It's who we
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: want to be. It's where we're going. And I know
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: that whatever we do beyond this, I'm going to love
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: even more as we move forward. So, um, I'm excited
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: to play anything from that new record that we play
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: because it's, I think it's a great representation of what,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: what and who we are as a band. Like you said, like,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: you know, more so outside the act of rock, like,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: it is a representation of what we, what people didn't
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: know about us and what people should know about us.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: And now we've got the opportunity to have more of
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: a catalog to prove to people like exactly what we
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: love to do. Yeah.
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: I see.
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: And Roy, as the, um, primary rap vocalist, programmer, sort
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: of key composer for the band, like how did the
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: writing dynamic for Reflections challenge you compared to Blackout with
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: you moving forward like that?
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, we wrote it so many different ways. Um,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: So it was challenging because I'm used to being kind
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: of in the driver's seat the entire time. But, you know, Lance,
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: I mean, the rest of the guys are insanely good writers,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: but Lance has really come into his own as a producer.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: And I'm a producer as well. So when you put
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: those two things together and the different things that we know,
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: it's a beautiful thing. Was it challenging? Yeah, I think
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: it was challenging because like, we didn't want to, we
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: always want to evolve and we didn't want to sound
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: a lot like, you know, anything that we created in
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: the past and the stuff that we didn't use from
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: this album cycle sounded a lot like our blackout record,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: which wouldn't have been a problem, but that's not an
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: evolution of who we are. And we always want to
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: kind of take another step into a newer direction. So
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: I think that that was probably the biggest challenge, but
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: I think that like, I think it was just a
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: fun process, man. Like outside of like your, your typical,
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: band fights that you get into over dumb, trivial things
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: that don't matter. I think that the process, you know,
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: hindsight looking back was just such a fun experience and
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: it showed us so much. It showed us our character
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: as creators, man. And, you know, we've been able to
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: harness a lot more of that moving forward. We're already
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: creating things now that are way better than anything that
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: you've currently heard. Yeah, nice, man.
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: As we sort of said before, man, like your music
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: blends a plethora of styles and genres, including hard rock,
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: hip hop, electronic culture. There's so much going on there, man.
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: But how do you find the balance in the creative process?
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: How do you know when you've gone too far one
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: way or maybe not far enough in another way?
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: I don't think about it. No?
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: No.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: If it sounds good, it sounds good. Like that's kind
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: of the way that I approach it. It's just, you know,
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: if it sounds like a good song, then keep it.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: If it sounds like a bad song... either trash it
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: or rework it, you know. But, you know, I don't
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: really care one way or the other what it, you know,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: what the finished product is unless it's great.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: Fair enough.
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: And you've recently released a single Die For You featuring
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: the Only Mates. So is that a standalone release or
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: is it part of maybe the next chapter for the band?
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess we'll find out, huh?
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: I know i was just trying to try and see
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: if you were going to tell.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Us guess you're gonna have to wait and see.
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: Rightio so do you remember the first time you heard
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: one of your songs on the radio bro and what
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: song was it where were you.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: First song i ever heard on the radio was our
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: song my fight um And I cannot recall where I was.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: In a car, probably. I can't remember where. I know
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: that was the first song I ever heard on the
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: radio because it was the first song that was ever
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: on the radio. And when I found out that it
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: was on there, I had to find a way to
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: listen to it because it was on Sirius radio, so
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: on satellite radio. I didn't have a way to listen
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: to that. So, you know, I had to find a way.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: I can't remember how I did it. I assume it
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: was probably someone's car, though.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, fair enough. Rightio, mate.
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: Well, thanks very much for your time, bro. Been a
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: pleasure as always. Promotions to Newark in Australia from October 9th.
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: And as he hinted at before, there is some big
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: news coming up for the band. So you're just going
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: to have to wait and see.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: That's right.