INTERVIEW: ASHENMOON’S GARRY BEERS - NEW MUSIC, THE CURRENT WORLD CRISIS, & LIFE AFTER INXS

I had a wonderful chat with Garry Beers, bassist of world-renowned Australian rock band INXS and now, Ashenmoon!
Personally, I grew up listening to INXS and handfuls of other classics, some of which are also thrown in throughout the interview, and this might just be the biggest interview I’ve done. Garry was a wonder to talk to and I can’t wait to see what else Ashenmoon has in store for us.

We covered the new releases and the writing process, the effects of the current COVID situation, environmentalism and dog rescue, his high school dance featuring AC/DC, life during and after INXS, and a bunch more.

It was a phone interview so I’ve culled sections down to what makes most sense, but my appreciation for this experience is astronomical. Thankyou to Garry, Toby, and Jimmy, and everyone else involved for bringing this new project to life, and for Garry’s time chatting to me from wherever he may be at the moment!

Enjoy!
-Jahmiele

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JAHMIELE:
So Ashenmoon started as a ‘passion project’ between you and Jimmy and Toby, and ‘passion project’ is a kind of a favourite term of mine. Was there any deliberate intention going into that to make it a fully published act or was it sort of just ‘let's have fun and see where this goes’?

GARRY:
We were already in a corporate covers band called Stadium so it was already fun. We just really wanted to see how we’d go with original material, so we just sort of played together and hung out more. We listen to each other's bits of music and songs and, and um, and then beginning of last year was just in my little home studio which is where we started everything. Yeah. Just spent the whole year just putting together the songs, honing them and rewriting them and starting all over again and talking about just, just taking our time. There's no one watching the clock. It's just made the record that we really wanted to make, all 3 of us.

J: Yeah. Awesome. I think, I guess that's probably the best way to go about it. No pressure,

G: Exactly! There’s no record companies breathing down our neck, the no deadlines, and yeah obviously no real touring schedule to keep in line with. I think we'd all been looking for someone to write once in a while. I know I had.

J: Okay. Amazing. And the debut for Ashenoon came out as the double single. Was there any kind of background between each of those tracks? Like I know a lot of songs aren't necessarily written with a particular dramatic meaning behind them, but was there anything like that with these ones?

G: Yeah. It just all this happens to be pretty indicative of what we wanted to say about, y’know looking after the world, looking after each other and look what happened. I mean, it just seemed to be a pretty bit of a no-brainer to get that one out now. And Mosquito, you know, Toby's Australian, he’s from Melbourne, and he just had the big fuzz bassline and my little singing, and that all came together and sounded a bit like a mosquito, someone actually commented saying it sounded like Cartman from South Park! He just grabbed the acoustic and started writing the song and it became Mosquito. We wanted to write a song about, a metaphor for mosquitos.

And we keep using the word ‘organic’ but it really was that way. I produced it and recorded it, and Toby at that time was living just up the road, and Jimmy was always here with a bottle of red wine anyway. We just sat in that little room, day and night and had fun, recording guitars here and there, laying down keyboard. A friend of mine owns a studio up the road, we got an English fella called Jason Gamble in to play drums on the majority of the album, so you know it just really grew like good music should grow. I mean, there's no deadline no pressure, the songs just came to life by themselves

J: Yeah. That's amazing. And I take it that you previously knew Toby before all of this. How has it working together on something like this? Do you prefer working with someone or on your own when it comes to song-writing and putting things together?

G: No, I'm definitely a working with someone kind of guy. I mean, I do write a lot of music but as far as you know, vocals and melodies and lyrics, I'd much rather leave it up to a real singer, a real composer. I met Toby 3 years ago at a party so the friendship is still pretty new, but became pretty much best mates. I met Jimmy at a party when I first moved here 14 or 15 years ago, so I’ve known him forever but we never got around to playing in a band together, so I asked him to join Stadium my corporate band. And then he joined and Toby joined. We wanted to see how far we could take it, and rename it because we wanted it to be different again, so we became Ashenmoon and here we are!

J: All right! And knowing so many names, like you would have worked with a lot of people over the years, and coming into the new ‘modern era’ of technology with the different ways of promotion we have now and all that kind of thing- what is it that you've seen change over the last, what is it, 30-40 years, something like that?

G: Yeah, it's been a while. Um, you know, it's funny you look back and you miss the age of CDs, and CDs replaced vinyl. I’ll always complain about downloads, seeing how the qualities isn’t great, and you don’t get the visual. Like I remember vinyl records as a kid, sitting there and pouring over every word and every image on the album cover while listening to the music, and I feel like it’s a forgotten art in many ways so, you’re hearing the first few singles but when you hear the whole album later in the year it’s a journey just like the good old, you know, Zeppelin records, Queen records, every song had its place. You know, we worked out which song goes to the next song and their running order and then it’s got side 1 and side 2 just like the old-fashioned records. When it’s out and you hear it on vinyl you’ll get the real idea of what it’s all about.

J: I'm sure you've probably been asked this already, but is there any kind of meaning behind the band name, Ashenmoon, where did that come from?

G: I think it's just an interesting visual image, really lending itself to artwork, but it's also got a really big sorta quality to it, and then also we wrote Dustbowl about how we know we abuse the planet, we abuse animals, we abuse each other, and what we’ll be left with is pretty much just a barren planet, so I guess it's a bit of a downer way of what describing it, but I think ultimately it's just, it just sounded cool. And then we did all this stuff ourselves. We found an artist when I went to our Facebook page, and Toby did a lot of the artwork, and then I did the graphics for the actual name, I used to do graphic design at school. So, it’s been a real, at home kind of project. And a friend of Jimmy’s, that he played in a band with at school back in Massachusetts, mixed the album so he's been a really strong part of the project as well. So, it's been a really good team and a really good time.

J: So, you've mentioned a couple times now the whole environmental effect that we're having and things like that. Is that something that you're personally passionate about?

G: Yeah, I am. I mean I'm more into my life and particularly more into dog rescue and finding homes for dogs. A real big issue is humans just don't get it. I mean, they just don't get it that the planets gonna give us a big kick in the ass that’s what it’s doing right now. You don’t eat bats, you just don't abuse animals. Mother Nature is just gonna, y’know, take you out. I mean, that's, what's going on now. It's taken an interesting turn. I mean, you see the planet’s actually recovering a bit because people aren't driving, industries are shut, the planet’s kind of having a bit of a breather right now. So, maybe there's a good side yet.

J: Yeah. There's a lot of things they've already seen, you know, positively changed since we've been absent.

G: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No one knows what the future's going to hold, I don't think you can ever get back to normal. We just have to see what, what we have to adjust to in the rest of their lives. I mean, it's interesting I have 8-9 year old twins and like there obviously not in school, we're failing miserably at the home-schooling thing. But it's just, it's just interesting time for that. I mean, they’ll look back at their second-third grade as the weirdest time in history, so I'm just really intrigued to see what's going to happen as the world tries to get back to what we’d considered as normal, you really can’t go back to what was normal anymore.

J: Yeah. I think there's a thing going around at the moment that was, uh, comparing what our, our prior our previous normal was and that we shouldn't go back to that because that's gotten us where we are.

G: Yeah. I think, that’s totally it. Totally. Ultimately, they’ve been talking about it for years that there’s gonna be a super-virus. Here it is and you have no idea what it is, what it’s going to do and where it’s gonna go and I mean, it seems like it’s a lot better in Australia out here, and that's just phenomenal.

I’ve been saying I’m just happy to have music out at this time because I've always thought music is a good healer. Music is always there for people when they’re happy or sad. So I'm just hoping Ashenmoon can help with that and maybe take people's minds off what's going on a bit.

J: And you’ve been quoted as saying that ‘not since your days with INXS, have you felt more connected to music until this’, this record and this band, I guess. What is it about this particular project that you feel so much more connected than your previous supergroups and things like that?

G: Well INXS was a six piece, um, you know, Andrew and Michael were the predominant songwriters ofcourse , that's just the way it is when we got two of the best songwriters in the world in your band.

Absent Friends with Wendy Mathews and Sean. Um, was just, that was just a fun band, you know, party band, that was a fun project too. And then the other time I tried to get a project I was called Mudhead, but they never released the album. It got a 5 star review but just didn’t release it, it became too hard.

I haven't really found the right people to write with and that I believe in. And that gives me the confidence to put all my time and effort into something that I know is going to be worth it, and that's what happened here. Toby has become one of my best friends. He's a good Aussie guy. Jimmy, I've known him for 15 years. He's one of my best friends. He's from Boston, he's a character. He's always got his bottle of red wine in his back pocket, and he’s just there to play. It's just kind of the same ideals that I've always had. I just want to play, I've always wanted to, so it's great to find like-minded people that still love music. A lot of people lose the passion for it. I couldn't imagine not being passionate about it and not playing, so, it’s great that I’ve got a new outlet and I’m loving it.

J: Fantastic. I guess that's a little bit more difficult to come by these days, is the genuine passion for it.

G: Yeah. And think I'm very lucky. When I was growing up deciding which Zepplin album to buy, you know, Zepplin, Deep Purple, and Queen were all releasing records and The Beatles were still releasing records. So I was really lucky to grow up in that time and be completely surrounded by amazing and also Australian bands. I mean, AC/DC played at my school dance so there's really, there's no experience like that. I just think having had that experience, I can't not be passionate about music and I think Jimmy's the same.

Jimmy did this beautiful thing, he started writing a big piece of paper with all these names and songs and I was like ‘What’re you doing?’ and he said ‘I'm just writing down which guitar player is gonna play on this record’ and it did a list of all his favourite guitar players, which considers that they all influenced him and taught him how to play, you know all the Jimmy Page’s and Jimmy Hendrix’s and he wanted to give them credit, so he sat there and wrote down all the names. I thought ‘that’s really cool!’ because you gotta remember where you came from and that's what we're all about too. We're just trying to put out a record that the people that inspired us would like to hear. And I know that if another band put this record out, I‘d love it just as much, but just because it's mine and I’m writer, producer, you know, I'm very connected with it and very proud of it.

J: Well, all of the acts that you've been a part of - I've had a quick listen to Absent Friends and things like that - they all definitely seemed to have a particular sort of cohesive similar sound to them, and so does Ashenmoon, I think. So, who would you say are the primary inspirations and influences that you've had that have added up to these creations?

G: I guess it changes. I mean, I'm really kind of boring in the fact that it's very rare that I hear something new that is, that inspires me or doesn't make me just go back to wherever we originally came from. I mean, it's kind of sad, but I mean the last artist that really, really changed my world was Jeff Buckley, and that was a long time ago now. So, I always go back to the Zepplins and the Queens and all the bands that you still would be hearing in 50 years’ time. And I don't know if you’ll be hearing many of artists on the radio now in 50 years time, but you'll always be hearing the Beatles and queen and hopefully Ashenmoon. I mean, we just want to make a record that was like, that was a good old fashioned record that just takes you on a trip. So I think we've done that.

J: And you mentioned, I think right at the start, something about, in terms of putting together your records and not currently having to keep to like a touring schedule or something like that. Does that mean that we are to expect some sort of tour from Ashenmoon or anything like that?

G: Oh yeah. We'd love to play it. I mean, we’ve actually we've actually taken this time. We've all been tested (for Covid-19) we all trust each other, you know. So we did a video of Dustbowl on Toby’s rooftop last week. And yesterday we set all of the gear up in my garage, we're going to start doing live broadcasts onto our Facebook pages and stuff. We just spent the day doing that. We're setting up our PA and sound we’re gonna start working that out and start trying to get ourselves out live to people as best we can. As soon as this clears up, if it gets back to any sort of normalcy as far as heading out to play we’ll be there, cause yeah, we got together to play together, we’re not answering ads in the paper or getting drunk at the bar, we just love playing together and we are a really good band live. I mean, I think we're actually probably better live than on the record to be honest.

J: Well, I think that's a good thing.

G: It is. Yeah. I mean, nothing more disappointing than seeing a band that can’t play. I ended up with one of the best rock singers in the world and I'm in a band with one of the best rock guitarists in the work so I'm pretty happy.

J: Well, to be perfectly candid you are, you are all clearly to a certain extent, you know, famous and very well-known and incredibly talented musicians and individuals. So, what is it like having that background/reputation behind you and knowing that there's going to be people waiting for your next thing and knowing that it's got to be, you know, to a certain standard?

G: I always second guess. We really pride ourselves on our performance. INXS was the same, we sort of critiqued every show, that made us better, and Ashenmoon is no different. I mean we love playing and we love playing well and we love playing properly and you know, we’re not one of those bands are gonna stagger out with a bottle of Jack Daniels and not want to give people their value for money, and we obviously also make them come back. And it's not just a side project, we’ve just signed this two-album dissolution deal with Golden Robot Records, we’re just going to keep going. We can't wait to get some more recording done. So even though we just got our first record out we just, I just want to get out there and play. I can't wait to bring it to Australia.

J: Well, that's, that's fantastic. That's the best thing to have, I guess that's exactly what you want.

G: Yeah. I'm pretty happy right now. I mean, as far as an album, I mean I still sort of sit there with a glass of wine still going ‘wow, this is pretty good’. And I’m not being egotistical, I just got the right team because I had the right circumstances and we just pulled it together. We made what we think is our statement, and in the process, we became a band. We had a first proper band meeting today. It’s like being back in school again. I was setting up the garage I was hanging, like cellophane paper behind the band so it looked cool, and it all fell down when I opened the garage door, but yeah, we’re just having a good time.

J: Ah good ol’ days!

G: I mean, yeah, these are the days. These are the days.

J: Well, it's good that you can know that you're creating something that you're proud of.

G: Yeah. And I get caught up with all my critics and my wife, my kids, the whole. It's just funny, because like my kids, they’re growing up. This is ‘Dad’s band’, Ashenmoon, and every now and then they hear and sing INXS and they’re like ‘oh that’s right, Dad’s other band!’ They haven’t really discovered INXS yet, I haven’t really had the time to show it to them.
In fact I'm just discovering all these YouTube sites that have all our videos and all this stuff from live performances I've ever seen before. So, you know, it's just interesting. Actually Toby's the one that does all our social media stuff so he’s the one that’s been sending me the links. In fact, he sent me a link to this, I didn’t even know it existed but Andrew and Michael did and interview on a rooftop in London I think it was. They play a bit of The Stairs, acoustically, and we just latched onto that because I've always wanted have Toby sing The Stairs, that I always thought was one of Michael's best sets of work. So, we did an acoustic version, as per the way Andrew was playing it on the rooftop. So we've just finished that, that’s just been finished now, so that'll be coming out cause we've been getting you could say bored, so we’re doing acoustic versions of all our songs just to give you, but as it turns out we’ll have a heap of original material to put out as well, so, we just can’t help ourselves.

J: And what was life actually like, during and after the INXS era?

G: During was obviously massive. It was my life. I mean, we’d make a record with all our time and we live and breathe that and then we go on tour for sometimes 12 - 18 months, just keep touring the world over and over again, that’s how we lived. And then we have a bit of a break and then do it again. I didn’t have much of a home life. I still managed to have a dog, but I didn’t see much of her. And we did that from high school, so, you know, it was a pretty massive part of my life and I was and always will be very proud of INXS. When that stopped, obviously it was a horrible way for it to stop with Michael, but that was out of my control. I had no, I had no say in it. So me personally, I just sort of went into that ‘she’ll be right mate’ mode.

And Michael’s still around, I still dream about him all the time. He turns up like nothing happened and we start playing again. So, I know I have a guardian angel as well, I think maybe it’s Michael, maybe my dad, but he's still around. That sorta spirit isn’t gonna leave. I've just been kind of concentrating on my, on my personal life since all that happened. Moved to America, fell in love, got kids, you know, so I'm just trying to do that, but then as luck would have it, I meet the Australian singer that I’ve always wanted to meet, at a party in Los Angeles, it’s very L.A. y’know, the whole story.

And we tiptoed into it, we didn’t rush straight into making a record, we got to know each other better and - I'm sitting, watching my dog chew up my kids toys…

Yeah, it's cool. Life. You just take it as it comes around and adapt. It was a horrible way for INXS to end, but also I enjoyed the time of JD Fortune. I mean, that was a pretty good incarnation of the band. We made a great record called Switch, went platinum in America, sold a million records. So, I mean, it wasn't too shabby. Then that stopped so y’know. So, and I remember touring Australia with JD was great. Yeah.

Life’s a journey and I’m just happy to be on it. Above ground, still playing.

J: Well, that's awesome. That's amazing. That's, that's really nice to hear that you've gone on regardless of whatever setbacks and you're doing the best you can, sort of thing.

G: Yeah. You know, my legacy is always gonna be just making music, whether I do it in my garage or I do it on a laptop. I'm just happy to have a band that I can get out and play with.

J: Yup. Okay. Well, I only have one more question... What we try to ask every single person that we interview is; what are your top current top three Australian artists at the moment - they can be old. They can be new, but just Australian artists that you're really in love with right now.

G: No, I'm really out of, out of the loop. As far as Australian bands down there, I spent the last year just concentrating on my stuff. So, I’m probably the wrong person to ask, but I mean,

J: It can be old school stuff!

G: If I'm homesick, I just put on Chisel. Yeah. I play Circus Animals to death. I play Letter To Allen endlessly to all who’ll listen. I was actually was actually in my studio, just the other day with a tech, and I put on Ariel, a band I grew up with when I was a kid and he just thought it was the most amazing thing he’d ever heard. I just always go backwards. I mean, as I said it's hard for me, I'm a bit of a music historian now, I’m a bit anal that way. And I think when I hear something, I go ‘Oh, that's a rip-off of so-and-so’, which I shouldn't say that, I’m sure people would say that about Ashenmoon ‘well Ashenmoon’s a bit of a rip-off isn’t it?’. I just tend to listen to what I listened to and just get on with my day. But yeah, it’s hard to figure out when you’ve got half an hour to listen to some music, it's just hard to not put on old Genesis or…

J: For sure, go with what you know.

G: It’s like pulling on an old pair of jeans.

J: You pick what's comfortable.

G: Yeah. Australia's got some, Billy Thorpe, Richard Clapton and you know, obviously I said Chisel, and Oil and all that stuff, all the bands that influenced us, taught us how to play, you know, some good stuff.

J: Yeah. Okay. Well I think I've already gone over time technically but thank you so much.

G: Oh, you're welcome. It's really nice to talk to you.

J: Yeah, you too. It's great. It's a bit of an idol moment for me, so thank you so much.

G: Can’t wait to bring the band to Australia and be down there and play.

J: I'll definitely be there. Okay. Well thank you. Um, have a nice day!

G: You too, stay safe, see you down the track!

Once again, a huge thanks to John from Golden Robot Records for the opportunity, and to Garry for the fantastic chat. We’ll be waiting for what’s coming next - ‘See you down the track’!

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BackBeat Season 2, Comin’ At You!

Photo: Falls Festival Byron Bay

Hello, and welcome to 2020!

We are well into the new year now and we’ve just uploaded our first episode of Season 2 for the new year! We want to wish you all a warm welcome into the new year, and if you’re new here, a warm welcome to us and the BackBeat podcast. We’re up to our 7th episode now, and we figured we’d start the new year with a new season too!

In this episode we’ve gone back to basics with just Jahmiele and Gabby havin’ a chat, recounting our previous episodes, our December of 2019 which featured Good Things Festival and New Years, along with our plans for BackBeat in 2020 - including some funky new announcements coming super soon!

We also briefly talk about our New Years resolutions and what we personally want to achieve - both within BackBeat and elsewhere. We’d love to know what your resolutions are, and what you’d like to see from us over the next 12 months. Whether that be particular topics, guests, interviews, reviews - whatever it may be, we wanna know! Contact us via email, Facebook, or Instagram and shoot us a message telling us what you’d like to see and hear from us., and while you’re at it, check out the latest episode and catch up on our previous episodes if you missed ‘em.

Listen To The Full Episode Here

We wanna send out a huge thanks to those who’ve followed and supported us so far. It’s been slow and steady but we’ve got a good feelin’ about it, and we’d love to see this get bigger and better in 2020 so don’t stop (me) now! We’ve got some big plans in the works and you don’t wanna miss out, I promise.

Much Love,
The BackBeat.

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Jahmiele: "What This Is Actually About"

Photo Credit: Bree Wallace

So we’re just over 1 month into our official debut of The BackBeat - and it’s early days, I thought I’d take a moment to delve a little deeper into what it is we hope to achieve here, and what you can expect from us.

The Big Picture

We want to create a resource for everyone in the music industry, put together by everyone in the music industry. While this is definitely a passion project for the both of us, this is also something that we hope will turn into somewhat of an entertaining educational tool for all aspects of the community. Whether you’re interested in live events, booking, recording, touring, management, publicity, performing & actually creating music and/or entertainment, or anything else, we aim to dig into it and find out what makes those cogs turn.

Why?

Originally, this project was (and technically, still is) a project for my final trimester of university at Collarts, and like anything else I do, it’s go big or go home, so here we are.

But seriously.

Ideally, the world would be a pure, transparent, honest, and kind place where everything is fair and justified and true - unfortunately, that is often not the case, and the music industry is no different. Don’t get me wrong, I love the industry. I love being a part of it, as both a consumer and a creator. I’m grateful that I’ve been born into a generation where we are so lucky to have the things we do have, including the modern music industry. I am. However, there’s just a lot of…well, dodgy sh*t. Everywhere. There’s a lot of smoke and mirrors and misinformation. There are people struggling to get by because they can’t keep their head above water - financially, mentally, the list goes on. There’s also a lot of amazing things. There’s sometimes so much to learn and do and see that sometimes it all seems a little too good to be true - sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t and you’re truly blown away and blessed by your experiences, but sometimes…just sometimes, you gotta learn the hard way that not all is as it seems in the land of dreams.

…What?

Sorry, nevermind.
My point is - there’s a LOT going on out there, and sometimes you can feel lost in the current and genuinely not know what the heck is going on. I’ve been lucky enough thus far to (more-or-less) know what I want, and what I want to do with myself and my life. I am painfully aware, however, that that’s rarely the case for many people. I want to bring together everyone who has (again, more-or-less) figured it out for themselves and can pass on their wise words, to help the newbies who’re coming into it blind.

Photo Credit: James Proctor

Thinking about it, I felt like there wasn’t really something that pulled that all together in one place; there are plenty of mentor programs out there (like The Push’s Music Industry Mentor Program, which I was lucky enough to participate in myself), and there are a few random forums and a bunch of courses out there to help you specialise in whatever it is you choose to do - but the problem there is…what if you don’t know what you want to…choose to do?

What I’m Trying To Say Is…

I want this to be an entertaining yet informational support hub of sorts; for music fans, for those who are even just slightly interested in entering the industry, for music and industry pros, and everyone everywhere and in between. I want this to be entertaining and educational. I want this to provide knowledge, comfort, assistance. I want to ask the questions that everyone really wants to ask, find out the things you really want to know - and maybe even the things you didn’t know you wanted to know - and do it all in a space that is safe, comfortable, and real for everyone involved, without all the bullsh*t. Most of all, I want it to be honest.

So, Thanks In Advance.

Thank you for reading, liking, following, listening, sharing, whatever it is you may have done or do for us while we get things rolling. Thank you for supporting Australian music and arts, whether that be through buying an album, streaming a song, sharing a local band with your friends - whatever you do, keep doing it. This could very easily flop on its face - but we’ll do our best. We at least owe ourselves that.

Stay hydrated, and keep streamin’.

-Jahmiele