From Ashes To New are a high-energy modern rock band that is taking the scene by storm. They are about to release a new record called Blackout and frontman Danny Case recently took some time to talk all about it.
Please press the PLAY icon below for the MisplacedStraws Conversation with Danny Case –
On the theme behind Blackout – Before going into the studio, we had kind of recognized that we enjoy writing heavier music and we took a step back and looked at what put this band on the map and what do our fans like? We felt like Day One, the first record was really the album that put the band on the map. We wanted to return to that level of intensity and heaviness in our music. So upon writing that record and working on it, the time that we were working on it and having that thought in the back of our mind as well of going back to a heavier sound, we thought to ourselves, we were working on the song “Armageddon” at the time, we’re like, “This feels like it could be almost like a prequel to Day One, with the art depicting a kid on a new planet, looking back at the old planet that’s falling apart”. We thought why not take this and make it conceptually a prequel to that album and having the kid on the planet as it’s falling apart reaching for the new planet? That’s kind of where the idea all came from. It was kind of like between thinking of returning to a heavier sound and then the time that we were writing the record, which was early to mid-2021 and everything that had just transpired, we were like, “This feels like the perfect time”. We were actually going to call it Armageddon at first, that was going to be the name of the record, but then we decided to call it Blackout because the first step to armageddon, at least in our eyes and the modern day is if the grid were to go down. So that was the idea behind, behind the record, and behind the sound was returning to something heavy. We figured an apocalypse would probably be pretty heavy. So, that kind of encompasses the entire idea. :45
On if he had to immerse himself in Day One as he didn’t sing on the record – So we referenced Day One as far as its intensity and heaviness, but not the actual music itself. At this point in time, we’re different people, we have different interests, and we have different influences and inspirations. So we just wanted to bring back the level of heaviness rather than the actual sound of that record. We don’t want to take steps back. We want to take steps forward. So, we looked at that album and the intensity and heaviness that it brought and we said, “We want to make music that’s heavy like that again”. So it’s still a step forward in our evolution. It just brings back that kind of heaviness. 3:24
On the creative process of the band – It’s a case-by-case scenario or situation where sometimes someone will have something that they’ve kind of made halfway and they’ll bring it to the table and everybody else’s fresh ears and can bring in ideas and put in their own spin on it. Other times it’s all of us sitting in a room, working on a song from its inception. It just depends on whatever the song calls for. We try not to force anything. All of our most successful songs were literally written in a day. We don’t do that on purpose. It ends up just kind of happening where we’re 90% of the way through a record and we’re like, “We need one more song and we have two days left to figure this out”, or it happens after we’ve recorded the whole album. They’re like, “We need to go in and record one more song. We only have two days to do it”. Sometimes, that’ll happen. Other times we work on songs for months. It all depends on just the flow of things and where creative juices are. I’m a big believer in whatever’s meant to be, is meant to be, and will happen in its own time. So, sometimes it’s one day, sometimes it’s a month, sometimes it’s Lance (Dowdle, guitar) coming with a full idea or me coming with a musical bed and an idea. Other times it’s all of us together in a room, figuring it out. 4:29
On the band keeping busy during the pandemic – It was kind of a dual reason that we did all that. For one, we needed to find a way to stay busy during the shutdown. Everybody’s at home. Everybody’s on their screens. There’s no live music. There’s no touring. There’s no nothing. We’re also at home doing nothing. So we needed a way to stay sane. We also felt it was a good way to engage with fans and give them something while they’re stuck at home too. That was really the only reason behind it. We needed purpose for ourselves. We felt like it was a good opportunity to give the fans something that they otherwise normally wouldn’t get. Playing all those, all those covers and all that stuff, that was a unique opportunity. We thought it was a good service to the fans to keep their heads on during all of that and to keep our heads on straight during all of that, too. 6:25
On what drew him to his musical path – I 100% agree about this being our strongest album. The sound of it is incredible. The team that worked on it, that recorded it, and that mixed it, we’ve never had anything this high quality. Then also the music we feel is the best music we’ve made so far. What drew me in at least in the beginning of my musical journey was I was in sixth grade and there was a talent show. I’d always really loved music growing up. My parents were always playing classic rock on the radio and at home. So I always had a love for music. I was always singing in church and engaging in that way. What really got me into music was at a sixth-grade talent show. One of my best friends at the time played drums to a Linkin Park song and he wasn’t just some kid smacking the drums. This kid was on the, I can’t even remember what it was, the Empire Statesman Marching Band frontlines, a really, really good drummer at the age of 11. So watching him play, I was just like, “I have to do this. This is what I have to do”. So I got a little practice pad and sticks and started playing a little bit, got my first kit after that. You couldn’t pull me off that drum set if you tried. That was all I did. I stopped hanging out with friends. I stopped going and doing stuff. That was all I did all the way through high school. It evolved from drums to bass and then guitar. Then when I joined my first band, they needed a singer and I was like, “Well, I don’t care what I have to do. I just want to be in the band”. I got stuck with singing and never looked back. I sucked and sucked and sucked and sucked and sucked until I got kind of okay at it. So, yeah, that was kind of my musical journey. 8:00
On if the band is influenced at all by the classic rock artists – I think it was just a developmental thing where you don’t really notice it or pay attention. It’s like English for us. You don’t actively try to speak English. It’s just something that happened developmentally along the way. So for me, having all that music around me all the time, I never actively went and listened to it as I got older Every time a song comes on though, no matter what it is. I know what that song is and that’s somehow in my subconscious and in my musical mind, it’s all there. Yet at the same time, I never know when I’m drawing from it. To me is just the blessing of growing up around that music. I feel like it formed my musical taste in my musical mind early on without me ever even knowing it. There’s a special place in my heart for all that music. At the same time, when I reference or draw inspiration from music, it’s all of my music that I listen to on a daily basis, which is like Avenge Sevenfold and I listen to a lot of modern really like metal bands. I’ve been listening to more I Prevail, Of Mice and Men, and there, there’s so many, Periphery, they’re a very progressive metal band. I never really go back to those classic rock influences, but I owe my entire musical career to them. 11:32
On using tracks live – This is a great question because we have electronics and symphonic aspects. There’s obviously multiple vocal layers. There’s multiple guitars, there’s bass, and we are a four piece, or we were a four piece for the longest time. We actually just added someone to play a second guitar on stage. For the longest time, we were just like, “Everyone’s using tracks, who cares if our bass is in our track, at least we are singing all of our parts live, all of our guitar parts that we play are live. We don’t fake anything.” For us, for the longest time, that was enough. Then I came to a realization that it wasn’t. People were looking at us and going, “Where is all this sound coming from with one guitarist and two vocalists on stage and a drummer?” At the end of the day, that’s all that matters is what the viewer is taking in. So, added a second guitarist, we still have the bass in our tracks, but now all of our guitars are live. All of our vocals are live. There might be some, maybe backing layers, but for the most part, all of our vocals are live. For me, my stance is you have to, most bands nowadays have to have tracks because, for one, if you want to be able to replicate something live, you need to be able to have all those sounds and you’re either going to have a 20 piece band, which is unsustainable and won’t fit on stage, or you’re just going to have some things that are backtracked. To me, that’s all fine. The only thing to me that is not okay is lip-syncing. That will never be okay for me, at least in my own heart. I have to sing my parts live. I have to. We don’t even really use, as I said, we don’t really use any vocal tracks live. There might be some completely verbed-out backing layers, but as far as all the live vocals, I’ll never pull the mic away from myself and still have a voice going. That’ll never be us. I spent way too much time and worked my ass off way too long to not take the credit for what I’m singing live. So, we do get accused of lip syncing and there is nothing that pisses me off more because I sucked for a long time and I busted my ass to be able to sing the songs live and do them justice and no track is taking that away from me. That’s the same mentality that Matt (Brandyberry) has. He goes out there and he sounds like the record and he’s a great vocalist and so at least for us, we’ll never be tracking vocals. We will never be lip-syncing. All the backing stuff, what we can do, we will do. So we added a second guitarist. Whenever we have software beats that our drummer can play, he has a rolling pad set up that he can play the beat on. So we will do everything that we can to make as much as we can live. But tracks, it’s kind of the way forward and you get to play to a click track, so everything is as tempoed as it should be. That’s kind of just where we stand. 14:00
On what fans can expect on the summer tour – We’re going to try to keep the level of production as high as we did on the Shinedown tour. Shinedown was awesome, and so was Three Days Grace, they allowed us to do what we wanted to do as long as we were offstage in a timely manner, and we were. They allowed us to do everything that we wanted to do and help to make that happen and made sure everything went smoothly. So as long as we have the approval from In This Moment and Motionless In White, we will be bringing a high level of production again. It won’t quite be the same thing. We’re going to change it up a little bit and do things a little differently, but it’ll still be a great show to look at and that’s what we set out to do. A lot of the time for bands, they might feel that touring is for them and going on playing shows for them. In a way it is, but it is ultimately for the viewer and for the fans. So we want to bring the best show forward that we can. Hopefully, we will have our clearances. I’m actually sitting where I work on our light show and getting things ready and plot it out so that we can send it over and say, “Hey, can you approve this for us so that we can move forward?” They should also expect maybe a new song or two off the new album to be played live. Obviously, the ones that we have already released “Heartache”, and “Nightmare”, those will probably be played and then there might be one other one. It’ll be a high-energy show. It’ll be fun. It’s a good lineup. So, Anyone who’s contemplating going, definitely go. 18:00
