Ashes Fallen are a post punk / gothic rock band from Sacramento, California. Their second album, “A Fleeting Melody Out of a Fading Dream”, released last year, is a powerful collection of well crafted serious songs, from the lyrics to the catchy melodies to the superb guitar work. Pórtico talked to Ashes Fallen’s James and Michelle Perry about the band’s work so far.
Thank you very much for the interview. It’s a pleasure!
First things first, the band’s influences. The press release mentions goth, rock and metal. What are your favourite bands? But I’m also interested in other type of cultural influences that impact an artist. What subjects, books, movies, people, have influenced you all as a band? Social issues, for instance, like inequality or religion, are very present in your songs.
James: Thanks so much for interviewing us! Let's go back to the beginning. I grew up in a house where my father was always listening to classical music, and I'm sure that's rubbed off in my music over the years. I have more favorite bands than I can possibly list, but offhand, I love The Damned, Iron Maiden, The New York Dolls, The Sisters of Mercy, Opeth, Devin Townsend, The Chameleons... I'm real excited about a lot of newer music too, there's just so much good music happening lately! IAMTHESHADOW, Black Rose Burning, Pilgrims of Yearning, Ariel Maniki and the Black Halos, The Kentucky Vampires... although the new music business is fragmented and confusing, there's so much creativity and excitement right now.
Michelle: When I was growing up in New Zealand, I had one brother listening to Motörhead, another brother listening to Dire Straits, and then I was in my room listening to Duran Duran and The Cure and Echo and the Bunnymen! I also loved the Thompson Twins when I was young, and I thought it was so cool that this chick from little old New Zealand like me, Alannah Currie, was up there on stage on Top of the Pops! Since James and I got together, I've discovered Gary Numan, we just love his newer stuff. I've also always loved The Church, Alice In Chains, A Perfect Circle, and Joy Division. I've been fascinated by vampires ever since I was a little girl, and not so long ago I read Anne Rice's entire Vampire Chronicles from front to back. I love classic films and period films. I love set design and costuming. I'd love to work on a film someday, even if it's just fetching the coffee! James and I have been watching a lot of Film Noir from the 40s and 50s. So much artistry and atmosphere. You just don't see that in today's films.
James: As for social issues, we couldn't help but react to everything happening in the world around us when we wrote this album. When we started the album, Michelle and I were still living in Sacramento, which is the state capital of California, meaning there were lots of protests. You had the Black Lives Matters protests clashing with the police, and then you had the Trumpers and the Proud Boys and the anti-maskers running around with guns, it was a crazy time. And then of course there was the pandemic, and our government's response to it at all levels was a farce and further exposed the failures and hypocrisy of the system, and the growing gap between the rich and the poor. How could we not talk about that?
Michelle, I’m a big fan of Anne Rice myself. And I hope to see you one day in one of my favourite TV shows, if only as an extra… for starters!
James, you once said that your later work is a better representation of what the band is doing right now. I will concur that there’s a noticeable evolution since the first album “Ashes Fallen”, released in 2019, even though that’s a great début album. I’ll point out songs like “Blood Moon”, “Nothing Left To Say” or “Morning Breaks”, just to mention my personal favourites. On the other hand, “A Fleeting Melody Out of a Fading Dream” takes it to the next level. Songs like “We Belong Nowhere”, “Thy Will Be Done” and “Vampira - The Ballad of Maila” are instant classics, if I may say so. And I just did.
What are your thoughts on the band’s previous and more recent work? What, do you think, helped you grow?
James: Thanks so much! When we recorded that first album, we'd only been a band for a few months. Some of the songs were songs I'd already been doing as a solo artist. We kind of rushed that one so we'd have something to show people and something to sell on our first tour. I'm still really proud of a lot of it, and some of the last songs written for it were some of my favorites, but to me, it's uneven and unfocused. I think it's just taken us awhile to really figure out what Ashes Fallen actually is. Jason and I have played in bands together on and off for over 20 years. Michelle is an incredibly creative, talented, hard-working person full of ideas, but was her first time being a musician, and she's really come into her own and it's made all of us raise our game. She's so good at helping to point me in the right direction, like, "do more of this, but don't do that!" She brings somewhat of an "outsider perspective" unlike Jason and I who have been doing this for a long time, so she can help tell us what works and what doesn't.
“A Fleeting Melody Out of a Fading Dream”, album cover
Speaking of “Vampira - The Ballad of Maila”, I have a funny story to share. Funny and surreal. (Welcome to the world inside my head.) The first time I heard it play on a Twitch stream I was positively convinced it was an 80s classic, much like The Meteors' "My Daddy Is A Vampire", and I was absolutely shocked and ashamed that I didn’t know it before. Worst: that I didn’t recognize the name Ashes Fallen, a band that must have been around for 40 years, probably extinct by now like so many others. How could I have missed “Maila” all these years? I was so embarrassed! Now imagine my shock when I saw you stroll into a Twitch chat and I realised that “Maila” is a very recent song indeed! Coming from me, that’s the biggest compliment I can pronounce about a song. Such a classic had to be around forever. Goes without saying, it was all very funny but it was also a good surprise: I had to know this new band that makes such a classic sound!
[People, if you haven’t heard “Vampira - The Ballad of Maila” yet, go to Ashes Fallen’s Bandcamp and listen to it now.]
Later I looked up Maila Nurmi and learned about her personal story. I wasn’t familiar with the actress or the show. There have been many young stars, men and women, who haven’t been treated fairly by Hollywood. Many sordid stories to tell. So, why Maila? What was so striking about her?
James: We'll take that as a compliment, thank you! Michelle and I wrote that song together. She wanted that song to have somewhat of a "retro" sound and energy since the Vampira show happened in the 50s, around the same time as the birth of rock and roll and everything.
Michelle: I've been fascinated by the story of Maila Nurmi for a long time, ever since I watched the documentary "Vampira and Me". I don't think people realize what an important figure she is, not just in our scene, but in pop culture in general! She was in amongst it with all these incredible people, like Marlon Brando, Anthony Perkins, Orson Welles, and James Dean. She created this completely original Vampira character back in the straight-laced "Leave it to Beaver" 50s. You can go to any goth night anywhere in the world and you'll see so many people emulating that look that she came up with! And then she lost everything and never got the credit she deserved because she refused to play the game and give up control of her creation, and all these other people exploited her creation and got the fame and the money and the glory. There have been so many stories over the years of people doing the hard work and creating something original, but then someone else comes along and makes it successful and gets all the recognition. She was a true original and an icon, and she led such an amazing but tragic life, and we're just proud to help tell her story!
I think that the way people react to your songs will depend on how they view the proverbial glass: half-full or half-empty. I don’t consider myself a pessimist or an optimist, but merely realistic. Some people may find some of your songs to be pessimistic. I kind of find them utopian, even, and I sense vibes of the “fight the system” punk current. I was always the “no future” current. I’ll quote “Bear Witness”’ lyrics:
Citizens of a dying empire
Tell me, how lucky are we
We were chosen to bear witness
To the collapse of our society
For the lies, they shall rise
Never ever compromise
Soup kitchen lines are growing
While bull market profits rise
(...)
So muster all you've got within
We can’t let the bastards win
So, truly, you believe there’s any way to fight the system and win?
James: Truly, I don't know. But not fighting is not an option. I believe human-made climate change is an existential threat to life as we know it. Racism and classism and sexism, it's all so disgusting, and so many people suffer needlessly. This whole system that demands continuous, exponential growth of profit when the planet has finite resources, and cost of living goes up so much faster than wages, and more and more people fall through the cracks while the rich keep getting richer, it's simply unsustainable and unjust. And it's so frustrating how at least in America, it seems like empathy and caring for one another is seen as a weakness now, and it's all about "looking out for number one" and neglecting that we're all one people and we're all connected. We've all got to pull together and do better. Vote, demonstrate, contribute money to organizations fighting for a better world, be a conscious consumer, and just be a good person. Everyone is struggling right now and we've all got to be kind.
“Thy Will Be Done” was inspired by the Orlando nightclub shooting of 2016. I always find it very ironic that organised religion, which purpose is supposed to be to reconnect us with God and Good, is responsible for some of the biggest atrocities in the History of mankind. What are your thoughts on that?
James: You nailed it. And yes, I was horrified when I heard about that. It chilled me to the bone. But right then, that guitar line the song is based around just appeared in my head, and I wrote out that first verse, imagining the mindset of someone praying to their twisted idea of God while preparing to do something horrible. I was raised with religion. Religion can be quite wonderful and beautiful and every faith talks about being good and kind, but it is so often horribly twisted by the hateful and the corrupt. It's just so perverse how the hardline religious people chase after fundamentalism and yet they seem to completely miss the point, and embrace the very thing they claim to oppose in the pursuit of power.
James, I agree with your every word.
I can’t help but ask this. Your “romantic” songs, in both albums, are a bit… gloomy. Is this how you view romance in general, or is it only a matter of what you were inspired to write at the moment? After all, you do say, in “Human Condition is Terminal”:
And yet this life could be beautiful
If you just let it be
James: I'll say that our songs are generally autobiographical. I believe in writing what's real and what moves me to write. For the first album, a lot of what I was singing about was the few years leading up to Michelle and I getting together. Ten years ago I was in a marriage that wasn't right and never was right and it ultimately fell apart and I nearly lost myself in the process, but I had to go through all of that to rebuild my life and come out smarter and stronger. "Start Again" was the last song we wrote for the first album, and it's one of my favorite things we ever did, and that's what it's all about, overcoming all that negative stuff. Same thing with "Human Condition is Terminal". For so much of my life, I was crippled by insecurity and self-doubt, and that song is just about trying to overcome the voices in your head that tell you you're not good enough.
Michelle: "Just Let Go" is a song I think anyone can relate to. Each of us has had people in our lives that just couldn't let go of the past and it all turned toxic.
Michelle, indeed, that’s a very relatable song.
Back to religion, on a lighter note. Your “base of operations”, including a recording studio, is now a 19th century converted church that you call “The Chapel”. Does it have good acoustics? It must provide an unique ambience. What has been your experience in these new musical dwellings?
James: The Chapel has wonderful acoustics! But we only use the church portion of the building for rehearsal and livestreaming performances. Our recording studio is in one of the old offices. But living here has been great for us creatively. Having our own mini venue to rehearse in and perform online from was great during the pandemic, when it wasn't possible for us to play shows in clubs. It's not just that we live in an old church, either. We moved out of the big city into a small, quiet town. It's given us the quiet and space to focus more on our lives and on our art.
Michelle: Sacramento just got too crazy during the pandemic. We could hear the rioters and see the police helicopters standing out in our backyard! I've always wanted to be able to decorate our stages when we perform, but for most shows we just can't because it's all rush rush rush, get on the stage, get off the stage, get out of the way of the next band. I've loved being able to dress the stage at The Chapel. Like I said, I've always wanted to work on films, but now we have this amazing space that I can do anything with.
It must be a very interesting space to work, for sure.
What are Ashes Fallen’s plans for the near future? In the long run (pandemic permitting), have you considered touring Europe and, especially, playing in Portugal? Any ideas yet for new songs/albums, or is this a “cool down” moment of reflection? Tell us all.
James: We'd love to tour Europe someday! That's not in our immediate plans though. Right now, we've got a few things in the works. We recently swapped remixes with our friends The Axiom Divide and we're real excited for them to put out our remix of "Generations", which I think will happen very soon. We're preparing for a series of live shows this Spring across the west coast of the United States. Aside from one show in October of last year, we haven't performed for a live audience in almost two years, and we haven't traveled at all, so we're really restless and I want to get out there and do this thing live, and bring it to the people! We're also working on our first recorded cover: "No New Tale to Tell" by Love and Rockets. Our friend Greg Rolfes approached us to be part of a compilation of covers of Love and Rockets and Tones on Tail songs from Unknown Pleasures Records, and we jumped on the opportunity. That song's been a lot of fun to work on and we might even play it live. Other than that, I've been recording riffs and sketches, and Michelle and I have been talking about ideas for new songs. We may put out a remix EP later this year, and depending on how things go, maybe a single or two of brand new material later in the year.
Michelle: I've got another music video in my head I've been meaning to make for a long time, but we keep getting busy with other things!
Looking forward to those new releases. "No New Tale to Tell" has always been one of my favourite songs.
Again, thank you very much for the interview!
Ashes Fallen are husband and wife James (lead vocals, guitar) and Michelle Perry (keyboard, percussion, backing vocals, visual presentation), and Jason Shaw (guitar).
Ashes Fallen’s releases so far can be found on their Bandcamp, here:
ashesfallenmusic.bandcamp.com
