Well, well, well…..see what happens…I go to bed and the next thing I know it’s a new year! Yes, after a short hibernation over the holiday period I decided to start my babblings here on the site again. I’ve been called all kinds of names over the holidays, Grinch, Miserable Git, Party Pooper……ugh whatever, I’m just glad they’re passed now. It’s a difficult time of the year as it is for many others…I miss my Father and my best friend Spencer even more at that time of year and my Mom wasn’t here this year so that made me sad as well.

On December 12^th my mate Bill Miller lost his battle with cancer and retired to the great drum solo out in the ether. Bill was the Editor in Chief at Modern Drummer Magazine. A great guy who I’d only known a couple of years but one whose passion for music and drumming was profoundly evident from the first time I met him. Two years ago at the NAMM show in LA I introduced Bill to my friend Daniel Adair, drummer for Nickelback. We all met one day, sat down and talked and Bill told Daniel that he wanted to do a cover feature on Daniel when the next Nickelback album was made and he then told me that I was the one he wanted to do the shoot. Modern Drummer is the gospel of drumming magazines for professional and amateur drummers alike and just being inside the magazine is an honor within that community so as you can imagine Daniel was stoked at this prospect. Cut forward to summer ‘08 and I’m calling Bill saying “hey, new album, what about this cover we’re supposed to do?” So we set it up, I went up to Canada into the Rockies for a couple of days to become Bear bait with Daniel whilst we made the pics that you’re seeing below.

Daniel Adair & Bill Miller

Dear Bill loved the photos and to my knowledge, this was his last full Modern Drummer issue. It’s a bitter sweet endeavor. Bitter because a great guy lost his life prematurely but sweet also because we got such a great feature and photos from this project, one that Bill was most pleased with.

I’m truly happy for that.

Enjoy….

ASH

September 4^th- Couple of new magazines this month. Firstly, my very first cover feature for Modern Drummer magazine featuring the most talented Todd Sucherman from Styx. Todd is a fellow fan of all that is Keith Moon and shares not only this passion but also has quite the twisted sense of humor too. Have a peek at his words in my "QUOTES" section of the website.



Secondly, Guitar One's Guitar and Gaming magazine did a feature on my ol' mate Marcus Henderson of Guitar Hero game fame. They did a pretty nice job with it as well. Special thanks to Jimmy Hubbard at Guitar World for setting this up. Top bloke is Jimmy!
 
 

Wake up early after a surprisingly good nights sleep. Head on down and grab a hearty breakfast that a Lumberjack would be proud of. The gift shop to the hotel is open..... HA! Run in and ask the lady in there if she sells Mars Bars. I realize then that I must have looked like an excited five year old asking her. She kindly points to the Holy Grail of chocolate and I buy five of them. One is gone already by the time the elevator reaches the 11th floor and a second is opened by the time my room door closes. Grab my gear and head downstairs and Daniel meets me and helps load the gear into his truck. Stop off for a Starbucks and then he tells me we're heading off up the road to Whistler and towards the Rockies. Vancouver seems like a nice place. It certainly has a nice vibe and the Canucks seem a lot more laid back than their uptight city dwelling American counterparts. I think it's the fresh air that does it.

As we get up in elevation the views get more spectacular along highway 99 along Horseshoe Bay and Howe Sound. Anvil Island sits out in the middle of the water looking beautiful. As we go along we start looking out for good locations to shoot Daniel in the great outdoors. He stops the truck at a place called Furry Creek and looks at me waiting for the filthy comments to start....... The bugger knows me! Hehehe... Of course I don't want to be a bad guest and disappoint my most generous host so I start the mucky commentary about Furry Creek and he does his best to join in. A little further up the mountains we get to a place name "Squamish" which I predictably rename "Squeamish". We see a big river running alongside the road and decide to take a side country road and see if we can find a turn off and trail to the river. Further down we're on a trail road and are thinking of getting out when we see a bloody great Black Bear run across the trail in front of us... It was an adolescent bear which meant that Mama was around. This means that you stand a very good chance of being gnawed on by Mama so we let our asses stop twitching and decide to move on to safer locales.
 


We eventually find a trail down to a beautiful section of clear and very cold river that's fed from glacial flow. We grab the gear. Danny boy helps me carry a big heavy box of lights down the trail to the waters edge and has a whine about his hands hurting......... if he had to play drums and really use his hands he'd really be in trouble....hehehe..... As we're going down the trail there are several old male and female fogeys in front of us heading down to a bend in the river hidden by a bunch of reeds and shrubs.. One is carrying booze, one food, and the others firewood.... We both have a chuckle about the old dudes getting trashed by the rivers edge, think nothing of it and head downstream and set up and proceed to do the photo session. Shoot Daniel sitting on a rock at the waters edge, with a beautiful orange Drum Workshop snare drum and then his Regal Tip sticks. I set up a little rock platform to squat on whilst I shoot him and his wonderous soul patch in various poses etc. It's not until I get the shots up on the laptop later that realize just how beautiful the scenery is. You kind of get caught in the moment of the shoot and have tunnel vision of a sort when you're focusing on the job at hand. I have to go back and do some landscapes there though...



Get done with the shoot and we fart around and take some silly pics and video then we pack up and head back to the truck. The wind has gotten up and we walk right by the bushy area the old folks are behind. Their fire is putting out some great smoke we notice and we hear them laughing etc. Not until we walk right by and see through the gaps in the foliage do we notice that they're all completely frickin' naked! It's a veritable drunk pink wrinkle fest behind the bushes!!! We have a good chuckle about the nudists and head on up the road further into the mountains. Stop at an absolutely amazing scenic overlook with snow capped mountains in the background. Set up a light and get Daniel up standing on a stone wall with the amazing backdrop. A couple of girls come over to see what's going on and they recognize Daniel so I grab a shot of them together then we finish up the shoot and head back down the road.

By this time we're feeling rather esurient. Daniel pulls off at a place called Tim Hortons and tells me I have to try their great coffee and sandwiches. We go inside and Daniel order me a coffee called a "Double Double" and a BLT sandwich that beats the ass off any Subway sandwich I've had. What's hilarious is that there can't be a single member of staff over about 15 years old in the whole place. Daniel laughs and says he has a creepy oomph Loompah feeling but what's even scarier is that they have their crap together and are running the place like clockwork! You ask an American kid of 14 to do that and they'd be LOST! Too funny!

We head back nearer into Vancouver and nearer to Daniels home and find a railway track that runs between a forest. Shoot him in between the tracks running and doing his kung fu moves in mid air. The pics come out really good and we have a great laugh in the process not to mention the laughs we have singing alternative and filthy lyrics to Nickelback songs. I have video that I'll post when I can but don't expect to hear those "special lyrics"...hehehehehe.....

We get back to the house and set up and shoot him in his home studio in the basement. A really neat drum room that has free floating insulated walls to soundproof everything. Anyway, we get a load of playing shots on the drums etc and head out to dinner along with his lovely missus Britney. A few Guinness later and I'm previewing the pics on my laptop at dinner..... Can't wait to show you the pics when the magazine hit's the shelves!!         

Sunday...again... Where we pause for a few sparse moments and catch our breath before the onslaught of another week charges full throttle at us and we go "over the top" into it once again...

Now I've got that philosophical tripe out of the way... Daisy Buttons got my sleazy backside out of the bed late today and bummed around a little. Read the BBC website for a while to get a truthful look at the news, went out to see Rodney for a trim at the groomers...even got a little pink bow in my hair when he finished ;O)

Proceeded to get stuck into backlogged pics that had been waiting in the editing wings. I just started using the latest Photoshop CS3 version this week as my older version corrupted and my hand was forced... Forced to release $642 for a frickin' CD and a Booklet! Bleedin' Adobe are Nazis!! Gouging Swines that they are! Great program to work with but you sure as hell need the butt salve after buying that one! Spent most of the afternoon catching up on emails and answering voicemails. Re worked a few favorite pics for kicks and giggles. Check 'em out below...
  

Have some shoots coming up and something big in the early summer. Doing a shoot in Austin this coming weekend for Modern Drummer magazine, should be a nice little trip. I always enjoy Austin. Been talking on the phone with Steve Lukather about doing more photos out LA way and also yakking with Mr. "Oklahoma Crude" over at Fender about some forthcoming photo needs and possibilities. It's looking like a busy summer is coming...must buy a back up camera!

Here are a few pieces of my work from the latest various presses. One's the cover and inside feature of the May Illinois Entertainer Magazine featuring...yes...Ministry! A UK magazine ad for Squire featuring my pic of Pete Wentz and his custom bass. Finally a nice couple of pics by my mate Dustin of me shooting...some band.
  

Shooting........zzzzzzzzzz.........oh nevermind.....It was tiresome.

Cheers me dears!

ASH

The March 2008 edition of Modern Drummer has a really interesting feature that Seether fans and drummers will enjoy. My mate, Seether drummer John Humphrey is featured this month in a six page spread that I helped make happen. The story tells of John's years of back problems, the onset of degenerative disc disease (of which I suffer also) and his traumatic 2006 spinal fusion surgery and recovery. A well written piece that features photos by yours truly taken back in September last year when I caught up with the Seether boys in Kansas City.

This was just two concerts into John's return to the drums with Seether. Anyone who's heard the new Seether album "Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces" will agree that John Humphrey hasn't missed a single beat and seems to have come back an even stronger drummer. Check out the pics from the article below...
   

On another note, had a couple of friends of mine came in from New York to see me a wee bit back. Mark and Billy from Roadrunner Records were nice enough to take me out to dinner at the Republic Of Texas where we imbibed the local burned meats and finest Single Malts. Hadn't seen Mark in quite some time so as you can see from the pics he gets kinda excited when he's had a beverage or two...
 

Billy is an awesome bloke as well. He kinda helped get me started with all this Rock Photography stuff and he set up my very first photo shoot with a musician back in 2003 with Corey Taylor who was touring with Stone Sour at the time. Check out the shot of Corey from back then...
 

I just recently purchased a little Canon camera for snapshots and farting around photos etc... Check out this cool little Canon Elph SD1000...fits right in your pocket! Smart little camera, not bad for a couple of hundred bucks! Check out the snapshots of my wee beasties...
    

My friend Pam in Florida who is a badass vector artist recently made this vector image for me from a photo of Daisy and I. Pretty darn cool looking. She's done some other vectors from my images as well. See if you can spot them at her most excellent website www.pamzylove.com


Cheers Me Dears - ASH