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!
 
 

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