2019.07.27 - Vegas Junkees - Interview with Dj

Excerpt from Blabbermouth:

Former Guns N' Roses guitarist DJ Ashba says that he "gladly stepped away" from the band once he found out that Slash was returning to the Axl Rose-fronted group.

The Sixx:A.M. co-founder, who joined Guns N' Roses in March 2009 following the departure of Robin Finck, told "Vegas Junkeez" about his stint with the band: "Sixx:A.M. [had] a No. 1, biggest song of the year on the radio, but it didn't come close to comparing, or preparing me for the magnitude that was ahead of me. I had no idea. I had no idea about a lot of things. I didn't understand taking the gig, there'd be certain… 'Cause I went into it probably pretty naïve. Slash is one of my guitar inspirations, so, to me, it was just so inspiring and such a cool thing. But I didn't really think about, 'Oh my God. There are hardcore GN'R fans, and you've gotta win these guys over.' Once you do, you win 'em for life and they're the best fans you could ever possibly have… But I didn't realize there was gonna be a big handful of people that, no matter how good you do at the gig, they were gonna fucking hate you, because you're not [one of the members of the classic lineup]… And I get that now — standing back, I totally get it and I respect it. But it's almost like they immediately pitted me against Slash, and I was just, like, 'I'm a fan too. I'm one of you.' So it was weird for me to get used to that. It was just one of those things where I just wanted to do whatever I could to do the gig justice — try to bring back, or carry on that reckless rock and roll attitude that I loved about the band."

Asked about his July 2015 announcement that he was leaving Guns N' Roses, Ashba said: "It's one of those things where I knew Slash was coming back, which, as a fan… You've gotta understand — I'm a fan; I'm incredibly excited. Number one, I played a lot of the Slash parts, so I didn't have the brain capacity to relearn three and a half hours' worth of music differently. But more than that, if he's coming back, this is his gig. I gladly stepped… I was, like, 'Hey…' And it was the best of both worlds, because I get my favorite band back and I get to go play in a band called Sixx:A.M. that I helped create, so it was just a win-win for me. And I'll always cherish the times I had. But, yeah, I gladly stepped back."

Back in 2016, Ashba claimed that he was approached about being part of GN'R's "Not In This Lifetime" tour, but that he declined, citing his desire to pursue Sixx:A.M. full time.

Only Slash, Rose and bassist Duff McKagan from GN'R's "Appetite For Destruction"-era lineup are taking part in the band's current reunion. They are being joined by keyboardist Dizzy Reed, guitarist Richard Fortus and drummer Frank Ferrer. Also appearing with them is second keyboardist Melissa Reese.

Sixx:A.M. recently recorded four new songs. The band, which also features singer James Michael and drummer Dustin Steinke, hasn't released any new music in two years and had been on hiatus since 2017.

Last year, Ashba and Michael announced the formation of a new band, Pyormantic. Several months later, Michael revealed that he was no longer involved with the project.

Source: http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/dj-ashba-says-he-gladly-stepped-away-from-guns-n-roses-once-he-found-out-slash-was-coming-back/

Original interview:

More excerpts from Blabbermouth:
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Former Guns N' Roses and current Sixx:A.M. guitarist DJ Ashba spoke to "Vegas Junkeez" about the status of his Pyromantic project.

Although he originally formed Pyromantic as a collaboration with his Sixx:A.M. bandmate James Michael, the project has since evolved into an Ashba solo thing, with Michael announcing last year that he was stepping away from the band.

"Pyromantic is just an awesome project where… basically, what it is is I'm taking four different genres of music — Latin, pop, rock and EDM — and putting it in a blender," Ashba said. "I'm writing and producing the songs. I'm gonna play live with VJ. So it's gonna be me on guitar, just full blown. And then we're gonna feature different singers from different genres of music on the big screens and then videos and everything.

"This has been a two-year-long project," DJ continued. "And it started off in the beginning, me and the singer from Sixx:A.M., James Michael, we had some time off and we started writing like we did. And it eventually evolved, and obviously, it went in a direction, and I pushed it really hard in a direction, and then James kind of got busy and went off [to do] his thing. But it's evolved into this incredible thing over the last two years that's just awesome. And to have congas and horns… And it's very worldly. It's designed to make the body move. It's full-on dance stuff, but it's great."

Calling Pyromantic his "number one priority," Ashba said that he is "so, so inspired" by the music that he recorded thus far. "This is everything I've ever wanted to do," he said. "It's kind of like your whole career, you learn all these things, you work with all these people… Pyromantic is kind of just my labor of love — it's something I truly wanna do for me — and it's so gratifying to be able to be in a position…

"I've had an incredible career — thank god — but this new thing is just the next chapter," he explained. "It's really special, and it's really a lot of fun. And it's given me the freedom as a songwriter and a producer just to create any style… Basically, I don't have to write for one vocalist or one voice… I can write not only for that, but multiple genres, as long as we keep it within kind of these wide walls that we call Pyromantic. It's finally my vision unfiltered. So it's really cool. And I'm excited. I think people are really gonna like it. It's something completely different than I've ever done — something new. It's very creative. And me being a creative person, it's the perfect, perfect thing for me, I guess — the perfect project."

According to Ashba, there are plans for Pyromantic to go on tour once the project's first record has been released.

"We're kind of at that stage right now where I've got a shit-ton of songs written," he said. "We're putting the right singers on every song now. And it's exciting. It's two years' worth of hard work. And now we're starting to talk about, 'What is the show gonna look like? What's it gonna be?' And me being a creative person, having an incredible creative team behind me, it's gonna be a lot of fun to finally visually put something together."

Sixx:A.M. recently recorded four new songs. The band, which also features bassist Nikki Sixx and drummer Dustin Steinke, hasn't released any new music in two years and had been on hiatus since 2017.

https://blabbermouth.net/news/ex-guns-n-roses-guitarist-dj-ashba-says-that-he-is-mixing-four-different-genres-of-music-for-his-new-project-pyromantic