Never one to back away from a fight, bluesman Ash Grunwald is taking the battle for social justice to the multinational level with his latest album, ‘Now’.
“I guess the running theme across more than half of the album, is the fact I really feel our society has been massively over-corporatised,” Ash says.
“Because a corporation is not a person, it doesn’t really have human or environmental interests at heart; it has one aim and that’s to make money.
“I think it’s at the stage now, it feels late in the game, where corporations actually run the show. As I say, it’s not one individual, it’s an organisation; these things have lives of their own, everybody, even the workers in that corporation, they work for the corporation, you know.
"It may be preying upon the public and it just keeps on rolling, and I think it’s quite damaging to the world.”
‘Now’ represents a shift in recording and production styles for Ash, who confesses to having a penchant for the ease and accessibility of digital platforms. “I used to be so excited, froth out, on new technology and I loved the idea of hybridising old-forms of music like blues with new futuristic things and just frothed out on it.
“But as time’s gone on I do see how it does eat into your humanity a little bit, which is what people were trying to tell me the whole time,” he laughs, “but I didn’t want to listen.”
Working with producer Nick DiDia for this new album, Ash largely dispensed with soul-sucking technology, instead relying on the warmth and sonic quality that comes from recording live-to-tape. “I used digital from the start of my first demo,” he says.
“This was still digital, it was still Pro Tools, but we treated it like tape and that’s the first time I’ve ever done that; it’s the first time I’ve done an album without looking at the screen really.”
Ash Grunwald Tour Dates
Sat 31 Oct - Wangaratta Jazz FestivalWed 4 Nov - Fresh on Charles (Launceston)
Thu 5 Nov - Tapas Bar (Devonport)
Fri 6 Nov - Republic Bar (Hobart)
Sat 7 Nov - The Gov (Adelaide)
Fri 13 Nov - Blues at Bridgetown Festival
