Ash Hey: An Upcoming Inspiring Musician

Throughout life we meet different people who inspire us to achieve our goals. Recently I have met a wonderful musician from Manchester, England who is an inspiration because he is fighting for his goals and achieve his dreams of being a musician. Ash Hey is a young musician with a unique sound that I haven't heard in a long time. Some of his songs are instrumental, but who says every song played needs to have lyrics? Ash is an amazing guy, and an amazing musician.

1. How would you describe your music?

That's a hard one, I suppose I would describe it as a mixture of death metal, groove metal with hints of Prog, blues and country music thrown in! There is the odd experimental songs I have written that I couldn't really put a label on!

2. What are your opinions on the use of profanity in music today? How about sexual inuendos within music videos?

Profanity in music doesn't really bother me that much if it's used in context, a lot of hip-hop musicians un-necessarily use profanity but it is not limited to this genre, as for music videos I can't really comment as I very rarely see them.

3. What was one of the biggest struggles you had along the way? How about accomplishments?

Probably putting my music out there in the first place, I'm very self critical, I had a lot of music I'd written that no-one had ever heard, it took a little push from a friend to take the first step, I was nervous about it but the response has been quite good.

4. What kind of advice would you want to give other musicians trying to make it into the business?

Definitely to do what you want to do, keep your music true to yourself, don't intentionally try to follow a trend or a scene, if your music is big then it's big, if not it's not, it's about the music at the end of the day. Integrity is more important than money and in my opinion will go further and gain more respect in the long run!

**Author side note: Ash's statement about integrity being more important than money is the first time I have heard anyone musician or not say something like that. KUDOS to Ash.

5. What do you think is a common misconception about musicians/music business?

That it's easy and anyone can do it!

6. Where do you get your inspiration from?

A lot of places really, my great grandfather was a song writer and my grandfather was quite a successful big band singer and performer so I think music was in my blood, as it were. As for musical inspirations it ranges from Pantera a band I grew up listening to, prog rock bands from the 60's-70's such as Pink Floyd and modern prog metal bands Dreamtheater and Opeth, great blues guitarists BB King and Eric Clapton, the simple and effective song writing of Johnny Cash, a lot of 80's Metal and rock and southern rock/metal like Lynyrd Skynyrd, Pumpjack. I could go on for quite a while about my inspirations but I would say those are the main ones.

7. How did you first become interested in performing?

My grandfather originally, later on from the inspiration of my idols and the love of music.

8. What do you see as the future for the music business, mainly the genre you perform?

The genre I would consider myself to be apart of I feel will die out not too long from now, it went through a bad spot in the 90's but for the past 6/7 years it's been quite trendy as it was in the 80's so I think it will go through the same cycle again, picking up maybe a decade from now. As for the music business as a whole it's going in quite a good direction, major record labels/studios don't hold all the cards anymore, as it's quite easy and cheap for people to create release quality material at home. Also the internet makes is a perfect medium for people to have their music heard around the world incurring no costs at all, this can only be a great thing for true musicians, Myspace has been especially instrumental in this.

9. Do you think some of what the media shows about the music business gives all musicians a bad reputation, and greats a harder stereotype for others to break through?

It can, I mean the media isn't always a bad thing, it has it's benefits, but at the same time it does create bad stereotypes, they glorify talentless icons purely for their looks and social status rather than musical ability, this can make it hard for true musicians.

10. What is the drummer project you are working on right now?

Basically on July 13th 2009 in Birmingham UK, there is going to be an attempt on the largest full drum kit ensemble world record. We are looking for 600 drummers to be apart of it. Simply 600 full drum kits (a standard kit has been stipulated by Guinness) playing the same drum beat at the same time. The current record stands at 533 which was set at "Woodstick 2006" at the Qwest Event Centre, Seattle, Washington, USA, on 13 May 2006. It's not just about the record, it will be part of the annual Drumfest and to raise money for charity.

11. What does it hope to accomplish?

To break the Largest Full Drum Kit Ensemble world record. Also we hope to raise money for and raise awareness for Multiple Sclerosis and the MS Society, we aim to achieve this by encouraging everyone to gather sponsorship for their participation.

12. How is the same beat chosen, like how do they all know what to play?

I've got a quote from the main organizer and creator Rick Prince for this one -

"It's the same 4 bar phrase that the Woodstick guy's played for their record attempt, 3 bars of rhythm and one bar of fill. Basically repeated for 5 minutes. Similar to a typical pop/rock song. Guinness state that the ensemble must follow a conductor to ensure that that everyone plays in time."

There are many different artists out there who are willing to sell out to achieve their goals, but Ash is one of the few artist who will not sell out. He sticks to the music he wants to produce and produces it. Ash's music is one of a kind, and even if it doesn't have lyrics you can almost hear lyrics. It still takes you away and transports you to somewhere else, where you want to go. Ash is going to go places, and hopefully soon someone big will hear his work and make all his dreams come true.