Right now, Ashley Fields is sitting opposite me in his kitchen. We’ve been chatting about our musical endeavours and personal struggles in a rapidly-changing industry. Having remained friends for over a decade, we have to bare in mind to maintain professionalism for the blog – talk the interview talk – hold back on in-jokes and keep it strictly business.
As bassist, he makes up one quarter of Hemel-by-way-of-Luton experimental pop band Lunasun. A seasoned solo artist and producer in his own right, he’s been a long-time supporter of the local scene here in Herts. Ashley’s the one who will travel across the county to see his favourite local artist play on a school night and stand there alone in the venue, not reaching for his phone the entire set. He’s a very humble and unassuming bloke. Unsurprisingly, he hasn’t been going out of his way to court any press attention; it was me who asked him for this interview.
Dpph: So for those new to your music, could you gives us a rundown of your influences and what makes you tick as an artist?
Ashley: I’m highly influenced by powerful singers and musicians with a unique approach to song writing and playing guitar using alternative tunings. I mostly engage with music where the production uses authentic sounds with guitars, real acoustic drums and no autotuned vocals, though I can be swayed if the track is very different from standard popular music in various forms.
For example, I’m drawn to modern rock tracks from the 90’s and 00’s as these hold nostalgia for me, but within the last couple of years I’ve really got into Billie Eilish which I didn’t expect – partly because the production of her tracks tends to be unique and the structure of the songs are not all that predictable. I enjoy music that is unpredictable.
Another side of my playing comes from fingerstyle acoustic artists such as Andy Mckee, Jon Gomm, Antoine Dufour and Mike Dawes. They use alternative tunings but also have a high level of technical ability and include percussion all with one guitar creating full arrangement pieces of music. This style is relatable to classical music. The melodies and rhythms these artists create I find mesmerising, and I challenge myself to learn some of these pieces to widen my technical ability with the guitar.
This style of playing combined with modern rock translates into my bass playing too. When I write a bass line, I think of it as a melody and not just rhythm and I tend to use drone notes, normally made accessible by using a capo on bass just like on guitar to simulate the feel of an open tuned guitar on the low end. My bassist influences come from Chris Wolstenholme, Jared Followill and Flea.
Is there anything in particular you try to explore with your lyrics?
In my original songs, my lyrics stem from my emotional state. They are honest outbursts of what I’d have been going through at the time. Themes tend to be about finding confidence, and dealing with traumatic experiences, heartache and human connection.
Within the past year I have started to include parodies within my social media presence. Since I was a teenager with a goofy sense of humour, I spent countless hours changing lyrics to songs for comedic value with my friends. This helps create a balance between my internal ying and yang with my emotions. Within 2020 all my parodies have been related to the pandemic and I used comedy to help spread some joy during this hard time.
As well as a singer-songwriter, you’re also the bassist of Lunasun. What are the goals for your band and how to they compare with your goals for a solo career?
Goals for Lunasun are very much up in the air at the moment as we have not rehearsed in a year due to the pandemic. We’re very excited to get back to it and when we do I’m sure we’ll look at our goals. I believe the four of us are in Lunasun because it’s fun, technically challenging and different for us musically. Personally, I would love to put everything into Lunasun and grow a fanbase and travel sharing our music live. That has been a personal goal of mine in whatever band or musical project I have been a part of, It’s just not an easy goal to achieve.
I started my solo career out of necessity to keep playing live once my old band split. I’m more goal driven as a part of an ensemble than solo. I do enjoy solo but I get more out of the comradery and co-producing than on my own. Who knows, if Lunasun gains a larger fan base and the opportunity is there to grow as a solo artist opening for the band then I’ll take it!
What are some of your greatest low and high points in the last 10 years?
This is a tough question. My lowest point was when I lost my father to cancer early 2012. I was only 21, and that resulted in having to grow up faster that I think I had planned. It shaped me musically as some of my solo material is about the loss of my father and dealing with the changes that came from it and navigating a new family dynamic. Musically speaking, my low point would be when my previous rock band ended, and I parted ways with my song writing partner Adam McMillan who took a step back to concentrate on his new family life. When this happened, I made a choice to continue writing music as a solo artist which has never been my favourite artistic style. Although I have all the creative control, I prefer to shape music as part of a group.
Then along came the opportunity to join Lunasun, which I initially turned down as I didn’t think taking up bass would be fulfilling enough. However, I got back in touch with them a few months after I turned them down to try out for them and the first rehearsal opened up a whole new collaborative way of writing and engaging in a slightly different genre I’m not all that used to. That change continues to inspire and challenge me as the four of us in the band bring something completely different to the table and we all write together.
My greatest high point would be the album Lifeline by Artdecoder that I co-produced with my uncle Kevin Fields. It was a project we worked on for over 3 years; to share with the world my father’s legacy of song writing and ideals that dates back 40 years with this brother Kevin. The album was released in November 2019. It’s a double-edged sword – the songs are emotional for Kevin and I, but a great achievement and a wonderful feeling to honour my father. Lifeline is the first full-length album I have produced, and I had many breakthroughs with my recording, mixing and producing skills.
Where do you see the music industry going?
The music industry is changing all the time. Over the past 30 years our consumption of listening to music has changed from CD’s to online streaming therefore making it even harder for an artist to earn a living as CD’s are now classed as collectable merch. However we’ve seen artists gaining a large fan base from an online presence without the need of a label. This is huge and we’ll be seeing a lot of this. Artists are now looking into alternative ways to earn a living such as patreon where the fans pay to support the artist and gain exclusive content. T-shirts will always be an extra artists will offer to help support their career.
Musicians are now able to record and release music from home with a small budget rather than go to a professional studio. This means our steaming platforms are going to be saturated with many different forms of new music, some produced well and some not. The lines between genres are becoming blurred as that is the only way a new form of music can now emerge. With the ability to release anything you want online now we are seeing more artists becoming popular even within a niche style. Anything can become popular if you can find your target audience, and social media presence is enabling this. It is also taking a toll on artists who spend most of their time learning this new skill rather than writing the music as we don’t have the support of a label.
We are also seeing a massive decline in bands within in the pop charts. The charts are dominated with regurgitated auto-tuned vocal tracks of solo artists, many of which are signed to the large labels that are still around and have writers for them except a few who play and write their own music. Those few are the artists I have a greater amount of respect for.
During the pandemic live music as we knew is has completely halted and when we are able to get back to live music we’ll see a massive demand for it. Tickets will be sold out quicker for all types of events so hopefully the industry will thrive. Like many others, I can’t wait to get back to live music.
