Interview by: E. Thomas

Published: April 6, 2015

First, I’d like to say thanks for the interest in the band.  It’s great to hear that the music is seeing the light of day.  And to your point, the band was not really a band back in 2011, even.  Rather, I had some material that I’d been working on for several years by myself – just ideas, really.  I was working with both Archie and Barre at the time and I’d bring in my latest mixes or riffs for their input.  We had all played music together before, so it was kind of a natural progression for us.  With regards to the name, that was a leftover from my time as a solo musician, if you will.  I just kept the name.  Nash is a family name and interestingly, I stumbled upon its etymology accidentally.  It means something along the lines of “near the ash” trees.  I thought it sounded unique, and it was vague enough so as not to mislead people.

It wasn’t a goal, it just happened, really.  Of course, it’s flattering when a respected musician wants in on your project.  With Barre’s help and experience, we were able to complete the bulk of the arranging/writing in a remarkably short period of time.  

I didn’t intend for the album to sound like Daylight Dies, but with Barre’s touch, it’s definitely there. It sounds like a lot of music in the genre – mid tempo with longer chord phrases.  That’s what I aim for anyways.  It keeps things interesting.  As far as feedback from the other band members, I have not heard any. They’re so spread out around the country now.


James Greene – Clean vocals, drums, guitars and Atten Ash founder

Yeah, I hear Rapture , too.  Swallow The Sun, October Tide, Saturnus – to name a few big ones.  I love melodic, passionate, and heavy music – some tasteful technical nuance is great, too.  I’m not gifted or creative enough to be able to include the latter.  Some reviewers have described us as having a 1990’s sound.  I never thought about it before, but I do see why they would think that.  We’re old enough to find ourselves boxed into a decade.  I feared that when I was younger, or at least imagined I would.  When you see 45 year old guy dressed like a 1985 metalhead, you begin to wonder if he’s in touch with reality – frozen in time. 

Like all bands, we hope we’re maturing.  The new material, so far, is Atten Ash sounding – if that makes sense.  Life has been terribly busy for all of us for the  past year or so.  I’m a new father and it’s not easy to spend marathon weekends writing.  Actually, it’s impossible.  I’m also building a studio of sorts, so that I can work and not disturb the family.  Of course, that’s taken time away from writing now too.  Then there’s the day job…

We keep writing, really.  I think we’re all ready to collaborate again.

Right now, the lineup will be the same, but we’re considering an addition.  As far as live performances go, we’d have to have another guitarist.  We’ve got a pretty promising guitarist with whom we’d like to work with.  We’ll see how it goes.

Hypnotic Dirge is great!  Nick is awesome to work with and he’s been a real asset for us.  You know, the music industry is not what it was 20, even 10 years ago.  Nick has a real grasp and understanding of the way a label is supposed to work.  

I think we’d probably like to stay with HD for future releases. 

No.  As much as we’d like to have had it mastered somewhere, it just wasn’t worth it.  I did all of it in my house.  We would have had a much better sounding album if we’d been to a studio, but at that time, we didn’t know what would come of it.  Changing anything wouldn’t have made a real difference.

I guess you have to be a “doomy” kind of person.  It sounds kind of funny to say that, and everyone can feel that way sometimes, but I think it’s true.  Like a lot of people, I’ve spent a lot of my life in between states of sadness and anger, for whatever reason.  Music does, and should, compliment one’s life.  Morose music doesn’t rub salt in emotional wounds, it justifies it, almost.  I don’t know.  I do listen to other genre’s or subgenres (of metal,mostly) That’s just my take on it.

At the moment, no.  I did play drums on a couple of projects with Barre and his wife, LiLi.  “Drakkara” was a trashy band, while “Waning Sun” was a dark, acoustic  release.  It was fun to do those projects as those two work well together.