- 2024-07-18
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MUSIC
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Ashton Irwin Releases New Album “Blood On The Drums”
Australian pop rock band 5 Seconds of Summer drummer Ashton Irwin released his second solo album “Blood On The Drums” on July 17, 2024.
The album consists of two parts “The Thorns (Side 1)” and “The Roses (Side 2)”, including a 8-track each. “The Thorns (Side 1)” was released on June 12, 2024.
At that time, Ashton Irwin explained, “I love to make full length albums but also the idea of the listener digesting it in two parts initially, forming their own interpretation. It's important to me as a fan of music to have a comprehensive body of work to fully dig into the artists perspective.”
The album was produced by Ashton Irwin, John Feldmann and Matthew Pauling.
On the album, he takes a more outward perspective, unlike his first solo album “Superbloom” created during the pandemic.
He said of the album, “To create my new album. 'Blood On The Drums'. It's been so important for me to isolate, get quiet and hear what I'm really trying to say. Deep down un my heart and soul. If it's one thing that I've learned is to trust that voice with in when you're creating, even if it feels like a leap of faith for me, this time outside the city, making a new body of work is healing, exciting. Working consistently on my musicianship, songwriting and getting closer to nature have created a renewed soul and spirit to back into my music. And now it feels so good to share that with you.”- He continued, “A lot of this album is me realising the life that I lived in my 20s, looking back just for a moment and really trying to encapsulate the things I went through and the life I lived and the blessings I've had -and the pitfalls. A massive part of it is embracing the parts of myself that I've been hiding or scared to share - that's my vocal in general for the whole record, me exploring myself as a lead vocalist for the first time.”
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Ashton Irwin explained about some tracks for the album.
“Straight To Your Heart”
“This was such a surreal shoot in the desert with a brilliant crew. I got my motorcycle license the morning we filmed it. This is the beginning of a larger story I'll be telling these next few weeks, leading up the album release.”
Solo music moments & some extremely enjoyable life I've been livin. I've been picking up new skills here and there like I'm gonna audition for a Bond movie for my music videos I've been shooting. Very fun and the perfect mix of new experience & things I wanna do before I'm 30.”
“BLOOD ON THE DRUMS”
“Will I stand or will I fall? All throughout our lives we ask ourselves wether we're gonna be strong enough to continue on. We test our will power and exceed the limits of our potential constantly as human beings. Blood on the drums has always been a metaphor for my love for what I do, no matter what I always want to keep giving to my music & keep pushing myself as far as I can go, no matter what!”
“The Canyon”
“The Canyon was the first song I wrote for my album blood on the drums. It took me 3 days and I primarily wrote it in my car driving around the valley. I thought about my 20's a lot during the process knowing how depressed I had become at times, feeling sad about the state of the world and loosing hope for our future & deeply questioning my relationship to my addictions and emptiness in regards to my upbringing and lack of a father figure. A horrible statistic I was astonished by when creating this song resembles %85 of people that end their lives are men. I began to further explore what everybody's personal “canyon” they pass through feels like. In simple terms it's always darkest before the dawn. Hold on young man, the world needs you to live.
'The Canyon' is potentially the cornerstone of the record conceptually and for me as a human being. It taps into breaking the chain: the son of an addict or the son of a gambler or the son of an alcoholic, or whatever your experience in life may be. It explores the concept of 'am I able to become my own man? Am I able to escape what my father was? Am I able to make my apple fall far from the tree?' It addresses the times when the depression of the monotony of life can set in, and you're fighting to retain your inner fire and motivation to live.”
“Wild Things” via Popdust
“There's a lyric on my album in a song called “Wild Things” and it says 'I know your thorns protect your roses' and I guess the thorns are the things and the concepts that protect me from failing, or they protect me from being too hard on myself, or they protect me…They help me have resilience in this world, and they help me as a creator and an artist. The beautiful parts of ourselves need protecting. Not left unguarded.” - source : Apple Music
