Love's Secret Domain

In late November I was at my dad’s house party showing friends of ours a new song I had just finished.(At least I thought it was finished) I had just showed the track to , local photographer/Drummer, Chris Jensen and as soon as the track ended he asked me,”Do you know Daniel Ash?” I said,”No, not really. I’ve obviously been a huge fan of his forever but I haven’t actually met him.” (Though I had briefly talked to the guy a few times and even high-5-ed him once)

Daniel had Deejayed various places around Ojai, Ventura and even in my friends’(We Govern We) living room at the WAV(Working Artists of Ventura) I was too big of a fan to talk to him like a normal, mortal, person talks to another. Since I was introduced to Bauhaus by my friend who was working across the street from my high school when I was 15, I had been addicted to basically everything Daniel had touched from Bauhaus, Tones on Tail, Love and Rockets and into his solo career material. If I were in any place to do so, I’d nominate Daniel Ash for most under-rated guitarist of all time.

Chris proceeds to tell me that he had been hired to do photo shoots with Daniel and he had even become friends with him. So Chris tells me that I should, “Let Daniel hear the song. This is totally his thing.” Soon after I’m told exactly where in Ojai Daniel lives. So I think to myself…I’m being encouraged to do something that would be considered a ridiculous invasion of privacy by someone I respect and trust wouldn’t mislead me.

I spent about a week thinking out the best way to present this song of mine in a positive light to this 1980s-90s English Rockstar. I talked to the editor at the VC Reporter and told her about the song I had been working on and was about to do one of the most silly things I had ever done. The conversion became public and was printed in the VC Reporter in the noteworthy section.http://vcreporter.com/cms/story/detail/note_worthy/9352/
Right after the article came out I found out that Daniel was going to be doing a DJ set at, the local dive bar, The Sewer. I figured rather then risk pissing him off by randomly showing up at his house uninvited, and possibly unwelcome, I’d give him The Nightlife on a CD and try to be as normal about it as possible. (Not one of my strongest attributes let me tell you) The night of November 18th came and I wrote my phone number(Being well aware that if it were an email address I’d never hear from him cause he’s not a fan of the digital realm called the internet) on a CDR with the song on it and also told him who told me I should show him the new song. I then, awkwardly, thanked him for coming to Ventura to Dj and that I hoped he’d like the song I gave him.

A couple weeks passed and, of course,I doubted that I’d ever hear from Daniel. Only in my dreams….suddenly I remembered that I had Sean Ingoldsby master The Nightlife and I was messaging him online and told him about the article the VC Reporter had done and mentioned giving the song to Daniel Ash, who Sean had also done work for. I told Sean that it probably would have been smarter if I had told Daniel that the song came from him because Sean had already worked with Daniel before. (But you don’t exactly think of the most intelligent things to say when attempting to converse with someone who is legendary, internationally successful, has a career spanning decades and who’s inspired you more than any other musician in the history of music.)
After I got done messaging Sean online and he reposted the recent article which mentions multiple clients on his, this song, and my plans to give the song to my favorite 80s English Rockstar at his Ojai home, while I was dressed like a Mormon.

Later that same night I get a call from a number I don’t recognize. I dismissed it as some drunk person mistaking my number for their drug-dealer’s, so I forward the call to my answering mailbox. Suddenly I had a voicemail so I listened to what my iphone 3GS had to say then I hear, (Probably the most sweet and sincere message I’ve ever herd from anyone ever in the sweetest sounding voice I could imagine),”Hi, How you doin? It’s Daniel. You gave me this song a couple weeks ago when I played at the Sewer. And I really like it. Love the riff. You know what it reminds me of right? Yeah, It’s like Bela(Bela-Lugosi’s Dead. His first single with his first ground-breaking band)A cross between Bela and a Roxy music song. I can’t remember the name of it now. I just spoke to Sean and he mastered if you, but you know what, I think it needs some work. I love the effects you’ve got on the vocals on the whole track as the song goes through…..When the song first comes in I think you need to tweak the vocal and put some effects on it right from the start. You need to distort it a little bit and just fatten it up. Which I know I could do. I’d like to do that just as a favor to you. So if you don’t mind spending a few more bucks, I’ll go in with Sean and just tweak it a little bit if you can get the parts to him….._…So if you’re interested in that give me a call. 805-xxx-xxxx that’s my number. Alright then. Speak to you later.”

I return Daniel’s call and tell him that I was, of course, interested in having him come into the studio to touch up the vocal mix of this song. About a week later he calls me back. The call came while I was working my day job in Camarillo at Parker Hannifin. My phone starts ringing and I see, “Daniel Ash calling.” He said he just wanted to touch base with me and let me know that he didn’t flake. He was just waiting to be told what day he needed to come down to the studio and do what needed to be done to the song. He also said that once the song is done he’s going to shop the track around to different writers and friends of that he had in the industry. I told him that I remembered hearing his song,”Fever”, in The Fx series Nip/Tuck which I was also a fan of and that if there were more of his songs on TV then I’d probably actually watch it.(I haven’t had cable since 2008) He thanked me and I told him that the track I handed him was actually mixed in Nuendo but the shift from mixing in Nuendo to mixing in Pro Tools wouldn’t be a difference because I was still in touch with, Armand, The mixing engineer of “The Nightlife.” Daniel had never herd of Nuendo. He then told me that he was Djing again at the sewer on December 18th.(Coincidentally my Bday was on the 19th.) Then I realized I’d be celebrating my 25th birthday with Daniel Djing at The Sewer which would be packed with friends of mine.

My quarter-century celebration has now passed and now 2012 is upon us. This is the year where I get to work with the guitarist who would start so much. He got me to pick up a guitar, use an Ebow, be daring, and has probably inspired me more then any other single person, to do music while playing multiple roles in the projects I participate in. Current mix of \"The Nightlife.\"