2011.07.11 - Heavy Metal with Jeff Olson/BraveWords - Interview with DJ

Excerpts:

On the writing process of Sixx: A.M's This Is Gonna Hurt: "Every time we get together, (the songs) the initial writing of them come together really quick. All three of us... we pretty much finish our (each others) sentences. It's a really painless process. We actually laugh our way through every record we've done and, you know, that's what we all three enjoy doing the most is (you know), songwriting and spitting our feelings out... (emotions) and we all three come together and have a lot of fun doing it. Yeah, it's a process because I was out on tour with GUNS N' ROSES and Nikki (Sixx) was out on tour with MÖTLEY CRÜE so we would fly in where we could all get together and write. The majority of it was written in hotel rooms and just anyplace that we could kind of get together and then we individually worked out our own parts and honed in and got it done finally... so yeah, it's something we're super proud of...

"We basically set the iPhone down (you know) and just play (whatever is worth doing). Sometimes we talk about a direction (of kind of which way) we want to go and usually we just start out jammin'... just having fun and (I'll) start playing a riff and James (Michael) will just start humming a melody and (many times), I can't remember how many times, me and Nikki and James would fly in to meet up together... whether it was meeting up with Nikki on tour with Mötley, or flying in to meet James in Nashville, or just coming over to Ashba Land Studios... we would all meet up. But, if we were out of town then we would just all three go to the local music store, pick out the cheapest guitars we can find and just go to a hotel and start writing; and nine times out of ten we would just leave the instruments in the room and move on. That's kinda' how we do it."

Ashba when asked to give his personal advice to new musicians and entrepreneurs: "I would just say live your life to the fullest and don't pigeonhole yourself into one corner. Life is so short (so) just experience it and live it. Don't just look at yourself as just a singer, or guitar player, or drummer. You can be that, but you can be so much more... just go out there and just live your life to the fullest. I'm a strong believer in that it's up to you to create your perfect world. You're driving the ship, so just go out there and live your life. They say that if you do what you love then you don't have to work another entire day in your life and I absolutely live by that. I can't find enough hours in the day... I absolutely love waking up and facing a new day and try to get a little closer to my goals every time I lay my head down at night. So just go out there... Your name is what you die with at the end of the day so create something that you are going to be proud of long after you're gone."