Since 2010’s award-winning album Hot Mama Vibes, Ash Grunwald’s life has been sizzling.
After years of surfing the arctic waters of Victoria, Ash bundled up his two main ladies – his beautiful wife and cheeky daughter – and headed north to the warmer shores of NSW.
His track Walking played a starring role in the Hollywood movie Limitless, new friendships were formed with Kram from Spiderbait and Vika and Linda Bull, and a new home with a new home studio were built, from which was birthed his brand-new album Trouble’s Door.
In the new songs, Ash – along with his good pal and dubstep sideproject partner Fingers – has created his most internal album to date, one that found life through the fiery breath of injustice; the frustration of severe political and environmental mismanagement.
‘It’s some of my most personal songwriting,’ Ash says of Trouble’s Door. ‘I had just done a benefit gig to stop coal-seam gas mining. There were other issues going on at the time, you can take your pick really, and it occurred to me that our system just doesn’t work. We are experiencing the result of rampant unchecked capitalism.’
Ash doesn’t pretend to present answers; Trouble’s Door merely mirrors the modern twists and turns on the same old lesson never learned: a government’s willingness to trade the future for a dollar. You can catch Ash at the beginning of his national tour on Friday at the Hotel Great Northern. Tickets $22 + bf from the venue 02 6685 6454 and www.thenorthern.oztix.com.au. Doors open 8pm.
