411 Music Interview: Prosevere Guitarist Eric Ashe
Posted by Dan Marsicano on 03.02.2011
The Tennessee hard rock outfit Prosevere just released their latest EP, Burn The City, and guitarist Eric Ashe speaks to 411 Music about the creation of the EP, as well as what the future holds for the band.
Prosevere is a hard rock four-piece from Tennessee that has spent the past few years working their way around the club scene of the Southeast. Their latest EP, Burn The City, is a five-song collection that shows how far along the band has come in a short time. From the anthemic "New Number 2" to the heavy-hitting title track, there is potential for major airtime for the band. I recently had the opportunity to speak to guitarist Eric Ashe about the band's latest EP, what his goals are for the band, and how satisfying the recording process is to him.
Can you give a brief rundown on the band's history to date?
We're Prosevere, from Memphis, Tennessee. We formed in 2006 and we all come from a couple of different local bands. We've all pretty much been playing around Memphis for at least a decade.
How would you describe the band's sound?
The best way to describe us is straight up rock 'n' roll.
What guitarists inspire your playing style?
My personal playing style, the most influential player was Allen Collins from Lynyrd Skynyrd. That's who I grew up listening to when I was a kid with my pops. Allen Collins is just a phenomenal player. He is probably the one that influenced me the most.
Is it hard to stand out with hundreds of rock bands trying to accomplish the same thing Prosevere is?
Being in a band and getting your music out to people is definitely not the easiest thing in the world, but we try not to look at it that way. We just try to pride ourselves on our live show and just focus on bringing the biggest, loudest and most energetic show that we can to whichever town we come to. It's working out pretty good for us.
How has the Internet and social media tools helped the band's fan base grow over the years?
Just like any other band...completely unlimited on how much promotion you can get across to not just everybody here in the United States, but all over the world. It's definitely helped us branch out to people where we can't get to on a tour date. We've had people from France and Canada and people out in California that love the music. It's definitely a really good tool that we use all the time.
How did the songs for the EP Burn The City materialize?
We wrote these songs about a year ago. After we got done touring on the last album that we did, we really sat down and focused. We had about 30 ideas and we decided on Jay Hall as the producer. He came out and saw us in Nashville. We took about 30 ideas up to Nashville and went into pre-production. We figured out the ones we wanted to work on and worked on them for about three more months. Then the following three months, we recorded them. That's pretty much how Burn The City came to be.
What happened with the rest of the song ideas that were left off the EP?
We keep all the demos that we don't use. We were just doing a five-song EP with Jay Hall. He wanted to work with the five strongest ideas that he could turn into an EP that would stand out. We're not putting out an entire album; just five songs. This is what we're using to shop to labels and booking agents. The five that are on the record are the ones he felt were the strongest and we feel the same way.
Were there any songs in particular that you were disappointed wasn't on the EP, for whatever reason?
No, not actually. (The last go-around), we really self-produced ourselves. We really wanted to let a producer take direction as far as what we were going to use. He really has such a good vision of where he saw these five songs going. We just felt so good about them even in the pre-production stage that we didn't look back, we weren't disappointed at all. We got material we can definitely use the next go-around, maybe revisit some ideas. We're very happy with the outcome of it.
How much have you learned from a recording perspective since you started out as a musician?
I have learned everything. I don't think any musician goes into it thinking that it's a breeze and that it's really easy. I really learned on how to justify the song. You don't want to overplay and it's about serving the idea, serving the song. You have to make sure every band member has the common goal on a song. It's really just something you have to learn in doing it. When you are working with the producer, you need to keep an open mind. You can't get your feelings hurt if you have an idea about a particular part for a song if it doesn't get used. You just have to go in there with an open mind and just be willing to work and make sacrifices to see how it's going to serve the song. On this go-around, it's really just being really open-minded to any and everything until you're completely happy with the song. That's the biggest thing I think we have all learned from recording this go-around.
For you, what's the best part and the worst part about being in the studio recording?
The best part about being in the studio is (that it's) one of my most favorite parts. I've heard some people that say they can't stand going into the studio. I personally love it. I could record everyday, all day. The worst part about being in the studio, it might be uninteresting, but there isn't anything I don't enjoy about the recording process. It's all a learning experience and it's all fun. We actually all love recording.
Out of the five songs on the EP, which one is your personal favorite?
My personal favorite is "Burn The City." The reason why it is my personal favorite is because it's an emotional song, but it's also a very up-tempo song. The structure of the song is unlike any we've done before. It's just really satisfying. That's the one on the album that Jay Hall actually wrote on the most. It all spawned from an idea from one of the pre-production demos that we had. It really turned into something that was completely different. The part that it came from isn't even in the song. The song the way it came together was completely bad-ass. It's just the one for me that has so many different elements that we love in our music. I don't think it's going to be released as a single, but it's just such a strong song, especially live. We love playing that song live. It really comes across well and I like what that song represents.
The band seems to have become quite popular in the Southeast. Do you think that your success is only attributed to a certain part of the country and you're looking to branch out? Or do you feel like you guys are pretty popular not just in the Southeast?
This is definitely the biggest part that we're popular in, just because we're from here, this is where we basically tour. We haven't had a chance to really go out on the West Coast. We're popular where we're at simply because we tour our asses off around here. We want to branch out and definitely get out on the West Coast. That's somewhere we haven't been. We would love to get out to Seattle and Los Angeles. We haven't been through Texas yet, which is somewhere we really want to go this summer. The reason why we have the responses from this region is simply because we just hit the markets as often as possible.
What does the touring plans shaping up to be? Do you have anything big planned for the future?
We have the Minerva fest that is happening in Tupelo (Mississippi) this summer. We have BoneStock, which is in Missouri. We're going on an acoustic tour with Zach Myers from Shinedown. I don't think we're confirmed on all the dates, but I know we're doing the Memphis show at the Hard Rock and we're doing the show in Little Rock, Juanita's, and the one in Jackson at Club Fire. Then there's a couple of more around the region that we're looking on seeing if we're going to be on those. We're definitely looking at a lot of big festival dates this summer. It's what we're pretty much focusing on.
Can you talk a little bit more about the acoustic tour you're going on?
Well, we have never really gone on an acoustic tour before. We have done a couple of acoustic shows. The shows that Zach Myers is doing, it's him and Chris Allen, and he asked us to come out on as many dates as possible that we could come out on. It's going to be a full band. It'll be interesting, both for us and for the fans. Like I said, it's something that we haven't done before, so we're looking forward to that.
Do you find that the songs are easy to translate to an acoustic setting?
Yes, because we love playing acoustic. One of our favorite bands is the Foo Fighters. They've always done an amazing job on turning their songs around from electric to acoustic. We just really enjoy it. It's not hard for us. The acoustic is just a total different vibe. It's different, but it's just fun. It's good to switch it up and have some variation in there for us.
Is there one goal you are looking to achieve with Prosevere?
The one goal I have is just for us to get to a point where we're backed by a major label and we're doing this full-time. We're all in this for the long-haul. We're not looking for anything quick; that is everybody's goal. We want to be doing this all the time and have this be our profession for the next 20 years. That's the one goal I know we all commonly share.
If you could tour with one band, past or present, who would it be and why?
I've got a thousand in my head, but personally, I would say the Foo Fighters. Anything that Dave Grohl has ever done is amazing to me and incredible. Their live show is awesome. I think we would have a blast on tour. That would definitely be who I would choose.
Any final thoughts?
The only thing I would have to say is just watch our web site (www.prosevere.com) and keep in touch with us. We're going to be releasing a lot of tour dates coming up later on this summer and our album is coming out this Tuesday (March 1). Burn The City will be available on iTunes and you will also be able to purchase it online. So definitely check it out and let us know what you think.
