Songzap Artist Series
Ethan Ash
The artist
Ethan Ash is one of those rare and unique artists, being exceptionally gifted at three things all at once; guitar, vocals and songwriting. A perfect storm of creative force. Having toured and performed alongside the likes of Ed Sheeran, Passenger and Newton Faulkner, he followed his own musical direction away from acoustic pop and into a more mature and observational form of songwriting that brings together rock, folk, Americana and blues. Despite being from the UK, his songs and musical stories have captured the attention of music lovers in Canada – where he now tours two or three times a year, playing everything from sold out theatre shows and open air amphitheatres to bars and lounge shows. His songs always have deep-routed narratives of life and emotion, delivered with his incredible vocals and intricate guitar lines.
While on the road, it’s exciting to know that Ethan Ash is using Songzap to capture his ideas and experiment with song structures and arrangements. We were lucky to catch up with him in a recording session at Half-ton Studios in Cambridge to talk about his approaches to songwriting, his uses of technology and his journey through a sustained career as a touring musician and recording artist. We also got to make a new demo with Ethan in Songzap, before importing the demo files into Pro Tools and building the recordings up to a studio-level production. Stay up to date with Ethan’s projects on: www.ethanashmusic.com
In addition to the interview, we also captured a breakdown of Ethan Ash‘s ‘Cry Baby’ demo – a song that he performs and records on guitar and voice using only an iPhone, with the help of RT60 directors Dr Mike and Prof Rob. Watch the ‘making of’ video below and enjoy Ethan’s exciting performances, as he gets to grips with Songzap, jams with Mike, then exports all of the song’s assets to continue working with Rob and Mike in the studio: