Garry Gary Beers – AshenMoon ‘You Can’t Keep A Good Riff Down’

Whether you're a fan of INXS or Garry Gary Beers, you'll enjoy this interview!  The growth he has achieved as an artist is truly remarkable, especially after losing his friend and INXS bandmate, Michael Hutchence, in 1997.  It's good to see him making music and carrying on.  His new band is AshenMoon.  AshenMoon was formed just before Covid hit.  Although the band had to cancel their tour due to the outbreak, they filmed the music video "Dustbowl" in downtown LA, which resembled more of a ghost town.

Music video for "Dustbowl":



Taken from https://wallofsoundau.com/:

Kayla Hamilton: "Hey Garry thanks for stopping by WoS HQ. Can you give us some background on how ‘Godtank’ came to life?"

Garry Gary Beers: "I actually wrote the music for ‘Godtank’ as you hear it, back in 1998. We lost Michael [Hutchence] in ‘97, and I didn’t really touch a guitar or a bass for quite a while, and then the first thing I picked up was a guitar, and I wrote that riff. Not a bass but the guitar- I wrote the riff, and then put down an arrangement and worked on it, and then… it’s been basically sitting in my computer for many, many years.

Then Toby [Rand] heard it and said let’s work on that. So until we had a lyrical idea and a concept, it became a whole new beast. So it’s been sitting around for 20-25 years. I guess you can’t keep a good riff down. And we just decided, with our new guitar player, Yohai Portal to re-record all the guitars, let him have his way with it with a solo, and the chorus guitars, and asked him to make it different. So he he did that. And now it’s the way it is."

Kayla Hamilton: "So when did you show Toby the riff? And what prompted you to show it to him?"

Garry Gary Beers: "Well, Toby and I met I guess, like 5 years ago, at a party. Then we sort of became friends, and we started doing some corporate shows together and doing, you know, fun things, doing covers. And then we started writing and went ‘this is really good writing’. We were just sitting [and] listening to what he had and what I had. I’ve obviously got a computer full of songs that didn’t make it with INXS, or just didn’t make it with other bands, or with that or other projects that I’ve been working on. And then finally, we were playing, having a bit of a listening session and he grabbed probably 3 or 4 pieces of music that I had from the past, even more, maybe 5 or 6, that have become part of our AshenMoon catalogue."

The fact that AshenMoon has adopted music from Garry's over 20-year-old work is very interesting.  'Dustbowl' has a very INXS vibe to it.  I haven't visited their social media pages in a while. When I last checked, Andrew Farriss had wrapped up an Australian tour in March.  I wish them all well.

AshenMoon’s new single ‘Godtank’ is out now. Give it a listen below, and please check out the rest of this interview!



Source: Garry Gary Beers – AshenMoon ‘You Can’t Keep A Good Riff Down’