Recent ARIA nominee, Ash Grunwald and hip hop sensation The Funkoars are currently tearing up the charts with their collaboration for the track ‘Little Did I Know’, and in February 2010 they are hitting the road together for three sensational shows.
.5th Feb Hifi Bar, Melbourne
.12th Feb Metro, Sydney
.13th Feb The Zoo, Brisbane
Ash Grunwald and The Funkoars’ Trials talk about their collaboration and upcoming tour..
Brought together through mutual connections and friends, a sharing of ideas and late night sessions in the studio followed.
“First it was Ash and I shooting ideas back and forth whilst one was waking up hung over in Canada and the other was waking up hung over in Adelaide. Then it was riffs and drums, favourite songs, ideas and lyrics back and forth till it sounded dangerous,” says Trials of The Funkoars.
“In the end, we’d already collaborated on a few things before we’d even talked on the phone,” adds multi award winning artist, Ash Grunwald. “I pretty much live on the road so I just have to duck into a spare hotel room when I get the chance, do a take and then email it through. Trials was doing the same thing back and thats how we got ‘Little did I know’ up and running.”
Already a multi award winning artist, Ash Grunwald was recently an ARIA nominee for Best Blues & Roots album, and has received rave reviews for his last album “Fish Out Of Water”, but that comes as no surprise to The Funkoars.
“It rocks that he’s so stupidly sick at doing what he does, the nomination thing just comes along with that and he deserves a ton of them. We never set out looking for a blues and roots guy to work with, fact is we’re just fans of the foul faces that we put on when a Grunwald jam drops, if your face isn’t screwed up in the first 10 seconds skip and try again.”
And this respect and admiration is mutual for Ash too.
“It was really fun. We spent most of the time mucking round and laughing but we worked oar asses off at the same time. I love working with Trials because he just doesn’t stop once he gets going and that’s how I like to work as well. And they all work super quick, so as soon as you have an idea you can start playing and basically hear the results. We got heaps of songs half done for my next studio album, plus ‘little did I know’ of course!”
Despite coming from different genres of music, Ash Grunwald and The Funkoars have produced a song that has become one of the most requested songs on Triple J, and all are looking forward to hitting the road in February.
“My gigs have always been about involving the audience and getting them hyped up but I’m pretty tame compared to these guys I reckon,” says Ash. “It’s gonna be a party vibe for sure!”
Adds Trials, “We’re ridiculously amped. We always figured genre or not it’s the fact that our beats and Grunwald’s tunes bang live and in a very similar vein. We want to make them big, whats the deal, really special, super sick fun nights, regardless of genre and politics, just def tunes and lots of sore necks.”
So will this inspire them to work together again after the tour in February?
“I think we do click so I hope we do heaps of stuff. I’m gonna get Trials to work on my next album for sure. He is a master at getting really really fat beats happening and thats what I want for the next album,” concludes Ash.
Tickets are now on sale for all three February shows.
www.ashgrunwald.com
