Attention Hollywood creeps!!
Where are the Jake Jones gifs? D:
I’ll just go ahead and answer the asks I’ve gotten about them:
Those gifs, since I’m making them in a specific way, take ~triple the time than I take to make other gifs. The ones I just posted? Took about 15 minutes, and that’s because I had to download the video, then it was just resizing / making the gif. The Jake Jones ones take about 5 minutes per gif, usually. Because it’s a lot of resizing, copy-and-pasting, and well, you’ll see the result. They’re not going to be ~amazing~, but there will LOTS of gif’ing going on! Patience ;)
via @Ash_Costello: ”Recording today. Eat your heart out. ps. I think I’m going to sell this shirt, reply w your best offer & its yours :)”
(no filter) My iPod wallpaper feat. @Ash_Costello from Warped 2011. I love how sunburnt I am haha. But I miss this awesome lady, and her band. (Taken with instagram)
Nice tattoo!
Spotlight / Interview: New Years Day on Hollywood Waste Records
HHM: Where did News Years Day get its start? What brought all of you together to play music?
Ashley: New Years Day was formed when we were all really young. Literally all of us were in other bands but knew each other through our bands and from playing around the Orange County music scene. All of us were going through bad break ups at the time and the song “Ready Aim Misfire” was written not seriously but we realized it was pretty good, put it on MySpace and it literally took off. All of a sudden I was eating lunch at the Ivy in LA with Snoop Dogs manager! haha, and I was such a lil dork then, I look back and I’m like, how on earth did they think we were cool!?
HHM: Were there any important changes along the way that have taken place to sculpt what NYD is today?
Ashley: Oh ya. Everything we have been through has helped made us who we are today. Every loss of a band member, or loss of a manager or break up... I mean, every single little thing has shaped this band.
HHM: What are some of the major musical influences that give NYD its sound?
Ashley: We are influenced by a lot of different things. Unfortunately, or fortunately, whichever, I can only write songs when I’m pissed off, hurt and upset... so lyrically that’s my influence. I am actually a pretty quiet person and I dislike confrontation, so writing for me is the way to get the "monster" out of my head, let the demons loose you know? We are influenced by movie soundtracks often, rides at Disneyland, scary urban legends, haunted places...anything we think is cool and makes us shiver a lil bit will probably get a song written about it.
HHM: The internet seems to have played a serious role in the success NYD is receiving these days. How were you able to get so much online attention back then without really playing out a lot? Was that the plan from the start?
Ashley: Let me start off this question by saying NOTHING was ever a plan from the start! I wish I could say "oh totally, this was all planned and on purpose" haha but no, its all been strokes of luck and following our hearts and hoping they were the right moves. I think the internet plays a serious part in all bands success these days because Television sucks HARD! I’m watching MTV as we speak, and there is no music anywhere. Oh wait, a rap video. Sweet. That's all there is. So really as a rock band, all we have is the internet. It's an amazing way to get to know our fans and build a family, which feels so much more real to us.
HHM: How did you get to become such a huge fan of the Horror Industry?
Ashley: I grew up around it. My mom was a single working mom so I was babysat by my grandmother and her two sons 5 days a week. She was a self proclaimed Wiccan, so there were lots of magic related items around the house. Crystals, books and herbs. To top that off, she made props, so sometimes I’d step over a box of severed arms, or heads, fake blood everywhere... her two sons were total 80s Goths... I remember how I used to get so jealous when their friends would come over, black lipstick, huge black hair and they’d all get ready and go to Disneyland. I told myself as soon as I grew up, I would do the same thing. Instead of Disney movies, my Grandma would put on horror movies for me to watch. She had stacks of issues of Fangoria everywhere. I remember picking one up with a guy on the cover who had his brain falling out of his head, I didn’t understand it was make up, I thought it was real! So I've just grown up around it... it's just the way I was made.
HHM: Are there any bands that you would really like to play/tour with?
Ashley: I’d like to tour with the people I grew up admiring. AFI, My Chemical Romance, Rob Zombie, No Doubt, Marilyn Manson, the Used, Taking Back Sunday...
HHM: Who did you guys work with producing your latest EP “Mechanical Heart”?
Ashley: We produced it ourselves in our bedroom. No joke. We had our friend mix it. We have just always been a hands on, do it yourself kind of band.
HHM: All producers are different, some bring more input than others, do you feel as though it was the same record you wrote before you stepped into the studio? Did it take any direction changes while you were recording it?
Ashley: haha it WAS the exact record we wrote. There was no pre-production process. We just dove right in.
HHM: What would you say is your absolute favorite song to play live?
Ashley: Right now, it’s a new song that has no name! haha, its working title is Haunted Mansion Core hahahaha, but it will be named and on the next record.
HHM: How hard was it on you after the fiasco with TVT going bankrupt?
Ashley: It was the darkest 2 years of my life. I hit rock bottom. It was like, 1 step away from all my dreams coming true. One month, MTV is flying my mom out to New York to see me showcase telling her "her daughter will be on MTV soon" to literally the next month getting a phone call saying "the record label is gone, you’re done, we don’t know what to tell you" and literally having everything to having nothing. No one cared. They walked away like we never even existed, didn’t even have the decency to drop us so we could at least move on. We were literally just stuck. So the band didn’t do anything for a year. We got normal jobs, I hit a horrible depression. I went through a lot and it really all hit me one day. Kids were still believing in NYD and writing to us and talking about us online and it hit me, I don’t deserve this attention if I’m just going to give up. It was really scary to decide to keep going, cause we had no idea if anyone would even want to listen, but so far the support has been more than we could have dreamed of.
HHM: Hollywood Waste seems to be a very close knit group. What does it mean to you to be a part of that label?
Ashley: I could not be happier. Coming from a label that didn’t give a shit to a label that I can hang out with and I love like family, its everything a band would want. I feel like what the label is doing is really exciting and I feel like in the future, other labels are going to be looking to what they are doing to innovate and breathe new life into this industry.
HHM: What are your thoughts on Warped Tour? Some bands love it, some hate it and some view it as a merely a necessity……
Ashley: I fucking love it.
HHM: What can we expect next from NYD outside of touring?
Ashley: More intense music videos.
HHM: You seem very fan orientated, is there anything you’d like to say to those fans in closing?
Ashley: Man, they know what they mean to us. They are the blood in our veins, without them, we are dead. Well, more dead than usual :)
”My Dear” Creeps and Living Dead’s we are starting a new year!!!
Ash never ask for anything of us… but we all have seen how she
takes a chunk of her living dead time to answer every comment,question,appreciation and even some sometimes go out of her way to help us with our living dead day problems…She is something special she is out of this world!!!
She take care of us and we should take care of her the same way…WE ARE a TEAM!!!
”We should not take that for granted” Remember she makes a living out of music and she needs to support herself and be able to take care of her loved ones. Please let’s make this year the best of New Years Day… please support the band and lets have them on the road all year long rocking out halloween style and stiching hearts!!! Did you know ash has ebay auctions for new years day stuff she has used in the past in photoshoots and art? or you can buy Merch via http://www.shopbenchmark.com/newyearsday or at their shows.(this helps the band in the short run)
(For the long run) If you downloaded their music and you liked go ahead and purchase a copy of their new ep physical or digital your choice, Tell your friends about this awesome band and their music… network,network,network the band! Remember if their label see good sales fo their music they are more willing to invest more in bigger venues,bigger tours and we could have more music way faster that we are used to… anyway just all do our best for them ”They deserve it” Rock On!!!In LOVE with this photo. Holy crap.
This is a fantastic shot of Ashley!
