By Phil Hunt

Greg Ashley has been playing music for years, but has fairly recently gained notoriety for disturbed, wild and extremely original rock music - both as a solo artist and with his latest band, The Gris Gris. Birdman Records took a liking to Ashley in 2003 - and released his solo album "Medicine Fuck Dream" - a lysergic one-man epic of folk and noise. When you spin his latest work, the self-titled debut album of the Gris Gris, out on Birdman, you'll swear you've stumbled across something tucked away in your parents' stack of vinyl. The band combines hushed, dreamlike, bedroom melodies, classic 60s rock and roll, velvets-inspired noise, and out-of-control reverb to create some of the most intense, moody garage rock you're ever likely to hear. The Gris Gris is coming back to Ralph's on September 1st. Ashley answered a few questions about his band.

How is it that you released a solo record prior to The Gris Gris? Did you play in any bands before you released "Medicine Fuck Dream?"
I had this other band when I lived in Houston, and it was called The Mirrors. We did two records. I ended up moving here to San Francisco and the stuff for my solo project was stuff that was possibly going to be used on another Mirrors record, but the band broke up. I decided to move, so it was all stuff I just recorded on my own for the next record, but then we never did it.

Did the Mirrors have that kind of experimental, folky stuff going on?
Yeah it was kind of a similar 60s psych kind of deal. I don't know. There was a lot of kind of folky stuff, on that record, but we played with electric guitars. Two guitars, full drum set, organ - so it was more kind of straightforward rock in that sense. It had more of a standard setup.

Was it more straightforward than The Gris Gris?
Yeah, exactly. As far as being a normal looking band and playing electric guitars… that kind of thing.

Do you think the solo album prepared you for The Gris Gris or was it something totally separate?
I guess they're sort of related because me and the bass player Oscar… When I moved here I had no idea that the solo record was going to come out or anything. I wanted it to, but I wasn't sure who was going to put it out. We played around town a little bit playing songs off of that, and then slowly I started to write more stuff and we started playing those songs. Then we just started becoming a separate thing. The solo record kind of came out because Birdman wanted to do a Gris Gris record, so I was kind of like "hey, I have this thing if you want to put this out." So Birdman released that too because it was all finished.

One thing that sort of seems universal in describing the Gris Gris is that you have a very turbulent, intense style. That doesn't always happen when bands draw from the same pool of influence as The Gris Gris? How is it that you came out with a more inward-facing, ominous sound instead of releasing a party record (so to speak)?
I don't know. I just kind of started listening to more 60s music instead of garage stuff that was emulating that sound. Then I started getting more folk records and stuff like that. Whereas before, when I first started listening to garage music or punk music, there was certain stuff you just figured that it was hippie shit, and those records suck. But I started getting more and more into that kind of diverse, softer stuff. I like those records that have a lot of different kinds of songs instead of just a bunch of rock songs.

How did you first start getting into the 60s stuff?
It was a backwards way of doing it. When I was growing up I liked Nirvana and Sonic Youth, and I had those records. I had a friend who was getting all these 70s punk records and Estrus catalog records. A lot of garage stuff you know? So I started listening to those records a lot. Then it seemed like a lot of the new stuff in that vein wasn't that great any more, and I just started listening to more of the stuff that those new bands, that I liked, listened to try and create their version of 60s music. So I guess I just started listening to the stuff that people were emulating.

What is your background in music? You play a bunch of different instruments, right?
I played the piano on the record, I'm not very good. If I sit there and get a couple of takes on it, and erase the ones that are bad then I can do it. That was the same on the solo record. I played pretty much everything on that, but I'm not very proficient at it… not even on guitar really. I'm pretty bad these days, but I can play piano a little bit. I'm a bit of a hack. I can play guitar, bass and drums a little bit. We have an actual piano player in the band.

You sort of have a jarring, experimental sensibility in the band. Is there any really surprising stuff that's informed you over the years?
Yeah I don't know. I just kind of always liked the psychedelic records or the Beatles records where there was a lot of stuff going on. Have you ever heard that Brazilian psychedelic band, Os Mutantes?

No. What was it?
Os Mutantes. The first two are really good. They're kind of the same thing, where they're doing a bunch of different stuff. That Beck album, Mellow Gold, is one of my favorite albums… Just a lot of different styles of productions throughout where it kind of comes together.

Every band kind of gives lip service to the effort to "capture the live sound" but your record is one of the first ones that honestly sounds like how I remember the live show. Did you set out to do that purposefully, or did it just happen?
I think it just sounds the way we sound. I sang through the same amp and that kind of stuff. Some of the songs, obviously, don't have a live sound because we don't play them live - like the one with the saxophone (Me Queda Um Bejou). I haven't put a whole lot of thought into it, but I guess it just kind of happens. There's not a whole lot of polishing on my 8-track machine.

That's something I like about it. The imperfections kind of add to the songs. In Mary I can hear some cutting out, and it sort of enhances the song.
Yeah there is a drop out in that. I think it got fixed later!

So you didn't necessarily want the warts and all approach?
No. Well actually, I never usually do more than one take with the vocals. I'm just like, "fuck it." We did remix that song because Lars, our keyboard player, he plays a keyboard part on there. The subsequent pressings will have a different mix on there with the keyboard part. The piece of tape was fucked up and that's why there's that drop out. That was something where Dave, who runs the label, said "yeah you've got to go in and fix that." I'm just think fuck it (laughs) you can't polish a turd, man!

Well I kind of like when you can hear the process behind it too.
Yeah I kind of like that too. I'm not a professional, and it kind of gives it the same character that home made stuff has.

How did the Carnivorous Rampage tour go? Did you have a lot of camaraderie before you played with the bands?
No. I didn't know the Apes at all. I'd met the Modey Lemon a couple of times and played with them. Yeah we had a good time. We all became good friends. We spent a lot of time hanging out with the lead singer from the Apes, because he was the only other person that really liked to party a lot. It would always be us and him at some house at one in the morning drinking beer. It was cool.

I noticed you played guitar sitting down at Ralph's. Are you a sit-down guitar player?
I always sit down now… Because I'm lazy. And I can't put a strap on my guitar. It's not set up to have one. I kind of like sitting down. I played standing up for a couple of years and it's kind of a nice change of pace.

You were the first of the groups to play at Ralph's before. Does the show change at all when you're the closer?
No we always play the same songs. We probably don't play them as well if we play last, because we've all had the chance to have a few more beers than we should have. But it's pretty much the same set either way.

Are you playing with the Cuts on this tour?
They were going to play with us on this tour, but they dropped out because they got offered to do a tour with this band called the Black Keys. I guess they're pretty big so it was an opportunity they couldn't pass up.

What are you working on now? Are there more Gris Gris albums planned? Something entirely different?
I don't know. We've been working on new stuff. The next record is probably about half-recorded. I don't think there will be any more solo records. There will probably just be Gris Gris records from now on.