Ashes And Diamonds, a new trio with Love & Rockets, PiL and Sade members, readies debut album later this month

“I love the way this one builds and builds,” says guitarist/vocalist Daniel Ash of “Setting Yourself Up For Love,” the latest single from Ashes And Diamonds. The follow-up to initial track “On A Rocka” is from upcoming debut album, Ashes And Diamonds are Forever, due October 31 via Cleopatra Records. 

Ash is of course, world renowned for his stints in Bauhaus, Love and Rockets, Tones on Tail), while the new trio is rounded out by drummer Bruce Smith (Public Image Ltd.) and bassist Paul Spencer Denman (Sade).

Of “Setting Yourself Up For Love,” Denman says, “Bruce had this [killer] loop that I could listen to all day...it was fierce. It seemed to me the loop just needed something real low and gritty. I played F and hit the strings real hard and we put a ‘rat’ (it’s a foot pedal I like to use on it for extra growl). And I just stayed on that one note for the whole song. Keep it simple stupid.”

Adds Smith, “This song started with an idea that I sent to Daniel”...It was just the synth part and the drums. He took it and wrote the song, only adding the chord changes at the end. What he came up with was not what I expected at all! The beauty of Daniel’s writing.”

Talking about the sound, Denman notes the album is "the sound of three people being honest...“We’ve all been around the block a few times, and I hope some young kids hear this and wanna go smash down some walls, throw bricks and be inspired like we were when we were young.” Says Smith, “That’s what experience gives you,,,the ability to play only what the song needs.”

Ashes And Diamonds Are Forever had its beginnings pre-Covid when Paul’s wife Kim suggested to him and Daniel that Bruce would be a killer drummer, the three musicians wrote and collaborated in studio and remotely for years. 

“This album has been in the making for about seven years,” explains Ash. “It should have been seven months tops but because of Covid and the three of us being perfectionists…” he trails off with a laugh.

“Setting Yourself Up For Love” is available through DSPs today HERE. The album can be preordered HERE. It was produced by Ashes And Diamonds with some co-production with James Salter and Joe Dexter. It was mixed, engineered with additional production by Robert Adam Stevenson.

Track listing:

Hollywood
Teenage Robots
On A Rocka
ON
Boy Or Girl
The A Listers
Plastic Fantastic
Ice Queen
Setting Yourself Up For Love
Alien Love
Champagne Charlie