The Man On The Burning Tightrope (Jetset) opens with carnival music, but you can be sure the killers and thieves outnumber the revelers at Firewater’s Mardi Gras. It’s a familiar scenario, as ex-Cop Shoot Cop frontman/Firewater mastermind Tod Ashley has always dabbled in whimsy and menace with equal measure. This dichotomy is repeated on the title track, on which Ashley plays a gin-soaked master of ceremonies while a calliope provides an ominous musical backdrop. It’s not apparent what Ashley is trying to convey to the assembled masses in his Tom Waits-ian growl, but it’s clear there’s nasty business afoot. Beyond the midway lights, The Man On The Burning Tightrope once again finds Firewater with musical wanderlust following 2001’s comparatively straightforward Psychopharmacology. “The Vegas Strip” deals the listener snapping fingers and a sleazy horn section, “Ponzi’s Revenge” is the Buena Vista Social Club gone to seed and “The Song That Saved My Life” offers a drunken nighttime stroll through the rain-soaked streets of Paris. As usual, Firewater creates the sonic equivalent of an all-night binge of sex and drugs in a foreign country—disorienting and exhausting, but never boring.

MAGNET spoke with Tod Ashley.

So what are you up to on a Friday evening?
Still working, but I’m glad I have the excuse to stop.

Do you have a day gig?
Yes. I work at Jetset. I’m kind of the designer guy. Record covers, ads and posters. Stuff like that.

I read that you went to film school.
I did, but I wasn’t very good at it. I recognized that early on. Even though I was really into it, I had to at some point admit where my strengths and weaknesses were.

Just have that innate artistic talent for the other stuff, huh?
I didn’t actually have any book learning on graphic design. I started out doing flyers for Cop Shoot Cop and kind of went on from there and taught myself.

The Firewater songs have a very cinematic quality. Do you still feel you’re sort of a frustrated filmmaker?
Yeah, but beside my lack of talent in that area, I’m really bored easily. With making indie films, you really, really have to believe in an idea. The scriptwriting process takes forever, and then to stick with it, convince everyone else to throw their lot in with you, find the money ... It’s just years upon years. I just didn’t think I had the stamina for that. Music is much more immediate and direct. You have an idea and you can get a song recorded within a day. For me, it’s a lot more fulfilling.

Do you have visuals in your head when you’re writing songs?
I sort of think of the songs as—at the risk of sounding pretentious—kind of a soundtrack for a little movie that goes on in your head. The music that’s inspired me has always been that kind of thing. It entices someone to make the song their own and they kind of fill in the question marks. So yeah, I definitely think of music in a soundtrack-y, visual sort of way.

Have you been approached yet to do any soundtrack work?
Just recently. It’s no Apocalypse Now, but it’s a foot in the door. A movie called Hacks, about bad comedians. I’m not sure why he thought of me, but it’s actually a really good movie. On the verge of tastelessness, which is sort of the line I walk, as well. Or try to.

I envision you soundtracking some sort of old European period piece.
Yeah, that would be great, too, but I just sort of wanted to get started. I feel like that even if this doesn’t win any awards, at least it will be some experience. It should be fun. It’s a funny film.

Turning to the new record, did you have the same group of guys this time?
Pretty much. The same as Psychopharmacology.

Psychopharmacology was eclectic, but it still struck me as relatively straightforward for a Firewater record. Seems the new one is a little more adventurous again.
I think it was just the subject matter of the last record and somehow the aggressive, drink-and-forget-your-problems approach didn’t seem to suit the songs that I needed to get off my chest.

In listening to Firewater, one gets the sense that you’re either a well-traveled guy or have one hell of a record collection.
Sort of both. I really love to travel and also buy a lot of weird music wherever I go. America’s pretty bland.

I take it you get overseas a lot?
As much as possible. I’m not rich, so I can’t afford to do it as much as I’d like to, but whenever can afford to, definitely.

Any locales that you particularly like?
At the moment, Asia—India, Pakistan, Southeast Asia, Thailand. If you want to get your feet wet, Thailand is incredibly cheap, but you don’t have to rough it too much. It’s just really beautiful and relaxed. Buddhist. You don’t have to worry too much about being murdered for being an American.

Always a nice feature for a vacation.
[Laughs] Yeah, always a plus in a holiday destination.

Next Page >>