DJ Ashba
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| DJ Ashba | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Daren Jay Ashba |
| Born | November 10, 1972 |
| Origin | Monticello, Indiana, U.S. |
| Genre(s) | Rock Heavy metal Hard Rock |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instrument(s) | Guitar |
| Label(s) | Eleven Seven |
| Associated acts | Sixx:A.M. Beautiful Creatures Bulletboys |
| Website | Official Site |
DJ Ashba,(born November 10 in Monticello, Indiana) is an American guitarist and songwriter. He is best known for his work with hard rock bands BulletBoys, Beautiful Creatures and Sixx:A.M. with Mötley Crüe's Nikki Sixx.
Ashba has also worked with various artists including Trapt, Drowning Pool, Marion Raven and Aimee Allen.
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[edit] Biography
DJ Ashba was born Daren Jay Ashba on November 10th in Monticello,Indiana. He is of Cherokee and Swedish descent. He was born to Cheryl Louise Kaisner(neé Hoffman)and Paul Edwin Ashba and is the is the second of six children. At the age of one, the Ashba family moved to Fairbury Illinois, a small country farm town where he grew up. His father left the family home when he was three years old leaving his mother to raise him. His mother is a classical pianist, who started teaching DJ about music. He was instantly obsessed with it. Ashba started playing piano when he was three and played his first recital at five years old, where he performed Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.”
At age six he began studying the drums. He would set up garbage cans, pots and pans, buckets, and whatever else he could find to resemble a drum kit. He would beat on them for months and months, hours on end. After finally getting a real set, he studied rhythm. At eight years old, he worked detasseling corn in the fields for one year until he was able to buy his first electric guitar out of the Sears catalog, a Harmony white Flying V priced at US$89. As he rode on the bus to the corn fields each day, he sat with a friend he made, an older guitar player from a local band. Ashba would take his pocket knife and carve a fret board on the seat in front of them. His friend would take the knife, poke three holes, and say “That's an A chord,” go home and practice that tonight.
Each day Ashba looked forward to going to work so he could learn a new chord. He grew up in an eight bedroom house with no television, due to his religious mother. He would sit in his room and practice his new guitar 17 hours a day. At the age of 16 he went to live with his father in Logansport, Indiana for a year, before moving back to Fairbury. For his 16th birthday his father took him to his first concert, the Motley Crue - Girls, Girls, Girls Tour. It was the night that changed his life forever.
[edit] Career and Awards
At the age of 19 Ashba packed up all his things in his mini-van and drove himself to Hollywood California, where he joined a band called Barracuda with whom he toured for two years. He then released his first instrumental album ASHBA: Addiction to the Friction, and signed his first record deal. DJ went on to win 6 Best Guitar Player Awards. DJ Ashba co-founded the band Beautiful Creatures and landed a deal with Warner Brother Records. He wrote all the music for the Warner release, and songs such as “Ride” landed in the Warner Brothers major motion picture Rollerball.
The song Wasted landed in the movie "Valentine." In addition, the song 1a.m. landed in both the TV hit show Smallville and the Howard Stern show. The first concert Beautiful Creatures played was with Kiss on the farewell tour in front of 60,000 people. The band's numerous other tours include Ozzfest 2001, the Rolling Rock tour, a Japanese tour and dates with Marilyn Manson. Beautiful Creatures released the video for Wasted on MTV and a full concert for HBO Reverb. National TV hits include the band's appearance with Knoc-Tourn-Al on the Craig Kilborn Show.
Two performance highlights that stand out were at the Sundance Film Festival and Mile High Stadium. Ashba is endorsed by over 15 major music companies. He has toured the world, with his out-of-control stage performances and has appeared in Rolling Stone and numerous other world-wide ads and videos.
Ashba has teamed up with Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx as songwriting partners. The two have opened a state of the art facility, Funny Farm Studios, were they have written and produced songs for multiple platinum recording artists.
[edit] Partial Discography
- Sixx:A.M. - The Heroin Diaries (2007)
- Beautiful Creatures - Beautiful Creatures (2001)
- Ashba - Addiction to the Friction (1996)
[edit] External links
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