Daniel Ash on his return to live music with Poptone, ahead of Sunday’s Madrid show

Musician Daniel Ash is known for his work with the seminal postpunk band Bauhaus, as well as Love and Rockets, which rose from the ashes after Bauhaus broke up in 1983. Perhaps less known is the side project Tones on Tail, which existed contemporaneously with those two acts — though you’re definitely familiar with the throbbing bass tones of its song “Go!” Ash has been absent from live performance for the better part of the last decade, but that’s recently changed. Along with drummer Kevin Haskins — his bandmate in all three aforementioned acts — and Haskins’ daughter, Diva Dompe, Ash has formed Poptone. This new act is dedicated to performing many of those Tones on Tail songs, which didn’t get much of a live showing, and shows are selling out all over the country.

I spoke with Ash by phone while he browsed the selections at a health-food store.

The Pitch: It seems like Poptone eschews nostalgia. So many bands do reunion shows and are just playing up that factor, but it seems like you’re not.

Daniel Ash: Well, it is, actually. I mean, a nice way of putting it is that that it’s a retrospective tour. That’s the posh way of saying what it is — but it is, definitely. It’s got to be, because we’re all playing stuff that we recorded 30 to 35 years ago.

But it’s not just “playing the hits,” is it?

Oh, no. Seventy percent of the set is Tones on Tail material, because we only played 12 or 13 gigs in the U.S. In 1983, same in the U.K., and that was it. Then we formed Love and Rockets. But there’s really a big demand for it, since that Pop album came out, and also the Everything compilation from Beggars Banquet.

So there was a lot of demand for those songs, but absolutely — it’s not like Tones on Tail was a hit-making band. I wish it was. In a perfect world it would have been, but we released so many singles, and just that one album and a couple compilation albums. But it’s not like playing all the hits, because it wasn’t a hit-type band, but I think that now, it could possibly be that. I could imagine a new generation of people hearing that stuff, because it could have been recorded last week or 35 years ago. I think Tones on Tail has aged really well.

%{[ data-embed-type=”oembed” data-embed-id=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TJC48BRBn8″ data-embed-element=”aside” ]}%

It really has. It’s amazing to hear “Go!” today sound amazingly fresh.

Yeah, they still play that one in the clubs.

In terms of not playing hits: Is doing the deeper cuts from Love and Rockets or Bauhaus what makes this tour more for the fans of your music, as opposed to people going just going because they know a name?

First off, we’re not using the name of a band: We’re using a fresh name that incorporates all three bands’ work, so there’s that. But, if you really think about it, all three bands are not really known for hit songs. I wouldn’t say that Bauhaus was a hit band, obviously. Maybe we had a little commercial success with Love and Rockets, but essentially, I think people dig deeper than just hearing hit singles, because if people want to hear hit singles, I think we’ve only got about two and a half, so that wouldn’t work anyway. [chuckles]

So, basically, we chose the songs that were our favorites, and what we thought the public’s favorites would be. [We] looked at a couple of polls online, at what people’s favorite songs were, and took it from there, and put a setlist together from that.

I recall hearing before you started this tour that you had a bit of nervousness regarding performing. Has that gone away, now that you have these successful, sold-out shows under your belt?

To a degree, yes. The first gig was very weird. When we first got up onstage, for the first three numbers, it was really quite surreal. But then we got past that barrier and everything, and since then it’s been flying along nicely. It’s definitely starting to get itself ironed out after that first big hump and getting past not playing out for eight and a half years.

The story of how you woke up in the middle of the night — almost the early morning — and decided to do this is rather remarkable.

Yeah, it was out of the blue. It was actually four in the morning. I fell asleep at midnight and woke up at 4, and just had this revelation of, “Oh. This is what I need to do.” Very strange — went from one extreme to the other. I had no interest in playing live for many years, then suddenly, one night — 4 in the morning — boom. I had this epiphany, I think Kevin calls it, and that’s it. Here we are.

%{[ data-embed-type=”oembed” data-embed-id=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSsqavYIgNc” data-embed-element=”aside” ]}%

And it was inspired by Lemmy Kilmeister, I understand?

Yeah, well: Motorhead. I dozed off in my headphones, watching YouTube videos, and when I woke up, YouTube was on a rotation thing. I woke up to “Ace of Spades” by Motorhead, which immediately put me in a good mood, and that’s when I had this revelation of, “Oh, my god, it’s so obvious what I’m to do here.” I suddenly had a renewed stock of confidence, which I hadn’t had in that area for years, and it suddenly seemed like a no-brainer to put this thing together.

It was a very strange thing, and it really was extreme. Four o’clock, boom, “Ace of Spades” comes on, so Kevin reckons Lemmy’s trying to get a message through to me. It’s a romantic way of looking at it.

If it’s going to be a musician speaking from beyond the veil, it seems like Lemmy would be the obvious one in this circumstance, given Motorhead’s road-warrior status.

Not only that, but I met Lemmy a couple of times, and we always got on really well. Two or three times I met him over the years, and the last time I met him was at a motorcycle event. I remember going straight up to him and having a chat. I thought he looked really good, and I asked, “What’s your secret?” He said doing festival tours around Europe in the summer is what kept him young. And you know, he was gone about 18 months later.

But it was that song which woke me up, and it was so crystal clear. Right out the blue. So there you go.

Poptone plays the Madrid on Sunday, June 25. Details on that show are here.