What has Ashley Naylor been up to lately? OR The Man Who Never Naps (Except When He Does)

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Join Cheryl Lee - That Radio Chick on STILL ROCKIN' IT for news, reviews, music and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians

Ashley Naylor defies expectations. With a musical résumé spanning decades and featuring collaborations with Australian music royalty, he somehow manages to be both ubiquitous and humble in equal measure. In this intimate conversation, we discover how one of rock's busiest guitarists balances his creative life.

When scrolling through Ashley's social media, the sheer volume of his musical commitments is exhausting—Hendrix tributes at Cherry Bar, Bowie celebrations at the Odeon, performances with The Church, Paul Kelly tours, and the list goes on. "I have to keep playing, otherwise you'll lose your touch," he explains with characteristic understatement, revealing the disciplined professional beneath the laid-back demeanor. Recently serving as music director for the John Lennon tribute "Give Peace a Chance," Ashley brings the same meticulous attention to coordinating others that he applies to his own musical endeavors.

The most exciting revelation comes with discussion of "Alexandria Sunset," Ashley's first solo album in over a decade, where he plays and sings every note himself. "While I've got my faculties, I'll do a record where I can play everything on it," he says, explaining his approach to capturing songs when they're fresh rather than creating separate demos. 

Drawing inspiration from 60s and 70s rock, especially evident in his Donovan-influenced dreamy tracks, Ashley continues crafting music that feels simultaneously nostalgic and relevant. And in true Ashley Naylor fashion, he's simultaneously working on three separate album projects.

Discover the music, methodology, and mindset of a guitarist whose relentless creativity and humble approach to collaboration have made him one of Australia's most respected musicians. 

Follow Ashley on social media and pre-order his new album through Bandcamp now.

What has Ash Naylor been up to lately?  Let's find out!

Get out when you can, support local music and I'll see you down the front!!

Visit: ThatRadioChick.com.au

Episode Transcript

Cheryl Lee (00:04):
that radio chick, cheryl lee, here.
Welcome to the still rockin' itpodcast where we'll have music
news, reviews and interviewswith some of our favorite
australian musicians and artists.
We are spoiled for choice whenit comes to the work put out by
this man, ashley naylor.
He is relentless producing work.

(00:24):
Like a man possessed to such atalented man, performing in so
many different shows with somany different bands.
He is such a genuinely nice guyand hardly possessed at all.
We hardly had time to talkabout all of his adventures.
Please enjoy as we get to knowa little bit more about
guitarist and singer-songwriterAshley Naylor and his new work.

(00:48):
To catch up on podcasts fromother favourite artists, simply
go to thatradiochick.
com.
au.
Yo, it's Cheryl Lee, that RadioChick and I'd like to welcome
into the Zoom room today, Ithink, one of the busiest men in
rock and roll, ashley Naylor.
Welcome, ashley.
Thanks for chatting to us thismorning.

Ashley Naylor (01:08):
Thank you so much for having me One of the
busiest.
I love that.

Cheryl Lee (01:12):
I've been looking at your socials and what you've
been up to and what you're yetto be up to and it's worn me out
.
I need a nana nap.

Ashley Naylor (01:20):
Yeah, well, I try and factor a nap in every day.

Cheryl Lee (01:23):
Oh good on you yes.

Ashley Naylor (01:24):
I can Well.

Cheryl Lee (01:24):
I saw a post last month that there's only 64
opportunities to see you perform.

Ashley Naylor (01:32):
It's ridiculous.
That was a little publicitystunt my brother pulled on me.

Cheryl Lee (01:37):
Oh my goodness, Not only you've got a lot coming up,
but last month I noticed youdid Hendrix at the Cherry Bar
and Bowie at the Odeon.
You don't sit still much, doyou?

Ashley Naylor (01:48):
Well, I can't, because you know what it's like
If you've got to keep playing,otherwise you'll lose your touch
.
And I have to keep playing fora multitude of reasons primarily
to maintain some kind ofcapability, and then also
because it's my chosenprofession.
I have to keep playing as wellbecause you know, pay the bills.
Well, the car rego doesn't payitself right.

Cheryl Lee (02:08):
Exactly.
For those that may not know,you're everywhere man.
Guitarist for the Church, PaulKelly, the Stems, Rock wiz
Orchestra, beloved Melbourneband, Even, Ashley Naylor
Spaceship, the Grapes, RonsonHang Up, Monterey Honey you

(02:29):
played with Vika and Linda andTim Finn and the Sports and
Fanny Lumsden and the CountdownSpectacular.
The list is mind boggling.

Ashley Naylor (02:38):
I guess it is when you condense it down to
that little soundbite.
But, as you know, there's 12months in the year and I can't
do one of those things week in,week out.
They all coincide with eachother.
And one thing that I have tosort of try and manage is my
diary and make sure that ifthere's something I want to do
that I can accept it or not.
Yeah, I just feel veryfortunate because I've got a lot

(03:00):
of friends at my age, likemid-50s, who who are, I wouldn't
say languishing, but highlyskilled musicians and highly
talented people who haven't hadthe opportunities that I've had.
So I sort of feel like anyopportunity that presents itself
to me I'll do my best to acceptit, within reason, of course.
You know, like you can't sayyes to everything like getting
back to that first chat we had,I have to.
I'm the kind of personalitytype that has to be busy clearly

(03:21):
, you must have great timemanagement skills.
They're getting better, gettingbetter as I get older.
I think Certain things aregetting better, certain things
are getting worse.

Cheryl Lee (03:33):
We've got some exciting things to talk about,
but I also noticed and I didn'trealise this that you were the
music director for Give Peace aChance the honour of words and
music about John Lennon that hasjust been all over the place,
including Our Wonderful Town.

Ashley Naylor (03:50):
Yeah, getting back to this word opportunity,
that was an opportunity thatcame before me because I'd had
experience doing these kind ofmusical direction jobs with ABC
and, under the great tutelage ofPete Luscombe and James Black
at Rockwiz, kind of learnt overthe years how one should conduct
oneself if you get such a job.
You're there to sort ofdelegate, and director is such a
nebulous word.
I don't consider myself adirector as such, but more like

(04:12):
a coordinator, I guess.
So part of my job was to get aband together and hopefully
instil enough confidence in eachmember to feel comfortable
doing their own thing within therealms of what is required.
Yeah, within the realms of whatis required.
Yeah, that was a great tour.
I mean, I grew up on Beatlesand London music, so it was
right in my Right up your alley.
Right up my strata, yeah.

Cheryl Lee (04:31):
I was only disappointed that I wasn't able
to get along to see it.
Do you think it might comearound again?

Ashley Naylor (04:38):
I really hope so.
There was talk of it.
The producers were very happywith the way it went and we got
to play the Festival Theatre inAdelaide, which was incredible.
Like you know, I've been goingto Adelaide for 40 years, but
every time you get to play avenue like that, it's just a
real privilege, and the factthat the decor on the inside is
probably the same as it was whenthe building was constructed

(04:59):
for me that's mind-blowing too.

Cheryl Lee (05:00):
You're just excitedly announcing a new album
called Alexandria Sunset.
Is this the third release?
Third single as Good as Gold.

Ashley Naylor (05:10):
Yeah, I can't call them feature tracks.
I don't really think of singlesanymore.
When I think of singles, Ithink of 70s and 80s and 90s.
Radio I don't really think of Iguess.
Obviously, as you know, theBillboard Top 100 is full of
singles, inverted commas.
But I'm 55 years old, I'm nottrying to compete in that market
, so the landscape has changed,hasn't it?

(05:31):
It has.

Cheryl Lee (05:32):
It's all different releasing material now than it
was.

Ashley Naylor (05:36):
That's right.
And when you upload your songonto the portal through my
digital distribution company,there's no option.
It's either album or single.
You can't just have featuredtrack or album track.
Anyway, I digress, yes, so I'msort of drip feeding the
audience, however big or smallthat may be.

Cheryl Lee (05:52):
You're teasing them, are you?

Ashley Naylor (05:53):
Well, no, no just I don't know, just sort of like
a dripping tap, you know, a tapthat keeps on dripping and the
album will come out in earlySeptember.
And, yeah, I, just everythingthat I do is kind of leads to
this point of me putting out myown records, you know.

Cheryl Lee (06:09):
Yeah, and this is your first solo recording in
over 10 years, and one of themost amazing things to me is
that you play and sing everysingle note on that album.
It's you, it's you, baby,that's it.

Ashley Naylor (06:26):
It's pretty crazy .
But you know, when you're doinga demo or something of a song,
you tend to do everythingyourself to get an idea up and
running.
This time around I don't reallydo demos anymore because I
don't know.
I just sort of figure if you'vegot a germ of an idea for a
song, try and record it as bestas you can when the song is
fresh.
So I kind of adopt thatphilosophy now.
So basically what I've got is abunch of songs that grew from

(06:50):
nothing in the studio and I'vegot my friends Tim and Finn to
mix them for me to make themlistenable.
Yeah, but I mean I guess Ifigured, while I've got my
faculties I'll do a record whereI can play everything on it.
That's amazing.
You learn from the masters.
You know, like the modern-dayversion of someone who does it
is Kevin Parker from TameyParley.
He does all the stuff himself.
You know my mates, like DaveyLane and Wes Fuller.

(07:14):
They do the records themselvesand bring mates in to play them
live and I've done a bit of thatin the past and it's just one
of those things.
Once I decided this record wasgoing to be a solo record
inverted commas I just stuck tomy guns.
But that said, there's a recordbeing made at the same time
with friends.

Cheryl Lee (07:28):
You're doing three, aren't you?
Three albums all at once.
You're good at multitasking aswell.

Ashley Naylor (07:34):
Like I learned from the Masters you know,
having played with Paul Kellysince 2007.
By osmosis, you watch and learnhow these people go about it,
and sometimes you try andconcentrate on one project at
one point in time.
Yeah, so I've got three recordson the go, but they're well
obviously this one's finishedfirst.
The other ones are in, you know, different states of completion
.

Cheryl Lee (07:53):
You keep busy, that's for sure.
So the other releases wereDonovan Dreams and Blue Sky Tell
us about Donovan Dreams.
I find that one reallyfascinating.

Ashley Naylor (08:07):
When I started it was an instrumental.
For a couple of years actually,I sat on my hard drive for a
couple of years as aninstrumental and every time I
played it to myself to listen toit, I thought it sort of
reminded me of that sort of late60s Donovan kind of groove, you
know, like Barabba Jaggle orsomething like that with the
Jeff Beck group, somethingthat's groovy and a bit trippy.
It just made me feel.
It gave me a similar feelingthat I would get if I listened
to a Donovan track.
It doesn't necessarily soundlike a Donovan track, but you

(08:29):
know.

Cheryl Lee (08:36):
I'm still hung up on 60s and 70s rock, so aren't we
all?
Yeah, why?

Ashley Naylor (08:38):
not.
I mean, it's built to last.
I don't make them like thatanymore, although you are, we
try, we try.
Yeah, I, I've always likeddonovan and he I guess he kind
of takes a bit of a back seat toa lot of the more iconic single
songwriters of that era, likebob dylan and, you know, leonard
carwin, and it's not for me tosay, but he probably doesn't get
the accolades he deservesbecause he's brilliant.
That song kind of just sort ofgrew out of an instrumental, but
I want it to be a bit dreamyand a bit trippy like a Donovan

(09:00):
song.

Cheryl Lee (09:02):
Can I just cut you for?
Don't look at my Ugg boots,sorry, someone's at the door.
My dad's deaf, he can't hearthem.
None of them are for me.

Ashley Naylor (09:10):
Don't you hate that.
They're all for the children,yeah it's often the way at our
joint too.

Cheryl Lee (09:16):
Sorry about that.

Ashley Naylor (09:17):
No, you're fine.
I'm wearing my Ugg boots too,are you yeah?

Cheryl Lee (09:22):
Snap.
Where were we?
Apart from all the recordingthat you've been up to?
You're a very busy touring manas well.
You've got tours coming up withPaul Kelly in August and
September, the church inNovember, december.
After all these years, do youlove the touring, the live

(09:44):
performing?

Ashley Naylor (09:45):
I love the live performing the touring.
It's a necessary chore, yeah,but I think as you become older
in this game, you try and deviseways to alleviate the
mundaneness of the travel, andthat might mean committing
yourself to reading a book asopposed to just scrolling
through your phone or justtrying to make some tweaks to
make sure that the travelexperience is positive, like

(10:06):
lately I've been.
This sounds really dumb, butI've been putting earplugs in
and eye patches, just trying tomake every flight a chance, just
to shut down, as opposed tooverly stimulate myself on a
flight.
So yeah, I guess for me it'sabout ways of maintaining inner
calm before you throw yourselfinto the machine of touring, and
that involves being shuttledaround and you know.
But that said, it's what welive for, it's what we all

(10:26):
dreamed about as teenagers, likeyou know.
I can't complain.
I won't complain because it'sall I ever dreamed of and now I
get to do it.

Cheryl Lee (10:33):
Talking about when you were a young lad with these
dreams.
Is music in your family?
Is it in your DNA?
When did you realise that thiswas going to be your thing?

Ashley Naylor (10:44):
It's a great question.
No one in my family played whenI was growing up my cousin Tony
actually.
He had a guitar and an amp andhe was like my idol when I was a
kid.
We still, you know, get on welland he comes to some of my gigs
and we did a song together atmy brother's 50th birthday.
So Tony was kind of like mybeacon as an adolescent.
Through Tony and my brother wesort of got into 70s rock like

(11:06):
Kiss and ABBA and you know, andI guess I got the bug early but
I think it only dawned upon mein my mid-teens when I stopped
playing sport, that that waslike a pathway to music.
Was there ever a plan B if, like, this music thing hadn't worked
out for you?
Well, I wanted to be.
I wanted to be a graphic artistat some point.

(11:26):
But when I did all myinterviews after VCE, all the
places I went to I think acouple of institutions I went to
they said have you considereddoing another year of TAFE?
And I took that as a kick inthe guts, meaning my folio
wasn't strong enough.
So I thought, well, stuff, that, stick to the music.

Cheryl Lee (11:41):
Yeah, I was meant to be by the sounds of it.

Ashley Naylor (11:44):
Possibly.
So you know you can't takethese things for granted, though
it's a gamble If you throwyourself into being a full-time
musician.
It's an absolute gamble.

Cheryl Lee (11:55):
but so far I've been very fortunate.
It's a credit to you thatyou've been able to continue to
work so much and have such agreat body of work over all of
these years.
Well done thank you.

Ashley Naylor (12:04):
That's very kind of you to say that I, when
you're doing it, as allmusicians could attest to when
you're doing you're so busy justtrying to make every, every gig
best it can be and make sureyou get all your affairs in
order and get your diary inorder.

Cheryl Lee (12:18):
Head down mum.
Yeah, we can pre-order thisalbum, can't we?

Ashley Naylor (12:25):
Yes, the link hasn't been put up online yet,
but that'll be coming up in thenext week or so.

Cheryl Lee (12:29):
I think we can get it from Bandcamp.

Ashley Naylor (12:31):
Yes, that's right .
Yes, through Bandcamp, so far.
Yes.

Cheryl Lee (12:34):
Also, if you'd like to catch up on what else Ashley
is up to, you can check out thesocials Ashley Naylor Official
on Facebook, ashley NaylorOfficial on Insta and the same
on YouTube as well, if you wantto catch some of Ashley's music,
nice one.
Was there anything else thatyou wanted to mention, Ashley?

Ashley Naylor (12:55):
Oh, no, thanks, that was lovely chat.
No, it was lovely chat we had,thank you.

Cheryl Lee (12:59):
Thank you so much for spending some time with us
today and all the best with allthe things.

Ashley Naylor (13:05):
Thank you, ashley Naylor coming up.
Thanks for having me.

Cheryl Lee (13:08):
I'll see you down the front sometime soon.

Ashley Naylor (13:11):
You are listening to Still Rocking it.
The podcast with Cheryl Lee.

Cheryl Lee (13:17):
Let's go out with the new track now, shall we?
From the Alexandria Sunsetalbum as Good as Gold.