--- title: "Episode 04 – Skittles and Spoonerisms – Danny Case of From Ashes To New" url: https://altwire.net/podcast/episode-04-skittles-and-spoonerisms-danny-case-of-from-ashes-to-new/ published: 2023-03-09T23:55:37+00:00 updated: 2025-08-21T00:43:59+00:00 tags: ["From Ashes To New"] source: "AltWire (altwire.net)" --- # Episode 04 – Skittles and Spoonerisms – Danny Case of From Ashes To New Transcript Automatic transcript: names and words may be misheard. Press a time to play from there. **Derek Oswald** Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the AltWire podcast. I'm your host, Derek Oswald. And in today's episode, we are joined by Danny Case, frontman of the rock band from Ashes To New. From their explosive debut album, day one, to their latest release, nightmare, Ashes To New has been delivering hard hitting rock anthems that have been taking the world by storm. With their unmistakable blend of rap and rock, this band has been turning heads and winning hearts across the globe. So buckle up and get ready as we dive deep into the world of From Ashes To New with the one and only Danny Case. The AltWire podcast starts now. So I wanted to start things off by talking about your new music. Over the past year, you've released a few songs, including the recently released new track nightmare. When we first revealed we'd be doing this interview, many of your fans wanted to know the time frame for your next album. Where are you at in the recording process of the next record, and when can we expect the next record? Will these songs be a part of it? **Danny Case** Yeah. So the whole album is done and has been done. It was recorded in summer of twenty twenty one. We went in late twenty twenty one to make two more songs. And since March 2022, it's been completely done. So it's been done for a whole year. All three of those songs are gonna be a part of the album. We wanted to kinda give fans a taste of the direction that we're going in and the vibe of the album, and also just get them excited for new and upcoming stuff. **Derek Oswald** Now you've been in the band for over five years now, and this will be your third release of them. Given that you've had a chance to grow and evolve with the band, how would you say this release differs from your two previous records? **Danny Case** Oh, that... I mean, that's a phenomenal question. So the first record that I did with the guys, it was very much a I'm the new guy. You tell me what to do. I'm gonna do it. Like, I'm, you know, just learning the process here. I'd been in my own band for a long time, but never on the level that they were doing it. So I was very much so trying to be a sponge and absorb everything, and it was like a process of me trying my best to execute on what everyone else wanted. So anyone who hates that record cannot blame me. So then we did Panic, and we worked with new producers that we hadn't worked before. It was a really... Honestly, a really cool experience. And I got to kinda spread my wings a little bit and try different things that I wanted to do. And it was during that record process that I really figured out how I wanted to sound and what I felt was gonna be best, like, for my voice. And so for this record, I did everything the way... Pretty much the way I wanted to do it. I had taken everything I'd learned from our producers from the first and second record and from Matt who had helped me with vowel shapings and tonalities. And I applied it in the way that I wanted to sing on this new record. And I'll tell you what, it has got some nuts on it. So it's gonna be very intense, very heavy. **Derek Oswald** Are there any songs that haven't been released yet that you're really excited for the fans to hear? **Danny Case** I will say this. There's a couple really, really mainstream songs, and those are kinda like the radio tracks. Yeah. And they they definitely differ from the rest of the sound of the album, but they're really good songs. Those are two songs that I think that one, if not both of those, will be number ones. So we're excited about those. And then there are a couple other songs that are just super heavy, super intense, that were just really bring the heat that I'm excited about as well. So there's more heaviness where, you know, like, Until We Break a Nightmare came from. There's definitely gonna be more of that. And we even have a song that's almost entirely almost entirely a rap song. Nice. It's not rap in the traditional sense where it's like all software instruments. Like, there's guitar and there's drums in there, but it's just all mad. **Derek Oswald** What are your thoughts on the current new metal scene as it exists right now? I think it's phenomenal that **Danny Case** more and more bands are embracing the sound. Because if... I feel like 2013 is when this band started and also when falling in reverse started. Yeah. And no one else was was doing it successfully. I think maybe there were a couple bands that were at, like, a lower mid level that were doing it that are since, I think, disbanded. But now now I feel like there are bands everywhere that are including rap or or certain essences of hip hop. And then you have falling reverse, which is on top of the world right now, just annihilating everything. And and they are the epitome of what, like, the future of this style of music, I think, is gonna sound like. **Derek Oswald** And you guys are no strangers to paying homage to the bands that you love. In fact, one of my favorite things you guys did over the quarantine was the quarantine EPs. And not only was it great to hear new music from you, but I also loved hearing your takes on some iconic songs in the genre. What was the story behind those EPs, and how did the idea for them come about? **Danny Case** That was, that was us trying to stay sane. So we're all just pretty much sitting in our homes, watching the days pass by and knowing that it was going to be an indefinite amount of time before we got our lives back. And that was not fun to sit in day in and day out. Because we were... Our our industry realistically was the first to go, and it was the last to come back. And we knew that that's how it was gonna be. Once the, two weeks ended and then it kept going and going and going, we were like, okay. This is not going to be over for a while. And even when it is, like, we're not coming back. So we'd better do something for ourselves to keep ourselves sane and as well as for the fans. It's like, we had an album that we did end up putting out, but at the time, we weren't sure what was gonna happen with this. We're like, let's just do some covers that we love, and we'll, like, take requests. We'll do them in our own homes, and we'll piece it all together and try to make it sound like a decent recording. **Derek Oswald** What was your favorite cover to work on? And are there some songs out there that you'd love to do a cover on that you haven't done yet? **Danny Case** The favorite that I can at least remember off the top of my head would probably be Nightmare. Because of... Avenged Sevenfold is my favorite band of all time. Pretty much the reason that I even have a career. So I love that band. I've loved their music for a long time. Being able to put out a recording of one of their songs was super awesome. So that one is definitely near and dear to my heart. As far as, like, songs that I would like to do in the future, I haven't really put much of any thought into that. I think because we did it so much in the Quarantine Chronicles that we've pretty much just like... We've gotten that all out of our system. We're like, we can't do any more covers, or people are gonna start to think we're just some cover band. **Derek Oswald** I'm really curious about your thoughts on something I've seen from a lot of artists lately. Now granted you guys are about to release a full length album. What I've been noticing is that a lot of bands are starting to drift towards just releasing singles or even just doing EPs instead of a full length. Is that something you guys have ever considered, or are you still a fan of the traditional album format? **Danny Case** That's something we talk about all the time, actually. The rap and pop world has shown how much that style works releasing singles. And I think probably one of the first bands who adopted was Bring Me The Horizon. That worked really well for them. They still do release albums as well. But releasing singles, I think, is really the future. It's like when a show comes out on Netflix, and everyone binges it for one week, and then it's over. And it's like you have to wait a year and a half before the next season of the show comes out or whatever, what... Once they find out that it's wildly successful or whatever. And it's like, that sucks on both ends because, like, the fans want more right then and there, and they know they can't get it. And on the other end, they... The, you know, the people who are making that show or producing that show wanna follow-up that success as soon as they can, and they can't. So it's like, I I think there's probably gonna be a good balance of both moving forward in the industry between, like, a band probably putting out four to five songs and then releasing the record. I feel like falling in reverse is doing that right now. I don't know that Popular Monster would be included with this recent batch of songs that they've put out or not. I haven't followed them too closely, but they have, you know, Popular Monster, Sound Five Voices in My Head, and then the newest one Watch the World Burn. It's kinda like those all could be on an album and put out with, like, six other songs, and, like, that would be another, like, release. So constantly being in front of the fans and being at the front of their attention is a really great thing, and constantly putting out songs that are successful, you know, sequentially is just... I don't see how it could go wrong there. I personally think that's realistically what we should do moving forward and a lot of bands should do moving forward. **Derek Oswald** I'm actually not a fan in many ways of the whole binge culture where a whole show is released all at once. As much as I absolutely love The Last of Us, I'm happy that HBO didn't decide just to drop everything all at once. Because it reminds me of the old days, you know, before streaming when there was all that hype, what's gonna happen in the next episode when you're waiting for the next episode to come? The new binge culture or even just releasing the album all at once, you get everything done in that first listen, that first watch, and then there's nothing for several years. **Danny Case** Yeah. That's... It makes it hard to get attached to something, at least in the world of shows, I would say. I'm not sure how it would relate to music, but it's just how human beings are, I think. Like, we... You get it, and you just wanna... You wanna consume all of it, like, right away. And, like, I think one of the reasons why TV shows in the past were so successful, like Lost, my favorite TV show of all time, was you had to wait an entire week to get another episode. And then that spanned over, like, eight years. Like, you basically grew up with those characters. You became attached to them. You got to know all of them. And it's like, what... When you go back and you just watch the whole thing in a month, it's just not the same as the sitting and waiting and growing with the show or the music. So, yeah, you just can't help it, you know, as a human being to get something and wanna listen to the whole thing for three months straight and then be done with it. So I think that singles are gonna help remedy that. **Derek Oswald** Switching gears, you're about to go on tour with three days grace and shine down. What are you looking forward to the most about the upcoming tour? Oh, **Danny Case** you know, so we have certain levels of production on this tour that I don't wanna give away. That is going to be just so next level and so awesome that I'm super excited about that. Just playing shows with Shinedown, playing shows with Three Days Grace, those dudes are all awesome and bands that I listened to growing up. So between all those things, all the different areas that we're hitting, like, I think, honestly, almost all of it is exciting. **Derek Oswald** Are there any bands that you hope to tour with someday that you can think of off the top of your head? Avenged Sevenfold. That's like the only one **Danny Case** that I can think of off the top of my head where I'm just like, that is my absolute dying wish if I have any dying wish. It's like, that is the one thing I need to do, you know, before my music career closes out whenever that is. And it gets crazy because when I was in my early twenties, I kinda... I looked at where I was, and I looked at where they were. And I was like, man, even if I make something of myself in this industry, like, by the time I get far along enough to even be able to be in the same realm as them, they will have probably retired. I was like, and I'm probably never gonna be able to play a show with them. And I kind of... I actually almost, like, accepted that early on. And then all of this happened, and we played a couple of festivals. I was like, holy shit. Like, this is entirely possible that we could do a tour with them. And obviously, they've been out for a while because of, Matt's focal surgery and then them making an album. But fingers crossed, man, I would do anything to tour with that band. I owe my entire career to them. I wanted to bring this up. Unfortunately, you weren't part of the band when this happened, but I actually interviewed From Ashes To New back in 2016 **Derek Oswald** when they were on the warp tour. I wish you could have been there because it was honestly one of the most off the rails and hilarious interviews I've ever had. To me, it kinda showed that the guys have an incredible sense of humor and don't always like to take themselves too seriously. So what I was wondering is, what are some ways the guys like to keep things lighthearted between touring and recording? **Danny Case** And what is one of your funniest memories so far with the band? Oh, man. There are some stories I just can't share. I would say we struggle to have enough serious moments. So that's definitely part of it. We're constantly just goofing off and being idiots. One of the things that we like to do that just evolved into this insane game, there's this thing called Spoonerisms. And it's kinda like a kinda like a dad joke thing to kinda do. And it's where you switch, like, the front letter on two different words to make something else. So so for instance, you'd say like, oh my gosh. I can't stand that dumb bitch. Someone would turn that around and be like, oh, bum ditch. And we would make a, like, a game out of it where instead of just saying, like, something that could be flipped around and into something funny, we would go to someone else and make them guess what it was that we were turning it into, and then they would have to reverse it. So it's almost like a riddle. So we were like, hey. What would you call, like, a homeless guy laying in a, like, a divot in the side of the road? You'd be like, like, oh, bum, dick. Oh, dumb bitch. Like, oh, okay. Got it. It's like, it is hard to even talk to each other sometimes because it's become so automatic in our brains that we're just like switching things around and then trying to do it to each other. But someone else is already doing it so they could like catch you before you even get your your little riddle out. And, like, we've done so many that are just absolutely insane. That's a fun thing that we like to do, and it's really hard to explain without actually someone just witnessing it. Then we're all just... We're we're always just, like, doing crazy stuff together. Sometimes our drummer... We call him... I don't know if it's 2AM or 3AM. 2AM or 3AM, Maddie. He just turns into a gremlin, and, he'll climb in people's bunks and try to touch people. And there's there's this there's this one, memory I have of several people all climbed into Matt's bunk. And something happened where one of our guys' hats fell off, and he's kinda like a South Park character. I've never seen him with his hat off. In my entire life, I've never seen him with his hat off, and he just has dreads to hang out. So, like, we're recording. It's funny. There's, like, five people, like, shoved into a bunk. And all of a sudden, Matt is just cackling to the point where, like, it's concerning for his health because he, like, he is unable to breathe. Apparently, someone flipped... He flipped the light on in his bunk because he couldn't see, and all these people were piled in there. And our guy's hat had fallen off. And it turns out the guy has two haircuts. He's got he's got these dreads, and then on top, he's got, like, an Amish, like, bowl cut. And so so Matt flicks on the light. That's the first thing he sees, and he is just, like, near vomit laughing. And he's just like, I have this video on my phone of him, like, crawling out of the bunk. He's like, I gotta get out of here. I can't do it or I can't take this. He just literally leaves the bus, and he's like, I've never left. So hard in my entire life. So those are some of the more PG stories. It definitely gets weirder than that. I won't say who, but there was a time that someone... We had a competition where someone was trying to throw a Skittles into somebody else's butthole. That was that was interesting. And it it actually happened. Somebody did it, and it was probably one of the funniest things I've ever witnessed. **Derek Oswald** Honestly, doesn't surprise me because one of my favorite memories from that entire interview at Warped Tour, one of the band members was trying to be serious the whole time. They were just trying to, you know, rein everybody in, which you know when people aren't being serious, that's the worst thing you do. Because they're just gonna get sillier. Yeah. Our our group our group is a lot like... **Danny Case** Our tour manager always says that getting us together and operating on the same page is like herding cats. So that's pretty much a 100% accurate. We're... Everybody's always somewhere else. Someone will come in, someone else will come in and be like, okay. We got two of the guys here. Like, oh, I gotta go do this thing. Then the other two come. They're like, well, now we're missing one person, and we're all over the place and always doing something different. **Derek Oswald** Now it seems like these hijinks like to follow you on tour. One of my contributors on AltWire actually told me that Santa gave you a very funny gift at the end of your last tour. Did you know this was going to happen, and what were your thoughts on the gift? **Danny Case** Yeah. We had no idea it was gonna happen. We knew something was gonna happen. We we kinda had to tell them, like, hey. If you guys are planning anything, just, like, don't do it during the set because this is, like, our sold out hometown show. Like, we want everyone to have fun, but don't do anything to, like, sabotage, you know, the the set. So after we finished, we go backstage and we wait for the encore. And then we come back out and freaking Tony from Dragged Under is out there dressed as Santa. And I can't remember what he gave everyone, but he gave me he gave me lingerie. Did you put it on? And I tried to get it on. I couldn't get it on. I could not fit it on. This is a picture of me somewhere, like, yanking up a get up, and, that's a good photo. I wish I could find it. Everybody give it up for Sam. Who **Derek Oswald** just so happens to be Tony from Drag Under. Danny, are you... Come on. Alright, everybody. Get your TikToks ready. This is Seriously, the last time he wore underwear on TikTok, he went viral. For my fiance. The lace looks great on you, Danny. There are children in the room. Take that off. What do you do? When it comes to writing new material, is there a typical writing process for the band? Do you all write demos and then develop them together, or do you prefer to create new material by jamming together in the moment? **Danny Case** It's very free form. So there's no, like, there's no specific way that it gets done. It depends on how something presents itself and where we go with it. So, like, I would say generally, we have, you know, all of us in a room, and either somebody has a little piece of something that they already have that they can bring forth, and then we expand on that as a whole. Or sometimes we come to the table and we go, hey. We really like this one particular song. Like, let's see if we can make something that kind of has that same level of energy. And then other times, it's like, hey. Let's let's come up with a riff or something like that or a lyrical idea. And then I would say that's like the general process. And then the kind of different outliers are like, Lance writes an entire song by himself, and then that's cool. Or I'll write like a musical bed, and I'll have a melody. Like, I'll have everything up to the bridge, and I have a melody for the chorus, and I bring it forth to the band. I'll just be like, let's figure this out. Somebody write the verses. Matt and I will figure out the chorus or whatever. And then there are also sometimes where we'll have an outside writer send us something as inspiration, and then we take that and turn it into our own. So there's just... There's so many different ways to go about it. It just depends on what the energy feels like and where it's flowing, and we just try to take it in that direction instead of, like, forcing a specific way of doing things. **Derek Oswald** Gotcha. Gotcha. Are there any writing that you do that is outside of the band, maybe potentially to do a solo album someday? **Danny Case** There are definitely some things that I've written that I just kinda keep to myself because it doesn't really fit the mold of what we want from Ashes To New to sound like. Yeah. I think there are definitely pieces of of my influence or of of my preference of writing that just don't really make sense to be part of the band, and that's totally cool. I'm sure the other guys have things like that as well. So there are definitely some times where I wonder, like, maybe I should fully record this thing that I've made and put it out on the side. But for right now, like, we're just so focused on what we're doing. That can just kinda sit aside. If I ever decide to do something with it, you know, then I can. I don't wanna take any kind of focus away from the band for right now. And it's like, you know, we're doing a bunch of tours, and we're gonna release an album. And it's like, maybe if there's like a dead space in between there, I could just go in and record it and, like, put it out for people just to put out there, and that would be cool. But that's probably a little ways off, you know, at least, like, at least six months off because we're really focused on everything we're doing right now. What are some issues or causes that you're passionate about that you'd like your fans to either look into or support? Like nonprofits? Like nonprofits or maybe just Or or just topics. Topics too. Yeah. That too. Both, actually. So there's something I've noticed, and I think it's just the way that that human beings work is that, like, most people don't care too much about a cause until it personally affects them. And it's a shame that that's the way we're we're wired. But it's hard to kind of have can't have empathy for everything. You'd just be a freaking basket case. I've been fortunate enough to not have too much pain and suffering in my family or in my personal life, and that's caused me to kind of look for things and to just choose to care about them before it personally affects me, if it ever does. And so I guess I guess one of the one of the ones that I have supported before, I I did like a little cancer benefit. And I was looking for somebody that I could personally benefit rather than a foundation. Yeah. The foundations there are upfront costs and operational costs and all that stuff. And I wanted to do something that could help affect a person's life specifically. So I kinda, you know, reach out to my fan base. I was like, hey. Does anybody know anyone that I could do a fundraiser for Yeah. To help them? And there ended up being this this little girl named Mars, which is such an awesome name. And she was like two or three years old and, had cancer. So the idea was like, alright. I'm gonna try to raise a certain amount of money, and then I'm gonna shave my head when that goal's met. So that was, I don't know, a couple years ago, and it was really awesome. I enjoyed it. And it was nice being able to to make a difference for for another family, and it was a really fun experience. And I absolutely do not look good with a shave test. So that's something I definitely care about. I mean, like like, just trying to be mindful of all the different pains and sufferings that exist in the world and taking time to help every now and then and find different ways to help wherever there can be help. I don't really know that I'll ever have a foundation or or anything like that, but it's always cool to be able to help even if it's in a small way, even if it's just an individual family. As far as like topics for songs and stuff like that, I think one of the things that I care about a lot is loneliness. And it affects, I think, more and more today, it affects younger people in our generation. We're moving towards a digital age. There's less person to person interaction every day. And, you know, if you don't have a strong tight knit, like, friend circle or family unit, loneliness is is a crazy hard thing to deal with. I think it can lead to a lot of a lot of really bad things. So I I think that's one of the things that I'm I'm passionate about that I wanna write more about in the future. **Derek Oswald** It's interesting you brought up Mars because as soon as you said that it actually... It's Jim Lavalle's daughter. He's a famous photographer. And I'm actually friends with him on Facebook, and I remember him posting about that. So I think that's really amazing that you helped raise money for her. I think that's really awesome. Just wanna close the podcast by asking, what are you looking forward to in the year ahead? What are you most excited for? I'm excited for whatever happens, man. I don't have any expectations. **Danny Case** I don't wanna force anything in any direction. I just wanna kinda sit back and observe and witness whatever life has in store for me to experience. So I'm definitely obviously excited to tour with Shine Down and Three Days Grace and to eventually have our album come out. Beyond that, I have no idea what's gonna happen, and I'm cool with just watching it unfold. So that's just where I'm at. Hey. Thank you so much for joining us today. We really appreciate it. Hey. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. **Derek Oswald** And that brings us to the end of this episode. I wanna thank Danny for joining us today and for being such a wonderful guest. Please be sure to check out From Ashes To New's latest single nightmare and get ready for their upcoming new album due for release later this year. If you like what you heard, please subscribe to our podcast for more interviews with your favorite artist. My name is Derek Oswald, and this has been another episode of the AltWire podcast. Thanks for listening. The first time we met up with frontman Danny Case and From Ashes to New in 2016, it resulted in perhaps [one of the most bizarre (and enjoyable) interviews](https://www.altwire.net/from-ashes-to-new-interview/) in ten years of the site (congratulations, guys). While in this episode, things are certainly much more focused, Danny doesn't disappoint! Due to release his third album with the band later this year, we discuss Danny’s experiences with From Ashes To New, the creative process behind “Nightmare,” and his experiences going from the new singer to a solid contributor to the band’s creative input three albums later. We’ll never forget the [first time](https://www.altwire.net/2016/07/29/from-ashes-to-new-interview/) we interviewed From Ashes To New, back on the Warped Tour, and back when they had a slightly different lineup. It was one of the most bizarre and off-the-wall interviews we’ve ever had as a website. While this podcast is slightly tamer, it goes off into risque territory as we also learn why **Skittles** and From Ashes To New should never mix in one of our most X-Rated moments on the podcast yet. Make no mistake; this episode is most definitely NSFW! It may be a long time before we find another story to top the one shared by Danny in this episode. Seriously, it’s that funny and that good. --- From AltWire: https://altwire.net/podcast/episode-04-skittles-and-spoonerisms-danny-case-of-from-ashes-to-new/