Inside The Half Black Heart: An Interview with Ash Costello “I used to really like debate  and talk to myself a lot about making the right musical choices and now I just don’t care what anyone thinks, I just don’t”

New Years Day are currently in the UK for the first full tour in 5 years. Here at Rock Sins we were fortunate enough to sit down with band Vocalist and figurehead Ash Costello to discuss a variety of topics, including coming out of the pandemic,  new music, the bands 20th anniversary and much more.

So the last time you were in the UK was in 2020 just before the world shut down with a pandemic. During that time you started writing the half black heart album throughout that time period. I wanted to get your perspective on that time and was there ever that conversation around if you would continue as a band?

Oh yeah, we definitely had that conversation. Because I didn’t really know what to expect, you know, none of us did what day to day and month to month, what was going to happen and so much time passed. I love touring but I was definitely burnt out and when our tours got cancelled because of COVID. I was relieved,  I was so happy to be home and then I hadn’t spent that much time with my mum, or my family as an adult in about a decade because I  constantly tour and so I was happy to be home and I thought maybe this is like this is life now I think I should look into what making an income not being  in a band looks like for me and yeah, I definitely said I’ll keep writing songs and whatever happens happens and but I was mentally prepared to not be in a band anymore.

Yeah, and I think it’s one of these things especially when you are writing in that situation. Looking at the album now in hindsight, from when you first started writing it to where it is now you guys must be completely different people, especially yourself, going through that situation to where you are now. How do you reflect on those songs and that time period so far removed from it while still promoting that album on this cycle? 

It doesn’t feel like they match and I don’t think about it like that honestly because I’m so far removed from it now. We’ve already moved on to the next sound and the next music we’re writing so to me, it’s like “Okay, no one has heard it live here so it’s all new here” and I still love playing it. I’m just excited to move on to the next chapter

How far along are you in the writing process of the new album? 

Baby stages, yeah, baby stages. We’re stepping into what direction we want to go and discussing that right now because I kind of have this mindset of um, there’s nothing to lose, who cares?  let’s just do every single weird idea we have and if people like it, great, if not, then, oh well. I don’t care anymore. I used to care so much. I used to really like debate  and talk to myself a lot about making the right musical choices and now I just don’t care what anyone thinks, I just don’t. It’s gone, all care is gone (laughs)

And as an artist, you’ve mentioned  looking forward and looking to the next sound. Are you one of these people who does look back at what you’ve done previously to kind of see what you could have done differently or once something is done, that’s it, it’s a different time and place and that’s it.

(laughs) I don’t look back a lot and anything so no, it’s kind of like out of sight out of mind. Yeah, I really don’t now that you mention it, I hadn’t thought about it, but no I don’t. just forward. Just looking forward.

At the risk of making us both sound old. 2025 marks the 20th anniversary of New Years Day.

It’s weird though, because I know that, but New Years Day has had so many lives, so many different lives, it’s lived, I don’t know what is the real New Years Day where it started. Yeah, I know technically our first release was in 2005 so technically it is 20, but that’s not New Years Day, it’s like When did New Years Day really start? If I had to think when New Years Day really started, I would say, 2015 is when I really figured out what this all was and so I feel like it took 10 years of not knowing what I’m doing or what kind of music I’m making, or what’s going on for us to really find like who we were. So it could be 20 years, it could be 10 years, it could be 5 years. I think in a lot of ways New Years Day really came into its own in 2018 so I don’t know but technically, yeah, I’ve been doing this for 20 years this year now isn’t that gnarly.

To your point there, saying how it feels like it could’ve been  10 years, 20 years… were there lessons that you learnt in those first 10 years that helped carry you through the second 10 years from 2015 to now and what lessons have you learnt in the last decade that you think you’ll take to the next 10 years.

I think we’re all learning lessons, you know, through life, we only learn lessons through trial and error. I mean, you definitely learn lessons when things pan out and  work out and it’s successful, but I feel like a lot of really good lessons are learned in the mistakes and the mess ups and we’ve had no shortage of that as most bands that have been around this long do. It’s crazy to think Nikki, my partner in crime guitar player, has been in the band I want to say 15 years ,over 15 years now. It’s a pretty long time, that’s really long like that’s crazy and Jeremy, our other guitar player has either just come up to 10 years or It’s a little over 10 years, and our drummer is already at 5 years now, where is the time going?

I wanted to ask about your older music. I noticed when I was looking at the setlist for this tour, there’s nothing from pre 2015, it’s all from that last decade.. Would you ever consider doing a tour that is a celebration of the last 20 years of New Years Day where you bring back songs from The Mechanical Heart and Victim to Villain eras.

Totally, you know, it’s funny because I just listened to The Mechanical Heart not that long ago, and I was like “These songs are banging,they’re good”. I sound very young vocally. I sound so young, now when I listen to the older songs, they’re so low now for me, because my voice has expanded over the years and my range has expanded. Now I sing  a lot higher. I actually think those songs would be really hard for me to sing,but, yeah, I listened to them and I sound so young, it’s crazy I sound like a little kid. I feel a lot of pride in those songs, because we did those in our bedrooms back then and like we did a good job, we really did and I’m proud of that.

Victim to Villain is the first thing I heard from you guys. It was the album that really got me into New Years Day. It was an album that came along during a difficult time in my life and due to that there are a lot of songs on there that mean a lot to me. I think as an artist there is always that point where you look at the things you want to play for yourselves, but also you have to see what the fans want to hear as well.

But not so, because on the last tour we did with In This Moment and Ice Nine Kills, last year we did a fan vote like what songs do you want to hear and the most voted one was Angel Eyes and do you know which was the worst song of the night every night? Angel Eyes. I thought it was going to be great, the fans really wanted this, it’s going to go off. Flop. Big fat flop ,every night. My least favourite part of the day was getting to Angel Eyes, because it was like Cricket. I was like, “What the hell guys? Y’alll voted for this song, what happened?”I thought it would be great, the crowd will sing Chris’ parts and none of that happened, so I don’t know anymore. But you’re right, we do need to incorporate some like older stuff. We’re doing kind of a shorter headline because we’re just testing the waters here and that we’re very bare bones right now, we only have like 2 crew and we just want to come out and it’s going so well, we’re  like, okay, next time we’ll come back with production, a bigger crew, maybe like an hour 45 minutes set throw in some songs we haven’t tried in a while and really bring it so next time.

The industry has changed so much since you got started. You came up through Myspace and flyering and playing like basement shows and things like that.  We now have  things like TikTok and these other avenues, so for you as an artist coming through that scene and seeing all of those changes, what’s your opinion on where the scene and the industry is now to where it was then. How do you feel it is for bands & artists that are coming through trying to make their name.

I think it’s really cool, actually, I’m always browsing TikTok & Instagram and it’s really neat to see, especially the women,I’m so enamored by the female artists out there, who make these incredible brands by using TikTok and the personalities they’re cultivating,and their little worlds they  are creating based on what they think is cool in her heart as really intriguing and fascinating i just found a couple new girls last night. It was really fucking sick, they’re creating something really really cool and I wish I’d had that when I first when I was starting out but you know when I was starting out, it was burn your own cd’s in the garage and hand them out to people at Warped Tour and that’s how you got the name out there.. You know, but TikTok would have been a hell of a lot easier.about help a lot easier, i wish  we’d had that. I think it’s fascinating. I feel a lot of touch with it and I just don’t have the energy in my life for it.

I remember you saying that seeing No Doubt on the Tragic Kingdom tour and how Gwen Stefani and that band was a big influence on you. Obviously that was a very formative moment for you. I wanted to ask you about it from the other perspective now. How does it feel to have people coming up to you and saying you or New Years Day is the reason they are now in a band or started their own projects, so how does it feel having those conversations from the other side?

Well, I remind myself that it matters like they’re not just trying to say something nice to me like they’re really mean it cause I have a bit of an imposter syndrome, so I’m like you’re just saying that you know like, but I have for tell myself when I felt that we had really felt that way. It really was true for me and so I try to remind myself. But I’m still that way like there’s still artists, I would meet now and say, like “you have shaped everything I’ve done” and just recently I got to tell Brandon Boyd that and how I would wait  hours and hours and hours to be the front row barricade for their show and how much I loved him and how much his personality onstage, cultivated mine and he thought that was so cool and he was so sweet about it.The one person they haven’t gone to tell yet though is Davey Havok, so hopefully someday i can meet him.

Yeah, he’s one of my heroes as well. AFI was THE band for me when I was a teenager.

I’ve been from me to you him so many times but I’ve just  never found the right moment to be like, “Hey, just, you know, I love you” and because he’s such a super private person, I don’t ever want to intrude, so I’ve never said, I’ve never said anything, but someday.. He’s like a hero. 

There’s some things I’d like to talk about in terms of collaborations and opportunities that you guys have had. One of the big things that opened you up to a massive audience was doing Rhea Ripley’s original Theme music and then being at WrestleMania & NXT.So first and foremost, I want to talk about what that was like as an experience for you and what you saw in terms of growth as a band coming out of that.

So definitely, saw a huge growth, I mean, everything jumped up by the hundreds of thousands and we’ve gotten a lot of very diehard fans that I’ve met in person who were originally from WWE, maybe not metal fans, but they love the band because of the entry song and I’m just so thankful to have ever been a part of WWE at all. There’s definitely talks of more in the future we’re always trying to do, they’re always trying to find a way, this is what they say once you’re  family, you are family and so they’re always trying to find a way to fit us in. That’s why we did the Halloween one, because we’re perfect for Halloween and we get that all the time, so we just have to find where we fit.

More recently you’ve done a collaboration with Lacuna Coil. You are on their new album Sleepless Empire , and you’ve worked in the past with In This Moment & Halestorm, and I wanted to talk to you about working with other artists. What is it like for you when you are entering someone else’s world and working with them on their song or whatever the project may be.

I just feel privileged because I’ll always feel like the uncool kid in school and I’ll always feel like that, so whenever anyone in my peer group, especially from the cool kids like if you’re the kids that eat at the cool kid’s table like if I’m invited to have lunch, you know, just sit at their table for a minute and I just feel I feel privileged so I’m always happy to do a collaboration anytime anyone asks me. The only thing I ever turned down was Ice Nine Kills,  they asked if would act in one of their earlier videos for an older song and it was like a 1950’s theme and yeah, she ends up a vampire,and they wanted me to do that part and I was so shy at the time I was like, I’m not pretty enough to play the mean girl and that’s how I thought  myself and so I was like, “No I don’t want to do it sorry”.  That’s like the only thing ever turned out, but then later on, you know, 10 years later, I got to do Rainy Day and be the Zombie. They didn’t tell me I was going to be in the video so much, he said i was just going to be one of the zombies in the background, it  would be fun to have me there like an easter eggs like, and i was like “yeah I’ll totally hang out in the background whatever, I’ll bring the beer, it’ll be fun” and then I get there and he’s like, “okay, here’s your makeup artist it, Here’s what you need to wear and here’s your stunt coordinator”,  and I was like “What the fuck…stunt coordinator? I thought I was just walking slow in the background” but they changed their mind and they wanted me to do some fight scenes. I’m not physical at all. I lose my breath when I walk up the flight of stairs so like okay and I also don’t act, so yeah he got me, he tricked me. (laughs)

On the other side, is there any artist that you’ve been looking to bring into New Years Day’s world that you want to collaborate with that you haven’t been able to pin down yet.

That’s a good question. I haven’t really thought about that. You know, I’ve never gotten to collab with, I  would love to do something with Spencer. Well, that’s not true, because I killed him in a New Years Day, video,so we have collabed but not vocally, I would love to do something vocally with Maria Brink, there are tons of people but Spencer, Maria would be great I think. 

I think it would be a perfect fit in both scenarios

Yeah, totally it would be cool

Since we are talking about other projects and I have to ask, what’s the status of The Haxans at the moment? 

Oh well, I don’t want to speak for Matt, but you know you had a second baby, so he’s got 2 kids,2 very young kids at home and he’s a very, very busy dude. He’s like doing this awesome toy line right now. He’s now in Marilyn Manson as well who is doing a full summer run. We always said The Haxans was our passion project, we never intended to tour with it. The fact that we found time to play shows and tour in our schedules was like a miracle like that was never the goal, it was just to put out music when we could and have fun.Then people really liked it so we tried to find time to tour, you know, never say never, but as of right now he’s so busy. There is more music there’s a whole like there’s like 15 songs still waiting to be put out. We record a lot of music.

During this conversation we have talked about your longevity in the industry and how much obviously you have changed as a person. What would you say is the biggest difference between the person sitting here with me today and the person who started New Years Day 20 years ago.

Oh god, like a lot of difference. Yeah, I mean, just better, stronger, wiser, calmer you know, works harder, it takes a lot of tenacity and psychotic obsession to do a band for this long. It’s a long time, you have to really want it, and I don’t even have to try,I just wake up and do it. So I don’t know I feel like yeah, I don’t know, I don’t know just good.

Tenacity is a really good word. I think, especially in today’s social media age where so many people have so much entitlement and they think that they are entitled to band’s, ready to say what they want you have to have a tough skin to go through that. It seems like in your case your fans are mostly respectful and there isn’t much of an online backlash when it comes to New Years Day.

In New Years Day land our fans are so respectful. They’re understanding they’re really cool they  treat us like family, we’ve really have cultivated and it’s taken a while to get here a fanbase doesn’t argue or fight with other fanbases, I’d tell them if the hate trickles in they just Ignore it, you know, I tell all of our fans, don’t engage just ignore it, who cares…and no I don’t see any negativity in my world. 

But I think that’s a testament to you guys as a band, and the message that you put out, that you don’t have a fanbase that is toxic or causing any problems.

I wouldn’t refer to our fanbase as toxic at all, which is great because like I said I have a lot of friends in very big bands and they know their fanbase is toxic  and they know it and they know there’s something they can do about it, but that’s not how i’d describe ours at all which is great.

In closing do you have a message for all the New Years Day fans out there.

Thanks for sticking around it, let’s keep going and let’s see what else you can take it.

New Years Day are currently on tour across the UK. Dates & Ticket information can be found here

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