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DJ Ashba is one of the music world's hardest working stars.  He owns his own graphic design studio, Ashba Media, with quite a list of outstanding clientele. He also owns Ashbaland Studios.  DJ is also in one of the hottest new bands, Sixx AM, whose song, "Life is Beautiful" was named " Rock Song of the Year" for 2008 by Mediabase, and he just came out with his own line of Ovation guitars. We were lucky enough to talk to DJ while he was at NAMM:

Ryan: We came by to check out your new line of Ovation guitars because they just look amazing.

DJ: Thank you.

Ryan: So, there are several different models with different graphics. Is there a specific inspiration for the whole line or did they just come to you?

DJ: No. Each one just kind of came to me. You know, I was real free about the whole thing. You know I designed these guitars from head to toe. The hardware, the woods, the necks. Some I have been working on for many years, I’m really proud of it you know. Instead of just putting out a typical signature model, I wanted to do a collection because I thought “this hasn’t been done before.”  You know, I own a graphic design agency and it was my opportunity to sit down and design something I thought my fans would really enjoy.

Ryan: Excellent! So, did you more or less start with a blank sheet on this or did you work with Ovation on it or how did that happen?

DJ: Well, I have a company with about fifteen employees and they are the most talented people ever. We just sat around and started sketching on paper and everybody sort of gets involved. My photographer Bjorn Opsahl, Darcy J. Watt who is a really amazing illustrator, to Rita who runs the make-up department. So, we went and found a location, well, I found the location. We took the pictures and took everything out of the pictures except me and the shadows.

Ryan: I love it!

DJ: And we basically started to photoshop in the sky and the floor and everything around me.

Becca: When are we going to get to see the guitars?

Ryan: Yeah, we were bummed they didn’t have any here!

DJ: Yeah, right now they are getting made. We are thinking and hoping by March they are going to come out and from left to right on the poster is the order they will be released. We are going to stagger them throughout the year. One of the guitars and this collection as well, is going to be carried at all the Guitar Centers.

Ryan: Wow!

DJ: You know, I’m really excited about it, and if these do really well, next year I am hoping to do four more of another collection like the Vampire Collection or whatever I create.

Ryan: well, vampires are a big thing right now! *laughs*

DJ: Hopefully, it will be an ongoing thing. Out of the four I teamed up with, an artist that I have a lot of respect for is Michael Godard.  He is the olive guitar artist. His paintings go for like fifty thousand a painting. We sat down and created the last guitar which is the olive. He never painted a guitar before so it really is a special painting. If you look inside the tree, he painted my name. It is a really valuable piece to add to the collection. It is all about art. I’m all about ideas hitting me and being an artist, I like to do things out of the ordinary.

Ryan: What I like is the stuff that you do out of the ordinary but is also done with class and immaculate execution. I have never seen anything come out of you either musically or artistically that has been half-assed.

DJ: Thank you. It is my name. It’s all I have. So anything I stamp my name on has to be quality. I really am hands-on in everything I do. I oversee everything... I’m involved in everything... I’m the creator behind everything. And it's good you know? When I am working on an idea I go to one of my guys and they give me so much imput and it is important to me not to stomp on their artistic ability. They are really good at that too, so everybody complements each other.

Ryan: I think that is part of the thing also, to have that chemistry that even if you are not artistically inclined to draw but you can walk up to someone and tell them what you are thinking and they can put it down…that is priceless.

DJ: It means a lot to me because it is all about quality. Because I don’t want to put crap out there. Guitars, merchandise, albums or whatever you are selling... I mean it is hard to make a dollar these days so if people are going to spend money on anything with my name on it, I want to make sure they are happy with what they are getting.

Ryan: You are totally right!  With the guitar line, do you see the demographics for that being more the artistically inclined, or guitar players, or your fans that aren’t necessarily guitar players?

DJ: I think they are kind of for everybody. Because the way I designed them, I wanted a guitar that when people walked into a store like Best Buy their mom and dad wouldn’t be offended by it, but their kid would think it was bad-ass! So, there is a really fine line to walk when you are trying to reach the kids...

Ryan: We totally understand! *laughs*

DJ: Like the Heroin Diaries' Guitar. When it came out, Guitar Center wouldn’t carry it because moms and dads wouldn’t buy it for their kids, and that is understandable. This is totally separate from that. I didn’t design the Heroin Diaries Guitar. This is my own collection of products.

Becca: So, tell us what else you are doing with Ashba Media.

DJ: Well, we do all the Virgin Mega Stores world wide marketing and branding. We do ads for Ovation. We do Royal Underground too.

Becca: You also have your new clothing line. So are you going to do more with fashion?

DJ: Well, I think for now I just want to put out super high quality graphics, like t-shirts. To me there is not a lot of kick-ass artwork for rock kids to wear. So, we are doing twelve color printing on these shirts. Totally over the top. The highest quality we could get our hands on.

Becca: So you are juggling a lot! You are in the studio as well.

DJ: Yes. I just co-produced Motley out of it, the new Motley album there. And now the song Saints of LA that I co-wrote is up for a grammy. ( Note: Motley Crue's song,  Saints Of Los Angeles is up for a Grammy in the Best Hard Rock Performance Catagory. The CD was produced by James Michael and co-produced by DJ Ashba and Nikki Sixx. It was also engineered by James and DJ at Ashbaland Studios.)

Becca: That is awesome!

DJ: Yeah, yeah, so it is good.

Becca: Congratulations.

DJ: Thank you.

We would like to thank DJ for taking the time out to talk with us. If you want to learn more about DJ or pick up some of his new swag, then visit the sites below. Don't forget to check out Sixx A.M. if you haven't already!

www.SixxAMmusic.com

www.ovationguitars.com
www.djashba.com
www.ashbaland.com
www.ashbamedia.com
www.swagrox.com
http://www.myspace.com/djashba