New Single, New Tour, New Baby??? The ICH + ICH Tour...

WOW! What a journey! Ein gute reise! The Outdoor Arena Tour with Ich + Ich is probably the best experience of my life so far. Adel and the band are lovely people (and Jackie Adel's dog is also pretty cool). They are also AMAZING musicians, one of the best live bands i've seen in a while. It's a great show. A MASSIVE danke to anyone that has clapped, whistled, bought a cd, sent me a message or simply enjoyed my music. ICH LIEBE EUCH!

Last night we played a really big show in Berlin's Wuhlheide - YIKES THAT WAS A BIG STAGE! It was a kind of a big deal for me, because that stage has been graced by some of my heros: Coldplay, REM, Foo Fighters, Clapton, Radiohead!!! And now little me :)

My new single 'All The Time In The World' is OUT NOW! Yaaaaaay! You can get it from Amazon, iTunes, Musicload and all the rest. It would be awesome if we could play pass-the-parcel with this song as it's one of my favs from the album. Send it to a friend, post it on your wall, or just sing it on the bus :) The video was shot in my hometown Scarborough UK:

"All The Time In The World" - Official Video



It's OFFICIAL! I have my own little tour coming up across Germany in November. It would be nice to see your smiley face there - and bring a friend :) You can get tickets by clicking the following link: Ashley Hicklin Tickets

These are the dates. I hope I come to a town near you!!!

25 Nov 2010

Logo ("Parrysland Tour") Hamburg, DE, GERMANY

26 Nov 2010

Magnet Club Berlin, Berlin, GERMANY

27 Nov 2010

Moritzbastei Leipzig, DE, GERMANY

28 Nov 2010

Werkstatt Koln, DE, GERMANY

29 Nov 2010

Nachtleben Frankfurt, DE, GERMANY

30 Nov 2010

Ampere Munchen, DE, GERMANY

1 Dec 2010

Zentrum Altenberg Oberhausen, DE, GERMANY



And finally to end all the excitement of this blog, I have my baby back :) No not a lady-friend, MY GUITAR!!! I am proudly sponsored by Yamaha and they sent me an amazing sounding CPX15N acoustic. I recently sent it away to be customised, HAND-PAINTED with one of J.L.Gérôme's pieces of art - 'Duel After The Masquerade'. An amazing artist called Dragan Reiser painted it for me. I'M IN LOVE!!! This guitar means a lot to me, as one of ...my favorite tracks from my record is called 'Masquerade'. I feel like this painting is a perfect representation of my music. I just got the guitar back finished and sparkly! Wow just wow!!!!

I must say a massive thankyou to Yamaha for making amazing guitars, Dragan for his incredible painting skills, Frank Otto and all at Ferryhouse for their ever-growing support and also Franz Plasa at Home Studios for introducing me to these wonderful guitars.

WDR / NDR, Seagulls, Bad-Ass Donkeys & Speeding Grannies...

Just got back from shooting the video for 'All The Time In The World' - TIRED!!! A 22hour, non-stop shoot! 2am til 12midnight! Well worth it though :)

It was shot in my home-town Scarborough, a little seaside town in the UK - it's a land of

fish, chips, seagulls, pirate ships, swanky cars, some bad-ass donkeys and the coolest mobility scooters on the planet :) I kid you not, these grannies go FAST!!!

We worked with award winning director Marcus Sternberg, who has worked with many international stars such as Run DMC and No Angels. He was muchos fun and I thank him and the team dearly :)

I've been asked to do quite a lot of interviews recently, here are a few of them for any German Speaking peeps...

Stefanie Heinzmann Interview (click here)

Musik Woche (click here)

Fruh Cafe TV Interview (click here)

All Access Lounge Interview (click here)

Soundbase Online Interview (click here)

In other exciting news, NDR and WDR have decided to start playing my song 'All The Time In The World' which is AMAAAAAZING NEWS :) Thumbs up to any DJs spinning the love of my music!!!

And finally, check out this crazy lift I found in Hamburg a few weeks back! Mental!

I'll keep u all posted on all the happenings in my little world :)

Be stupid, get drunk, apologize... "SOBER"

So once upon a time I made a huge mistake, I got blind drunk for about 6weeks, realised alcohol wasn't gonna solve any of my problems and then wrote this song as an apology / desperate plea for forgiveness - "SOBER" :)

ASHLEY HICKLIN iPhone APP :) & RODE microphones...

If you own an iPhone put your hand up... More exciting news just slapped me in the face. There's an "Ashley Hicklin APP" for the iPhone COMING SOON!!! You'll be able to play my videos and music on your iPhone whilst you're on the bus, on the tube, or even on the toilet. NUTS just NUTS! Is this happening to me?

http://www.apple.com/iphone/apps-for-iphone/

Just did an interview for the Jeannie-X show onHamburg 1 yesterday. Look out for my smiley face from the 18.06.2010 :)

Jeannie-X / TV Programm auf teXXas, das internet-programm

www.texxas.de

And to finish today's happyness!!! Wooooop woooooooop! I'm officially sponsored by RODE Microphones! Currently unpacking boxes and sending massive hugs all the way down to Australia. Sparkly new microphones that actually make me sound good :)

A note to fellow musicians - after trying my voice through the K2 in the studio and the S1 on stage, I would highly recommend investing in RODE mics. Amazing top end and pretty affordable too! I bought my first Rode mic at University and fell in love - it was an NT2. I never imagined I would be sponsored by them some day :) Go buy RODE you won't regret it...

Ich Und Ich Support Tour Video...

Rough handy-cam video footage of our first show on the Gute Reise Outdoor Arena Tour with Ich Und Ich. Live snippets of 'She Is Love', 'All The Time In The World', 'Eskimos To Astronauts' and 'Whizz Bang Bang!!!' taken from the show in Kassel, Germany, 04/06/10.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAsIc7B-xpM

Debut single 'Eskimos To Astronauts' OUT NOW!!!

My debut single 'Eskimos To Astronauts' is out today as a digital download :) yippee! It comes with a b-side 'Sober'. Download it from iTunes or Musicload:

http://itunes.apple.com/de/album/eskimos-to-astronauts-ep/id369748901

http://www.musicload.de/ashley-hicklin/eskimos-to-astronauts/musik/maxi/7219683_2

We started the Outdoor Arena Tour with Ich + Ich yesterday! Amaaaaazing first show in Kassel, muchos fun :)

For more pics click this link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=179586&id=506532821

And finally, if you would like to hear me on Radio Hamburg then vote and make me smile :) If we get enough votes I'll do a cover of a smurfs song! Link below:

http://www.radiohamburg.de/On-Air/Programm-Aktionen/Quiz-Gewinnspiele/Voting/2009/Hamburger-Nacht-Wer-soll-wieder-on-Air

My Week At Eurovision 2010 in Oslo...

Wow! What a week in Oslo. Massive amounts of fun, a great atmosphere and lots of sunshine! Big congrats to Germany for winning, it's great that Eurovision has finally entered the 21st century with a good song :)

I was really proud of Tom Dice's performance of our song 'Me & My Guitar', 6th place is the best Belgium have done in many years. From jamming out a little song together only a few months ago, to an audience of about 150million viewers! Ca raaazy! Many thanks to anyone that voted for us, especially Germany who gave us a sparkly 12 points :) WE LOVE U!!!

There were many parties, dress rehearsals, shows & jamming sessions, and I met loads of friendly faces - the guys that wrote 'Satellite', Lena Meyer, Stefan Raab, Graham Norton, Pete Waterman, Mike Scott, Sarah Cawood etc... It was a bit weird to meet so many cool cats in one place...

Lena had immense support from the German press and all her fans that travelled over. RESPECT! They were chanting her name in all the dress rehearsals and in the final. I've never seen press people chant like football fans before, surreal. She performed great on every occasion, a cheeky dance and a kookie little voice to match. I spoke to her just after she came off stage and gave her 'daumen drucken' for the calling of the results :)

When I realised that the songwriters of 'Satellite' were not allowed to sit with Lena in the green room or backstage, I was pretty gutted for them. I went for a drink with John Gordon and Julie Frost just before the show, and to my amazement they were uncertain if they would be allowed to watch the show from inside the Telenor Arena at all!!! Maybe record label bosses and tv presenters have more power than songwriters, but Eurovision is a song-writing competition right? Nevermind, I think in the end they managed to get tickets and had to watch the show from a stand with the fans. I just hope that this kind of attitude does not prevail in Eurovision 2011 when it comes to Germany. Mini rant over :)

It was nice to see some old friends that had written songs for the other countries, and it was also great to meet a few fellow UK writers. I found a great little Irish Folk Band in a random bar. We got chatting and ended up jamming until about 5am which was mental. Turns out the drummer plays with Seth Lakeman. He was bad-ass on a bodrun!

All in all, Norway put on a great show. It's a beautiful country, but musicians and student-types beware, it's MEGA expensive! Of course you can always act like a Viking and hunt for stags if you're hungry and have run out of Kroner, but getting a spear through customs could be quite a challenge!

Official Full-Length video Premiere of 'Eskimos To Astronauts'

IT'S HERE!!! WOOOP! Check out the Official
Full-Length video Premiere of 'Eskimos To Astronauts' online at: www.de.sevenload.com/musictv

Ich + Ich Arena Support Tour!!! BBC Shows, album finished...

ARGHHHHHHH! MASSIVE NEWS! Ich + Ich (one of Germany's biggest bands) have invited me to go on tour as their support act :) YIKES!!! It's an Open Air Tour, 15 dates, approximately 17,000 people per night! Woooooohoooooo! Come see us play at Castles and Hockey Arenas this summer :) Get tickets by clicking HERE

4 Jun 2010 19:30
ICH + ICH Support Tour - SCHLOSS WILHELMSTHAL Kassel, DE, GERMANY

12 Jun 2010 19:30
ICH + ICH Support Tour FESTPLATZ, BREITUNGEN Breitungen, DE, GERMANY

18 Jul 2010 19:30
ICH + ICH Support Tour - SCHLOSSPLATZ Coburg, DE, GERMANY

19 Jul 2010 19:30
ICH + ICH Support Tour DOMPLATZ Fulda, DE, GERMANY

7 Aug 2010 19:30
ICH + ICH Support Tour - RAVENSBERGER PARK Bielefeld, DE, GERMANY

13 Aug 2010 19:30
ICH + ICH Support Tour - FREILICHTGELäNDE KöNIGSUFER DRESDEN, DE, GERMANY

19 Aug 2010 19:30
ICH + ICH Support Tour - SEGELFLUGPLATZ Quakenbrück, DE, GERMANY

24 Aug 2010 19:30
ICH + ICH Support Tour - ZELTFESTIVAL RUHR Bochum, DE, GERMANY

26 Aug 2010 19:30
ICH + ICH Support Tour - WARSTEINER HOCKEY PARK Mönchengladbach, DE, GERMANY

27 Aug 2010 19:30
ICH + ICH Support Tour - JAGDSCHLOSS HERDRINGEN Arnsberg-Herdingen, DE, GERMANY

28 Aug 2010 19:30
ICH + ICH Support Tour - KINDL-BüHNE WUHLHEIDE Berlin, DE, GERMANY

3 Sep 2010 19:30
ICH + ICH Support Tour - PEIßNITZINSEL Halle/Saale, DE, GERMANY

7 Sep 2010 19:30
ICH + ICH Support Tour - BURG NIDEGGEN Nideggen, DE, GERMANY

10 Sep 2010 19:30
ICH + ICH Support Tour - FREILICHTBüHNE ZWICKAU Zwickau, DE, GERMANY

11 Sep 2010 19:30
ICH + ICH Support Tour - Störtebekerbühne Ralswiek, DE, GERMANY


We went to check out what it's going to be like, and watched their show in Hamburg at the O2 Arena! F***CCCCK!


We've played a few shows this last week or so. One in a posh hotel in hamburg (It even had an inside golf course. Mental. I felt a little under-dressed) and another with Gregor Meyle. His show was phat, he is really talented and a genuine dude!!! The audience in Cologne were very friendly. Handicam footage here of us playing Eskimos To Astronauts:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=390825302821&ref=mf

Yaaaaay! The nice djs at RBB Fritz Radio in Berlin have started playing Eskimos To Astronauts :) Tune in now! I also played on lots of BBC Radio shows in the UK recently. BBC Radio Humberside, BBC Radio Lincolnshire, BBC Raw Talent, BBC Look North TV and BBC Radio York! All in one day!!! Crazy shizzle!

The mixing of the Album is officially finished! It's now heading to Belgium for mastering! Woop! Been writing my thanku notes for the album :) it's a big BIG list of lovely people and of course 1 very special cow haha!

We now have an Official 'Ashley Hicklin' Profile Photo! Right click the image, save it somewhere special, and then upload it as your profile picture :) Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!!!


There are two other big support tours being organised for us as I speak. it's top-secret but all will be revealed :)

Official Video Shoot for "Eskimos To Astronauts" & Milking Cows?...

Not blogged in a while coz i've been megatron busy. But good busy, not boring chores kinda busy :)

Just got back from Stockholm, we went to shoot my first ever OFFICIAL VIDEO! AHHHHHHHH! How exciting! (piddle puddle on floor) "Eskimos To Astronuts" is coming sooooooooon!

It was a bit of a mission to get there, originally we had flights, but then a volcano in iceland decided to have babies, and all flights were cancelled, from Timbuktu to Helsinki. So we had to get a train and drive, all the way from hamburg to stockholm... Well worth it though, had sooooooo much fun.

Had meatballs, saw innumerable ikeas, smoke machines, astronaut costumes, make-up, and I even had to milk a cow called daisy whilst holding my guitar. YES! In the video I milk a cow. Mental!!! I didn't quite know how to do it, but we got a stunt 'cow milking lady' to help us a little bit, coz i couldn't get any milk out! Here is proof of the action, a little sneak preview...

The shoot started at 4am! Yikes! And it was stupendously cold, snow on the floor, and i was wearing shorts and a t-shirt... DAFT, yes. Worth it, yes!

In other news, I am official sponsored by Cort Guitars! Woop. They sent me a few different ones to try and i think i'm in love. They have some amazing acoustics, electrics and basses. Go buy one, in particular go buy the L900 acoustic. IT'S A BEAUTIFUL guitar, like an old martin or something. A big shout out to the NO 1 Guitar Center in Hamburg too, they look after me very nicely :)

We had a few amazing shows across Germany recently, in particular one at Prinzenbar in Hamburg. WHAT A VENUE! Beautiful, and it was RAMMED! Thanku to everyone that came. There were lots of press, radio, tv, etc, NDR, MTV etc... EXCITING! Mini Video here:

We have one more show to play of our mini tour, last stop is Cologne. We are playing with Gregor Meyle at StadtPark... Tickets here for anyone that wants to come:

http://www.ticketonline.com/de/de/eventid/859732-Gregor+Meyle/

Might see you there!!!

Super Hard-On. Little Video. Big Video :)

Just a quickie! We've been recording electric guitars this week. All the pedals in the studio seem to have exceedingly rude names, generally comedy sexual terms, like so:

DSC01059.jpg

Funny huh? Great sounding pedals though...

We just recorded this little live and acoustic video tonight of a new song on the album called "All The Time In The World". Chief twinkler Kim Sawford is on piano duties :)

There is talks of the video for our first single "Eskimos To Astronauts" being shot in Stockholm :) Woohoo!!! For those of you without a map in your pocket (or a brain), Stockholm is in Sweden! Yay! I love Sweden. The only downer in Sweden is that they put salt on all their goodies, like haribo etc. That's just disgusting...

I'll keep u posted x

Album Artwork...

Exciting week this week. Lots going on in Ashley - land :) yay!

We have a new website being designed, which should be ready in 2 or 3 weeks, so keep your eyes peeled for www.ashleyhicklin.com yikes, that's scary, my own official website. soon i might have to start doing grown up stuff like washing dishes, mowing the lawn or getting a real job. truth is i can't do anything else, other than music. best stick to writing songs.

The artwork for my debut album "Parrysland" is also being designed, as well as the single artwork "Eskimos To Astronauts". I just got the first draft ideas through from the designers at www.typeholics.de who are complete and utter genius's. FACT. Still a few tweaks to do, but it's rockin my eyeballs already.

Today i went to have a look at a venue i'm playing in Hamburg called Prinzenbar, for a special,

private show i'm playing in april for all the radio stations in germany to come and have a sneak preview listen. WOW-EE-WOO! This is an ashley venue. It's like an old italian theatre with ornate chandeliers that's now a venue for bands. I'm so excited my leg is shaking. No really:

Photoshoot...

Eeeeek! Got all the photos back from my first proper photo shoots, with a full team of crazy people, lights and stylists and cameras galore! Yeah! Scary, these guys actually made me look good :) No photoshop, these shots are 100% what the room looked like, we had smoke machines and lighting rigs. It was the crazyiest location in germany, like an antiques warehouse gone wrong. We were going for a kinda "bohemian-vogue" vibe. Is that even a style? Maybe I should patent it, or make it into a wikipedia article. Maybe it's not even a style at all %) Either way, I'm super happy with these little bad boys, great photos. The first set (above) were taken by Heiko Richard and his team, and the second set (below) were taken by quite a famous german chappie called Kim Frank (who used to be in a little band called Echt)... You can see the rest in these linky-poos:

Set 1 (by Heiko Richard)

Set 2 (By Kim Frank of "Echt" fame)

No.1 in Belgium!!! Eurovision! Learning to speak german. First video...

HALO! It's official, I'm going to Oslo for Eurovision 2010! Yikes!

I co-wrote the Eurovision song for Belgium this year and after 48 hours it's already gone to Number One in Belgium i-Tunes chart! Yeaaaaah!!! The song is called "Me & My Guitar" and is performed by Tom Dice. VOTE FOR BELGIUM!!!

http://www.leedsmusicscene.net/article/12545/

We've been having lots of meetings recently, discussing things like our first music video for the first single "Eskimos To Astronauts". We've been working with a cool video director called Sandra Marschner from Katapult films. She's directed videos for Tokyo Hotel, The Rasmus, Marilyn Manson and loads of other bad-ass acts. There is a cool idea that she has developed for our first video idea based around some cool little creatures called "jumjums". Any thoughts would be nice:

I recorded a little sneak preview video of the first single yesterday on my macbook. It's very happy and dance-able? I that even a word? Who knows... I even tried to speak a little german. Tried is the primary word:

COMEDY BEAR COSTUME - EPK - EUROPEAN SONGWRITING MARATHON - PHOTOSHOOT...

Woopie Doodie! We have an EPK! An officially finished EPK all sparkly and beautiful! Big spanks to the team behind this video :) It was shot in London, Hamburg, Exeter, Leeds and Scarborough, and basically condenses all my musical adventures over the past 11 years into a few wee minutes. Clever eh? You can watch it, rate it, date it here:



I got back last week from an absolute marathon of songwriting - 3 weeks trecking across europe writing with some of the biggest producers and songwriters in the biz, including the teams behind Marit Larsen, Skunk Anansie, Novastar, Amy Winehouse, The Sugarbabes, Leona Lewis, James Morrison... The list goes on I won't bore you. All nice folk. Yipeeee! I think we now have a first single, it's the big song i've been looking to write for about the last 11 years :) Now I think we have it, all will be revealed keep ure panties on! We're recording it properly next week. I didn't get to see much of the cities I went to, but I did take a few pics. I took a gondala from hamburg to oslo, then to brussels, then rotterdam, then back to brussels (stupid i know), then smokey london town, a bicycle to berlin and then back to my little pad in hamburg! Wowie wow! Tired? Yes. Happy? Very. The new songs rock. Here are a few pics of my journey:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=148214&id=506532821&ref=mf

In other news, a friend of mine had a big gig recently, and asked to go onstage and dance like a mother funker in a comedy bear costume. Fun times! How to get lady attention very swiftly, wear a comedy bear costume. Try it, it really works :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMJ6jKD7Evw

I had my first ever real photo-shoot with a proper team a few weeks back, a stylist, make-up dude, lighting rigs the works. Bit weird. Friggin cool though. We got some surreal pictures for the artwork and for the website. Like semi-iconic pics? They actually make me look pretty dapper! Ha! OMG! Amazing location for the shoot. It was like a fairytale fantasy land. Quite trippy. Like vogue meets hobo. Very me really :) Perfecto location. It was actually this antique collector's house. Was insane. The family were loveies though, made me honey tea and shit. High-five! My management took a pic on a camera phone that you can see below, chow chow amigoes for now!!!