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Peters, Glenn, 1999, 'The Grapes', Beat Magazine
In 1997 Sherry Rich and Ashley Naylor recorded a one off song as the Grapes for a Rubber Records compilation. They found working together was a natural and over the next couple of years, whenever, wherever the two busy bodies could get together, they would write and record a song. Recently they spoke to Glenn Peters about the result of their collaboration, the Grapes' first and only album release.
How did the idea come along to do this?
Ash: "It was masterminded by David from Rubber who suggested we do a song for the 1997 Rubber sampler and it blossomed from there. We just started doing songs because he said that we should do an album. We just jumped in and did songs whenever we could with whoever could fit us in. Whenever we had a song ready we would record it and mix it on the day."
Sherry: "There wasn't much planning involved really. It was just done for our own enjoyment."
When did you write the songs?
Sherry: "On the day. Je M'appelle was written on the day we did it. They all came fairly quickly. One of them I wrote in Nashville and recorded it there as well. Others we half written and thrashed them out just before we went into the studio."
Ash: "We had one where we booked to do two songs and that's when we did "Head of Blue" and "Ocean meets the Sun" which are two of the strongest songs on the record. It was nice to finish on such a peak and not feel like we are cobbling together some half-baked thing. It seems weird now trying to justify something that was so organic and natural.".
All the Mushroom artists were forced to go on some sort of songwriting camp recently where they had (to?) pair off with other egos and workshop songs together. For you was it more of a natural thing to write/work together?
Ash: "Yeah we sort of accidentally started writing songs together. Some of them are independent and its pretty obvious and some of th em there was a grey area. For "Marmalade" it was a word I had inmy head and Sherry started giving me words that took it off to a very spooky cool direction."
And that song was recorded at Ward Dotson's (Liqour Giants). He would have appreciated that kookiness?
Sherry: "We actually wrote it on the day it was recorded inhis backyard in L.A. He has a beautiful lush paradise garden in themiddle of Silverlake. We sat out there with guitars on deckchairs in the sun and wrote "Marmalade" and then recorded it."
Ash: "He's got this bedroom studio. Its like a twelve track digital desk so when you hear the words Los Angeles probably think "arseholes." Not to denigrate his studio. Its great but basically its just a spare room with a digital desk in it. We just went up there and did two songs. We did a Beatles cover as well but that would have been a bit pointless putting that on the album so we made our own Beatles song instead."
Its like the song, "Kitty Can". With that did you decide to write you r own Simon and Garfunkel song?
Ash: "No, we did a version of a Bee Gees song which was inadvertently inspired by a Simon and Garfunkel song.Its just a really kooky song. Its a nice song. The original is quite pretty."
Sherry: "Kitty Can" is a Bee Gees song."
"Silly me. That's really embarassing. Didn't pick the cover version."
Ash: "Its there for the picking. Don't be embarrassed."
Now I've lost it.
Sherry: "Your completely unprepared for this interview. Did you have a late night."
Yes. I didn't know the Badfinger song you covered with the Wilco boys. I thought I was up to speed on Badfinger. You enjoy singing together?
Ash: "Yeah. Its a bit of a new ball game for me singing close harmonies. Although we do some in Even, its often when the band is loud and you really hear what is going on where this..."
Sherry: "I have to crack the whip..."
Ash: "To make sure I step up to the mike..."
Sherry: "And make sure he's not too shy."
Ash: "Ladies and gentlemen, we have a shy man on stage. Its been a good experience for me singing wise, trying to be a bit more disciplined."
Sherry I went to some of your Monty's Bar shows. It was going to be a singing festival. Its nice to see people who enjoy singing.?
Sherry: "And people who can actually sing these days in the music industry. There's a lot of people around who can't sing. It amazes me that they get accolades and they can't sing like Madonna for instance."
Ash: "I've got quite a few accolades at the moment. They are really hurting me. I have to get some cream for them."
Sherry: "We are just about to embark on a two week east coast tour."
Lots of driving?
Ash: "Two guitars. Two human beings. Ten fingers. Two fires as Barnesy would say. I think we will work it out when we get there. I think it will be good going on a low mainenance tour with only two guitar cases."
b>What sorts of shows are you playing?
Ash: "Cafes and small pubs."
Sherry: "We are doing the Hootenanny Festival in Sydney. We might be playing at my mums bowls club in Brisbane. That will be the highlight."
Ash: "It will be the zenith of my career. It probably will be because those gigs are usually the best."
Sherry: "What are you trying to say Ash? You putting shit on my mum?"
b>Will the first Grapes tour be the last?
Ash: "Its pretty much a one off. Its probably best to keep it that way. You know how it is when side projects become monster diluted half baked wanks."
Sherry: "Its like you said the other day, that once you have the expectations of a second record you lose the magic of the first one. Especially in a project like this was...ah..."
Ash: "Slapped together."


Cormack, Greg, 1999, 'The Grapes: Hey true blue', Inpress Magazine
"He can never resist me," boasts Sherry Rich. "Any request, he never turns me down." Sherry is referring to the esteemed big wig ofRubber Records and the request was pretty much, "Can me and Ashley Naylor make an album together?" Sherry, of Sherry Rich and the Grievous Angels alt-country fame and Even mainman Ash were first paired when their Rubber boss wanted a special track to tag on to a compilation album in 1997. Having quite enjoyed their brief time together and pleased with the result, Sherry and Ash decided to run with the idea and hit the label up to spring for a whole album. Confronted with the combination of two of the most respected songwriters in the country, you don't have to be a big record label boss to know the clever answer. Naturally, The Grapes, as the duo were to be called, got the big thumbs up.
"Just fun, just really loose," is how Ash describes the approach he and Sherry took to recording The Grapes' self-titled debut album. "We weren't very stressed out at the time with our respective 'main projects,' but I think it was a good idea to do something that didn't carry the weight of this-has-to-work above it. Sometimes when you're in your own band you get all this external pressure that you're supposed to achieve a certain amount of whatever." Ash acknowledges then that the songs were written and recorded with the sole priority of personal enjoyment. "It's a bit indulgent, but at the same time it's very pure, it's recorded in a really good atmosphere. To people who like that kind of music, I think that's quite obvious.
    Sherry also relished the release from creative pressure that recording under the Grapes moniker allowed her. "Usually when I write lyrics for my stuff, for Sherry's stuff, I will obsess over it. I will spend weeks fine tuning lyrics and rhymes and just everything. With the Grapes I found it a very freeing experience not to do that. We'd write some in the studio or I'd hand something over to Ashley to put bits in and just not be obsessed with perfection. So in a way," she observes, "it ended up being more natural and more perfect anyway."
    The Grapes is a great summer record, its ten tracks covering a broad range of Ash and Sherry's influences but maintaining a strong sense of continuity between them. This impression of immediacy is despite the fact that the album was recorded over more than two years. Whenever they were in the same city at the same time, be it Melbourne, Nashville or Los Angeles, Sherry and Ash managed to track each other down for a day in the studio. As Ash explains, "it was like a song a day so effectively it took two weeks to make, over a two year period . . . It wasn't like we were doing Hotel California where we were in the studio for two years with a million dollar budget."
    Already The Grapes have played a number of succesful shows around Melbourne, including gigs with Ice Cream Hands and Rebecca's Empire, performing as a duo. Having just completed "two weeks driving around and singing and being broke" up the coast of New South Wales, they return for the official album launch at the Conti. As if the two great singers were not promise enough, Sherry proudly announces the launch will feature a full backing band - "an al-redhead super group," with Ewen McCartney of Snout drumming, Steve Hadley from Paul Kelly's band on bass, and Sherry's brother Rusty (a Scared Weird Little Guy when he's at home) "as backing vocalist, tambourine and sex symbol". From here on in, though, it is uncertain just exactly what lies ahead. Both Ash and Sherry are keen to work together as The Grapes again, but there are no firm plans mapped out thus far.
    "We're not really sure, it's just kind of left to the universe - man," says Sherry. "Just relax and float downstream is The Grapes' manifesto. It's just that we're not gonna stifle the project, that's the beauty of the whole thing, it came from such a freed-up part of our creativity. We don't want to damage it by saying 'Yeah, we're going to make six albums' or signing some kind of record deal. Or go all out to win King and Queen of Pop at the ARIAs. If we get time in the next whenever to get together and start recording more Grapes stuff, then so shall it be." So here's hoping.

Witheford, Michael, 1999, 'The Grapes: Evelyn Hotel', Beat Magazine
Anyway, speaking of Even and songwriting and being too talented to ever look like having the necessary financial reward to install the guitar shaped pool, here's Ashley Naylor and Sherry Rich, who along with Chuck, Doug and THE Tim Rogers are clearly comfortably placed in the final eight of Australian tunesmithery. In tandem, the respective spectrum of influences which inform the material of Even, and Rich's Grievous Angels is merged beautifully into a brightly hued rainbow of psychedelic-country-folk-pop where Sherry's sly and scarily mature alt- country and Ash's Byrds / Buffalo Springfield rootsy side make a delicious pairing.
    They're not shy of slightly predictable covers - "If I Needed Someone", "Feel a Whole Lot Better" - but then you never tire of songs like that, or the best bits of Sherry Rich's tremendous Courtesy Move album, and judging by tracks like "Marmalade", the heavenly duo's new record, under the moniker The Grapes is going to be another essential purchase this year. We should all be grapeful...

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