Talking with Tod A. about Firewater vs. Cop Shoot Cop

A couple of weeks ago I had a chance to talk with Tod Ashley (A.K.A. Tod A) in preparation for the record release party of Firewater's new full-length, The Golden Hour, which is taking place at The Earl on Sat., June 14.

Chad Radford: I recently watched the short film about the making of The Golden Hour on Bloodshot Records's website, and I never realized how much of a politically inspired record this is.

Tod A.: "Hey Clown" never struck you as being in any way political?

I didn't realize how much it was part of an over-arching theme. This is an album about being expatriating yourself, and all of the songs tie together to address your political woes about the state of George W. Bush's America. I was looking for some sort of spiritual enlightenment or something like that … I should preface this by saying that in my mind everything you do with Firewater is forever compared to with Cop Shoot Cop. What you were doing in those days was much more bleak, nihilistic, Kafka-esque and very sharp. It's hard for me to hear Firewater and not carry the Cop Shoot Cop baggage. Overt political statements didn't ever seem like your thing, and without the film spelling it out for me I wouldn't have looked for it. Now I don't see how I missed it. I was looking at it more in terms of a spiritual journey.

The album was motivated by really being sick of participating and paying taxes here and feeling like I was living in a place where the government was not representing me. I also wanted to go to these places and be a sort of one man ambassador and meet these people and say that not all Americans are war mongering idiots. In my own small way kind of reach out and show the other side. It wasn't a spiritual journey as much as it was just a time to get the hell out of the country.