♦️𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐘: 𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐘 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓♦️

𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐘 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓, the third official single from Placebo's sixth studio album, 𝐁𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐮𝐧, was released exactly 12 years ago, on September 21st, 2009.

𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨 - 𝐀𝐬𝐡𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐲 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭, 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐀𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐨
🎵 https://bit.ly/3iPCBjm 🎵

Photo credit: Trip Fontaine, 2009; single cover / edit by Olga

It was out in all of Europe, except for the United Kingdom and Norway, with The Never-Ending Why being released in these two countries a week prior, on September 14th, 2009, as a second single.
The song was recorded in 2008, produced by David Bottrill, mixed by Alan Moulder at Assauld & Battery Studio, London, and mastered by John Davis at Metropolis Studios, London.

📍 One of the B-sides, 𝐅𝐔𝐂𝐊 𝐔, is a cover of a song by electro/alternative rock band 𝑨𝒓𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒗𝒆. The B-side song 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐋𝐘 𝐖𝐀𝐈𝐓 is originally by 𝑷𝑱 𝑯𝒂𝒓𝒗𝒆𝒚. The remix of 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐓'𝐒 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐇 was done by Placebo’s friends, a British band 𝑳𝒐𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒔. These are available on a CD single while iTunes digital download also includes a video.
𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐕𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐨 for Ashtray Heart was directed by 𝑹𝒐𝒃 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒍𝒆𝒓 and included a lot of impressive post-production in it.

🎥 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨 - 𝐀𝐬𝐡𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐲 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭, 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐕𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐨
🎵 https://bit.ly/3eYSy5x 🎵

🎥 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨 - 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐎𝐟 𝐀𝐬𝐡𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐲 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭
🎵 https://bit.ly/2WloTgx 🎵

📍 Ashtray Heart is quite untypical song because it was written by Brian not with Stefan but with his friends, Steven Ludwin and Jordan Page, with whom he was on holidays in Nicaragua. Together, they were writing kind of pop songs for other artists, so firstly, Ashtray Heart wasn’t supposed to become Placebo song. After all, Brian changed his mind and even decided to put it as a second song on the album to highlight the contrast in the way it sounds.

Here you can listen to 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 telling the story:
🎤 https://bit.ly/3xzGVtg

Photo credit: Trip Fontaine

📍 "Ashtray Heart" was also the name of the band for a short while before they became Placebo.
𝐑𝐨𝐜𝐤 𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐠: 𝑪𝒂𝒏 𝒘𝒆, 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏, 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒚 𝒐𝒓 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒂 𝒓𝒆𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒅 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒇𝒂𝒏 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝑨𝒔𝒉𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒚 𝑯𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒑𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐, 𝒊𝒏 𝒂 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 "𝑩𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒍𝒆 ..." 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒏𝒂𝒎𝒆 ...

📢 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: "Not really. There are many people who have made this rapprochement, but it's not really the case here. I have composed this song with two friends during my vacations in Nicaragua. It came to me because I was always asking for an ashtray (laughs). We began to sing the word in Spanish, which gave the title to the song. Initially, it was not intended for Placebo, but I was so pleased with the result that I decided to include it."
(𝑅𝑜𝑐𝑘 𝑂𝑛𝑒 𝑀𝑎𝑔, 13𝑡ℎ 𝑀𝑎𝑦 2009)

𝐍𝐚𝐠𝐮𝐲: 𝑰𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐'𝒔 𝒏𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐, 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒏𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒅 𝑨𝒔𝒉𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒚 𝑯𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒃𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈.
📢 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: Yeah, it was a song by Captain Beefheart, and we’ve got our inspiration from it for two weeks, the band was called Ashtray Heart for two or three weeks and then it became Placebo after that.
But this song is .... It was never intended to be used for Placebo, I wrote it with two friends of mine, we write songs together for fun and this one ...
𝐍𝐚𝐠𝐮𝐲: 𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒚 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒊𝒕?
📢 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: Because… because of this connection to Ashtray Heart etc., we wrote it to sell it to someone. And we wrote it in Nicaragua, so there is Spanish in it ‘Cenicero cenicero mi corazon’. I was the only smoker, and when I was on vacation in Nicaragua I was always asking in every restaurant, in every coffee for ‘cenicero, cenicero’. We had the demo for this song, we listened to it while driving across Nicaragua and that's how the song was written. And this is the first song which is on Placebo album that I didn't write with Stefan.
(𝐹𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐ℎ 𝑇𝑉 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑇𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑎 №318, 𝐹𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 4, 𝑎𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑛 𝐽𝑢𝑛𝑒 5𝑡ℎ, 2009)

On every Tuesday evening, we're used to watch a great live performance together, so let's do it tonight too!
🎥 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨 - 𝐀𝐬𝐡𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐲 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭, 𝐅𝐍𝐀𝐂 𝐑𝐨𝐨𝐟𝐭𝐨𝐩, 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐬, 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟎
🎵 https://bit.ly/2WLa6vN 🎵

Post by Olga