All-round entertainment man Ash Chandler is certainly an enigma who cannot be pigeonholed into a specific specialty. When he first arrived in India having grown up in Atlanta, Georgia in the U.S. at age 27, he immediately made people take notice of his natural aptitude for stand-up acts. At that time such comedy was rare in India. Later, as he started singing on stage, one felt that he was arguably the finest male jazz vocalist in India; it was evident that Ash Chandler was a natural when put in front of an audience.
This multi-faceted talent shifted base from Mumbai to Goa a few years ago and took over the running of a restaurant! He brought in changes that included live entertainment and made sure his restaurant guests had always something new to look forward to by way of live acts on their visit.
We now hear that Chandler is in the process of writing, directing, composing music for and acting in a Broadway-type musical. We were curious to know about this new development from the irrepressible Chandler and decided to ask him directly what was going on.
Rolling Stone India consulting editor Sunil Sampat interviewed Chandler in a long session of questions and answers. We have excerpted some very interesting and relevant aspects of his stage life and his new project. Here it is:
Rolling Stone India: From being a stand-up artist to a vocalist in both the jazz and rock genres, acting in Bollywood films, vivid impressions to restaurant owner, you have ticked off a lot of boxes. This begs the question: Will the real Ash Chandler please stand up!
Do give us an insight into your younger days and what inspired this trajectory in the entertainment business.
Ash Chander: From doing theater and musical theater from the age of 15 in the U.S., I ended up getting a paid gig doing theater at 16. I ended up being a nightclub promoter and Impresario (very underage) to keep my days free to audition when the theater gig ended.
I also had my first band with a dear friend (who had broken up with a girl I was crazy about!) and we performed all over Atlanta. I then met Chris Brann (of Wamdue Project, “King of My Castle” fame) who produced my songs. I had a management contract with Bernard Rhodes( the man who formed The Clash and managed them). He had a deal from BMG, London for my album which he was going to get Trevor Horn (Seal) to produce. He simply vanished from the scene after we signed. I started to front different bands/writing songs/doing standup/managing clubs and whatever else would pay the bills. From Atlanta/Nashville/New York and then finally in Los Angeles, where I formed my first jazz band called Ash and the Sweet Blue Smoke with some of the best jazz guys in L.A. Tim Emmons on bass helped me put the band together and we had some amazing shows including at the George Hamilton’s Cigar bar in Beverly Hills. I also got my SAG (Screen Actors Guild) card then. Then a fateful three-week summer vacation to India, a record contract with Magnasound to release my Hindi pop album Husn; I came to be known as the first English language stand-up comedian in India and the movie and theater roles kept me here.
Are you a regular performer at this time for a casual audience or does corporate entertainment hold your attention?
I am back to basics. Performing with my bands, doing standup acts and creating online content which I’ll be launching soon. The corporate work is something I will always enjoy doing as you’re really alleviating a room which has had a very serious day. For now, a healthy mix of passion and paisa!
Do you have a regular band? Is there a specific type or genre of music that you like to work with?
In the States, The Ash Chandler Redux (Atlanta-based) is pretty much a band based in jazz whereas in Mumbai and Goa, the bands have to be more fluid and incorporate blues, reggae and rock. My duo, Los Bardos with Salim John Sadiq, is more acoustic, with Latin and blues. So as a songwriter, I am very mercurial. As a storyteller, I feel that different stories are best told in different voices and so I don’t limit myself to a genre, however, jazz and swing tunes are very authentic and resonant for me. Our new band (Mariia Chandler, Mark Kuteev and me) is called Citizen Too and is a really fun funk/ gospel/ rock outfit. Mariia is Ukrainian and Mark is Russian and I’m Indian-American and we are here to stand for peace above politics. Fun but not frivolous, as we explore music beyond lines on maps.
What does a typical performance of yours entail? Given your versatility do impressions or a little comedy creep into your performance and if so, is it planned or improvised depending on the audience on the day?
The different performances are so varied. As much as there are songs and elements that I’m excited to share with the audience, I think the bulk of what happens on stage is mainly energy work as I’m trying to suss out the audience and what they need at that moment to be entertained. I do so many impressions that yes, they do find themselves creeping into my shows. A typical show will have a healthy dose of humor and music.
We understand that you might be working on producing a musical for the stage. Do tell us who is doing the scripting and the music.
That’s Life is a musical play with 11 original songs, written and composed by Mariia Chandler and me. We started writing it three and a half years ago and now it’s finally ready. The music has been arranged expertly by Aviv Pereira.
What is the scope of this musical? How far has this project progressed and do you have any ideas for staging it? Perhaps you could enlighten us about the theme as well. Is it India-specific and if so, will it translate well into other cultures?
That’s Life is a fun play about how these two characters navigate themselves, each other, and life itself. They’re always surrounded by four characters whom they can never see. These characters represent the faceless, nameless things which happen to us every day, which we call life. The songs are all rooted in jazz and are certainly a homage to the golden age of Broadway musicals. Not sure how else to put it, but the play happens everywhere and it happens in all time as that’s life. Universal themes of love, acceptance and perspective are explored to a positive message and foot-tapping songs which you’ll be humming long after. At the moment we are in negotiations with one of the finest venues in India to mount our production there.
We assume that an undertaking like this will involve a large cast, perhaps an orchestra, multiple singers. How do you plan to accomplish all this? Do you have any sponsorship or backing?
There will be the core cast of six, the two lead and the four characters who play Life and additional dancers etc without giving out too much about the intricacies of the play. It has been completely self-funded for now. There will also be an intimate version of the show and a much larger version of it also so we can put it up in different sized spaces. We may take on a co-producer as our negotiations progress and the need arises.
In what language are the musical and the songs to be performed?
The entire play is in the English language albeit one of the songs in it is sung in seven international languages. This song is also the first song which got written for the play.
Is there a timeline for the launch of this show?
It will be out this year.