Beautiful music happens when you combine forces of three strong rock bands, Beautifully Crude that is. Michael Ashley from Shadows of Light, Tommy Krantz, Scott Moore and Gary Belcher from Generation Down and Derek DePrano from Red40 banded together and the outcome is a melodic rock sound you won’t soon forget.

Generation Down and Shadows of Light were touring together in Nashville and abroad. Both had strong fan bases and both ended up disbanding. Tommy and Michael began writing songs together. It wasn’t long before Scott and Gary were involved, soon after Derek joined them and they found themselves with a band.

According to vocalist Michael Ashley, the band collaborates on everything from songwriting to choosing a name, “We all wrote down our different ideas and ended up with about 300 names! Then everyone voted separately by deleting three at a time, narrowing it down. Every time we would rewrite the list, until we had it narrowed down to about twenty. All of a sudden, there was ‘Beautifully Crude.’ At that point, we started looking at each other’s votes and we had all picked the same name. No one to this day knows who came up with that name.”

Michael explains each member’s role, “I sing, handle the booking and tend to be the one to rally the troops, to make band decisions. Scott and I handle the artwork and Gary handles the band funds. A song is typically written by Tommy starting a riff, the whole band working out the parts, and then I write the lyrics and melodies. We have been very lucky to have chemistry that just seems to work.” It works so well they wrote their entire first album in about a month. Their relationship with the outside world doesn’t always flow as well, “We have a neighbor that doesn’t like it when we rehearse, and she has cops for friends,” he says laughingly.

Michael, who describes himself as, “A good guy with a lot of demons”, started on his musical journey at the age of thirteen, “I played for a school talent show. My mom was blown away. That really changed my life, seeing her react that way. I idolize her. I am the baby of a very large extended Southern family, located in Nashville. After my dad died, when I was five, my mom and I moved to Phoenix , Arizona , where I grew up. I ended up playing in bands, and at age 19, I got to open up for the band Tool three times. Thrash Metal was very big in Phoenix back then, so we also played alongside Sacred Reich and Flotsam & Jetsam. In 1998, I moved back to Nashville to further pursue music.”

His music and spirituality go hand in hand in guiding Michael, “I am not a ‘religious’ person, but when I am struggling spiritually, it affects my entire being. Music is just one of my artistic expressions, but, without it I would surely go insane. It is a way of dealing with things that are going on in my life whether good or bad. After losing my brother to cancer in 2008, I had some very rough times. It was a blessing to be able to write a song with my band, in his memory. It just seemed to come out magically. It will be on our next CD. I hope it will help others in times of mourning, as it helped me when writing it.”

The self taught, muti-talented singer also plays guitar, bass, drums and keyboard/piano says he doesn’t have much time for anything other than the band, but says he enjoys, “drawing, photoshop, watching football, UFC and spending time with family and friends.”

Falling into the later category is his girlfriend, Tiffany. “I have been in a relationship for 3 ½ years with Tiffany Latham, the beautiful alternative model known as ‘Sweet Surrender.’ She is my biggest fan and she is the best girlfriend ever. It takes a special woman to be with a musician and she has it down!”

Describing their sound as, “Feel good music with an attitude,” Michael is ready for whatever comes next; “I would love nothing better than to get on the road! If that means getting a deal, or doing it ourselves, I don’t care. I want to play to as many people as possible. If they like our performance, hopefully they will buy our CD. We are working on a 2009 tour to support our new CD, ‘The Ties That Bind..’ We are also beginning pre-production on our first music video and we are already working on writing a new album.”

Michael sums up Beautifully Crude by saying with a laugh, “Our attitude is ‘Beautifully Crude’. We are bad boys, yet nice guys. I think our name is genius. It’s not just a band name - it’s a statement. A lot of people can relate to it. I mean it could be its own clothing line!”