Real name: David Holton and Ian Christensen

Effective period / Period of releases: 1999 - 2000

Ashengrace are from Phoenix, Arizona. Ashengrace is David Holton's project combining Shoegaze, Ethereal, and Gothic rock elements with synths. David Holton has been playing music since the late 1980's and recorded with Ian Christensen the album "Ashengrace217" under the band name Euthanasia around 1991. David eventually changed the band name to Ashengrace on February 29, 1992 and was the sole member throughout the mid/late 1990's and early 2000's. David Christensen rejoined David during the recording of the album "Sandstorm" throughout August 2003 to 2004. In 2007, Ashengrace announced an upcoming album titled "The Breaking Wheel" to be released later that year. They released the songs "Idolater" and "Missing" onto their Myspace page in the summer of 2007. The duo didn't release this sixth full-length album until 2009 and was retitled "The Missing."

The official biography from the Facebook page:
Ashengrace was founded February 29, 1992.
Music for lunar orbits...
Biography:
At a record store in the fall of 1987; high school friends Chris Roe and Ian Christensen met David Holton whilst finding the original 7" of The Cure's "A Forest". After a brief discussion, they decided to form a band with friend Greg Gemson on guitar, Chris on Drums, Ian on Bass & David on guitar & vocals. After about 6 months they played a show at Ian's high school as Vixen Red (no one liked Ian's name of "The Dead Lymphocytes"). This show included top 20 hits such as "Wipe-out", "Just Like Heaven" & "Twist & Shout". Shortly after, a new vocalist "Tall" Paul Butler was brought in and practices continued covering such artists as The Cure, The Church, The Smiths, The Cult, REM, U2 & The Smithereens.

In the spring of 1989, Paul & David moved away (David to Colorado, Paul to ???), but practices continued under the name Euthanasia with Ian on vocals & bass, Greg on Guitar, Chris on Drums & Ian's younger brother Lars Christensen on Keyboards. On 1-1-90, a 6 song demo was recorded at a studio of forgotten name on Miracle Mile. Songs included "Inexorable Destruction" & "Shadows", the later ended up on the first Ashengrace album in a different form and a cover of The Cure's "A Forest".

After the demo, the band fell apart as founding members Ian & Chris found less and less in common on a musical front (Ian wanted to sound like Joy Division, Chris wanted to sound like Frank Zappa, Greg wanted to sound like U2, Lars wanted to sound like Depeche Mode). Around this same time, David was in a band called Raspberry 13 with friend Mike Ulrich in Denver who played one show at a high school talent show covering Love & Rockets "So Alive" and The Cure's "Just Like Heaven", complete with a Guns n' Roses "Welcome To The Jungle" intro. Ian joined a band called The Revenant in Tucson with friend Brendon Russel (now of Dead Panda) on Keyboards & Curtis Thompson on Keyboards. Only one show was played with this line up, on Halloween 1990 playing all original songs except for a cover of "A Strange Day" by The Cure.

By the spring on 1991, David moved back to Tucson just as Ian was on the outs (well, out!) with The Revenant. Brendon asked Ian if he knew of any bands that could open for The Revenant at a local club, "The Rock". Ian's response was that he had a band (he didn't) and they would be ready in 2 weeks! So, he called David and told him they had a gig in two weeks and maybe he should come over to practice. Two vocalists were tried out, Steve Ross (Favorite band was Bauhaus, but could not sing "Bela Lugosi's Dead") & Steve Dorman. Neither worked out, so as a two piece Euthanasia made their debut with Ian on bass and David on guitar & vocals, along with their new drummer (machine) known as "The Cookie Monster". The following night a second show was played at The Fine Line dance club. A revamped "Inexorable Destruction" was played, along with a song called "Mirror Mirror" that David had written while in Denver and 2 new songs written in the 2 week period called "The Scream" & "Wake". Covers of The Cure's "Boys Don't Cry" & Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" were played, along with The Cure's "One Hundred Years" the second night. Over the next 6 months they played quite a few times writing new songs and getting creative with covers, such as Christian Death's "Romeos Distress", The Cure's "Siamese Twins" & The Sisters Of Mercy's "Body & Soul". This period of the band really came together at a show on Halloween at the Fine Line, opening for The Revenant. The played many of their originals along with covers of "Pornography" by The Cure, "Afterhours" by The Sisters Of Mercy & "Ashes pt. 1" by Christian Death.

The fall of 1991 also saw the recording of a Euthanasia EP called "Ashengrace217" that included the song "The Confession", which became "Ashengrace" later, and then finally "Figurine In Grey" and ended up on the first Ashengrace album. This EP was never released, it won't be, so don't ask. At this same time David joined The Revenant on keyboards along with good friends DJ Stubby & Matt Carlson, which lasted for about 6 months until it stopped being fun for all four involved.

In the winter of 1991/92 the band name got changed to Ashengrace as they discovered at least 2 bands with the name Euthanasia elsewhere in the country. Around this time, Ian recorded a 6 song demo under the name The Hithersound 4 instrumentals, a song called "Silently" that Ian didn't feel comfortable with David singing and a cover of "All Cats Are Grey" by The Cure, but David accidentally recorded a band practice over the 4-Track master of the 4 instrumentals and Ian hid away the 2 others

In the spring of 1992, they commenced on writing and finding more members. David Feiger (keyboards) & Jason Staves (Guitar) were added, but David Feiger was soon dropped as he couldn't play and Ben Anderson was added as keyboards & Guitar. 6 months later, the decision (mostly Ian's) was made that they should move to Denver. The four piece; Ian, David, Jason & Ben moved to Denver adding Mike Ulrich (from David's band Raspberry 13) on keyboards. This was a disaster for the band in itself as no shows were played. There was some silver lining to this period though; The song "Confession" on the first album was written by David one long night after watching to many "B" horror films under some influence and David & Ian found many bands that had quite an influence on them over the coming years such as My Bloody Valentine, The Orb, Slowdive, Spiritualized, Lycia, Coil & Aphex Twin (so, not really a loss!).

In the spring of 1993 Ian moved back to Tucson and continued solo recordings under The Hithersound, including a 13 minute song with friend Arusha Baker on vocals, which sounded more like My Bloody Valentine than Ashengrace. It was submitted for a Arizona musicians compilation, but was rejected. By the fall, David & Jason had all moved back to Tucson and decided to start up again. A very slow progress was made, but songs were written and a friendship rekindled after a very bad year. In the fall of 1994, Ian, Jason & David started recording the first Ashengrace album "Drawing Down The Moon" under the working title "Songs For Bitches". This was a very slow progress though, as Ian was recording and playing with Blurhead (a side project of Loveliescrushing) as well as solo recordings of experimental noise & guitar drones, Jason was recording an album ("The Dance Of The Macabre") & David had other side projects with good friend Donovan Pierce and working on solo electronic recordings.

The spring of 1995 saw Ian & Jason deciding to move to Denver because they wanted to kill David, but Ian moved back 6 months later, and Jason followed shortly after. Recording commenced with shows including most songs on the first album and interesting covers including a combo of The Beatles "Tomorrow Never Knows" & Ride's "Seagull".... (1995-2012 later)