Ex-GUNS N' ROSES Guitarist DJ ASHBA Collaborates With His Wife On New Single 'Malosa' (GDM Remake)

Former GUNS N' ROSES guitarist DJ Ashba has collaborated with his wife, an Italo-Colombian influencer Nathalia Ashba who goes by the name Natyash, on his latest single, "Malosa", a dance/rock hybrid he calls GDM (Guitar Dance Music).

Ashba co-produced "Malosa" (GDM Remake) featuring Natyash with JP On Da Track, a music producer from Connecticut. Multi-award-winning mixing and mastering engineer Luca Pretolesi of StudioDMI (Steve Aoki, Diplo, David Guetta, J Balvin, Snoop Lion, Above & Beyond, and many more) provided the finishing touches.

Natyash released the original version of "Malosa" earlier this year. The song "received critical acclaim from top-tier outlets, including Billboard Argentina, Univision, Extra and more," according to a press release.

"When I first heard 'Malosa' by Natyash, I was blown away," says DJ, "I knew I had to do a GDM remake. I teamed up with JP On Da Track, taking her original vocals and created a brand new track around it. Our goal was to seamlessly combine the sounds of Latin, EDM and rock, resulting in a unique fusion of all three genres."

Says Natyash: "'Malosa' by ASHBA is a masterpiece! You're gonna wanna listen to it over and over, simply because you've never heard something similar before. It's the first Latin GDM track ever and I'm very proud to be part of it."

The official music video for the original version of "Malosa" has been viewed nearly 400,000 times on YouTube.

"Malosa" is Ashba's first single since last year's release of "Bella Ciao", a modern-day EDM-driven makeover of the Italian folk classic. "Bella Ciao" marked Ashba's first release of 2021 and followed a series of tracks that were released in late 2020 through Edgeout Records/UMG/UMe, including "Hypnotic", "Let's Dance" and "A Christmas Storm".

In December 2020, Ashba told "The Mark And HooGie Show" that he isn't concerned about getting any pushback from his rock fans over the musical direction of his new venture: "Honestly, I'm at a point in my career where I could give two fucks," he said. "I could care less. If people don't like it, kiss my ass. Go listen to SIXX:A.M. If what I'm doing right now isn't rock enough, I've got a rock band. They can go listen to that then.

"My fanbase, thank God, has been, throughout my whole career, just very, very accepting," he continued. "They know me — they know I'm always trying to really push myself as an artist outside the box.

"If I had to live within this box, I'd rather honestly not play music. Playing music is a form of art, and if I can't truly be an artist and be true to what it is inside — whatever that is that keeps me going… I have to stay inspired. You can only write so many three-chord rock songs. So, to me, this is something that I'm kind of more doing for myself, and I feel like I kind of have earned that at this point in my career. And I'm just having fun.

"Surprisingly… It was weird. I was totally expecting for all my fanbase just to hate it — not get it," Ashba added. "'Cause I really, really go deep down in EDM — I stayed very, very true to the EDM sound — and I really thought they were gonna hate it, and I was okay with that. 'Cause in my mind, I'm writing this for the EDM, the young kids that go to those festivals. This is full-on festival music. And surprisingly, I got no pushback. My rock fans really, really were freaking out on it, which kind of freaked me out. I was expecting them to really not get it or maybe push it aside. But they've been nothing but supportive. I'm very thankful that they gave it a chance."

ASHBA's "Let's Dance" single featured a guest appearance by James Michael, co-founder and lead singer of SIXX:A.M., which he and DJ formed with Nikki Sixx (MÖTLEY CRÜE).

Ashba told the Las Vegas Review-Journal about the musical approach of his new effort: "I would go to a lot of EDM concerts, and their shows are so over the top and, you know, all these young kids just losing their minds, right? And the one thing that I've noticed is … it lacks guitar, you know, and I saw an opportunity, like five years ago, going, 'If I could take what I do and somehow inject it into this world.' A lot of kids are not being exposed to a lot of guitar in that world."

Although Ashba initially started work on the project as a collaboration with Michael — under the band name PYROMANTIC — it has since evolved into an Ashba solo venture, with Michael announcing in 2018 that he was stepping away from the group.