I have made no secret my favorite pony of the Mane 6 is Rainbow Dash. While Discord is my favorite character on the show, Dashie was the first pony to capture my attention over seven years ago. And when Ashleigh Ball agreed to sit down for an interview with Equestria Daily you could have knocked me over with a feather.
So it would only make sense to post an interview with Rainbow Dash's voice actress on the day her season 7 episode premiered… in Canada.
After the break, you can see me make a complete fool of myself in front of the actress who plays my favorite pony. Oh discuss Hey Ocean's new album coming out later this year, and her thoughts on a certain movie coming out later this year. Enjoy!
The Illustrious Q: Ashleigh, thank you for agreeing to this interview with Equestria Daily.
Ashleigh Ball: My pleasure.
TIQ: How's BABSCon been treating you this year?
AB: BABSCon has been just wonderful. I've got a wonderful handler. His name's Scott, he's right there doing performance art. I am having a great time. There's great VIP personnel here, we got your Peter New, Tabitha St. Germain, Tara Strong. I was a bit bummed that I wasn't on a panel with Mike Vogel, though. That would have been a good thing to do, to put a writer on the panel.
TIQ: Oh Mike Vogel is a very, very, very fun person to talk to.
AB: So fun. I just wanted to hang out with him more. We weren't on any panels together.
TIQ: I wanted to hang out with him more, too. I actually was on a panel with him.
AB: Oh, aren't you lucky? Rub it in my face, why don't you?
TIQ: *mortified* Sorry! So sorry!
AB: It's okay. I got to hang out with him in his hotel room and see those snippets from the movie. *laughs*
TIQ: Ooh. Speaking of the movie, how does it feel to know that once My Little Pony: The Movie hits theaters, October, you'll be a movie star?
AB: Oh my gosh, a movie star. Yeah, I can't wait to add that to the resume. Movie star. No, I'm really excited about the movie, especially after watching little snippets of it in Mike's room. I think it's going to be great, and I'm excited to hopefully meet Sia at the premier and Emily Blunt, oh gosh. She's amazing.
TIQ: And Zoe ...
AB: Zoe Saldana.
TIQ: Yeah, Zoe Saldana.
AB: Also a beautiful woman who I'm excited to meet. All the cast, Taye Diggs and Liev Schreiber.
TIQ: It's like when I was looking through the credits for all these people, for all these big Hollywood stars on the movie, I'm like, "Gee, I've seen you, I've seen you, I've seen you. Wait, you've got Sabretooth as the bad guy?!" Which suddenly made the move a lot more cool.
AB: Sabretooth?
TIQ: X-Men.
AB: Oh, right. Right, right, right, okay. Sorry, I got to brush up on my X-Men, apparently.
TIQ: What are you looking forward to the most about the movie's release?
AB: What am I looking forward to most? Being able to say that I'm a movie star.
TIQ: *laughs* That'll work.
AB: I'm just excited for people to see it. Jason has been working so hard. Mike, as well. Everyone involved has been working so hard on this movie, and I think it's a really cool storyline and there's so many great characters and lots of good music. It's as close as I've ever come to making that style of big, animated, Disney-esque picture. I think it'll be really something that everyone in the family can enjoy.
TIQ: Well, I certainly hope so.
AB: Yes. It's not just for the fandom, but for all kinds of people who want to get into the series. I think it's just going to make more fans out of people.
TIQ: What do you think of the fact that this season is going to feature not just Rainbow Dash's parents, but also Applejack's parents?
AB: *surprised* Who told you?
TIQ: It was announced at New York Toy Fair.
AB: I'm so excited! I don't know if it's public knowledge who's playing my parents, but I'm a fan. I don't remember a lot of the episodes that we record, but I remember the Applejack parents episode like it was yesterday. It's a really, really good, really great script and a really beautiful story! I'm excited for it to come out and see how it's all animated.
TIQ: You're not the only one. I know most of the fandom's been chomping at the bit for seven years trying to find out, what happened to Applejack's parents? Who are they? Where did this very amazing person come from?
AB: Yeah, it's a very cool story. I hope it comes out soon, I don't know where, in order of the release it's coming out. But I want it to come out as soon as possible so I can watch it!
TIQ: Hasbro's been teasing an episode which will have some real big guest stars going to be coming out this summer.
AB: Oh, maybe that's the one.
TIQ: Maybe, I don't know.
AB: Okay, we'll see. No one knows. There's no way of knowing.
TIQ: There's no way of knowing whatsoever. You've mentioned a couple times during BABSCon that Hey Ocean! has their fourth album releasing later this year. What can you tell us about it?
AB: Oh, man. It's an album, and I'm proud of it. It's been a while. It's been awhile since we released anything, so I'm really excited to get some music out there. Yeah, it's getting mixed right now by a really awesome mixer from LA named Maddie Green. It's going to be out probably in the fall, maybe the first single or so in the fall. Maybe in the new year, but we're hoping to release it before the new year.
TIQ: That sounds like a lot of fun.
AB: It's been a lot of work and a lot of fun. Yeah, it's definitely been stretched over quite a long period of time with the recording and the writing. The band's sort of spread out right now. Dave Vertesi's been living out east and Dave Beckingham, the guitar player, has been doing a lot of work in Europe. But it's been awesome. I'm so happy that we're reemerging as a band.
TIQ: Getting the band back together again.
AB: Totally. Yeah, we needed a break from touring. I've got a solo thing coming out in June, and then the band will be back in action.
TIQ: When do you see Hey Ocean! touring again?
AB: We're probably going to do a tour in the fall, support this album. Definitely a tour in Canada, anyway. I don't know about the states yet.
TIQ: I know you can't talk about the specifics of what's going to be on the album too much, but is there any particular song that you're really, really proud of, that you can't wait for your audience to actually hear?
AB: I'm excited about all of the songs. There's one song that I was going to release solo, and I'm glad I waited, because it's a song that I wrote with Dave Vertesi. I think it deserved to be a Hey Ocean! song and not an Ashleigh Ball solo project song. I think it's probably what we'll start off the album, or it'll be the first single, anyway. But there's tons of great music on it, and we're kind of branching out to different genres and doing what we love. Hopefully, that shines through.
TIQ: Well, I definitely look forward to hearing it.
AB: Yeah.
TIQ: Considering your musical background with Hey Ocean!, with writing your own songs and music, have you ever considered collaborating with Daniel Ingram on new music?
AB: Yeah, we talked a little bit about that. Maybe in the future that might take form. But right now I'm sort of focused on my own music. He does such a great job with the series, and I love his work. Vogel, too. Vogel's writing some killer lyrics.
TIQ: Yeah, he did a really bang-up job on his debut episode, which is when he wrote The Christmas Carol parody.
AB: Oh, yeah. So good. He's such a talented guy.
TIQ: It's like, whoa. Where have you been?
AB: I know! Vogel. Secret weapon.
TIQ: Is there anything you'd like to say to the readers of Equestria Daily?
AB: Hello, readers of Equestria Daily. It's nice to be interviewed, and hopefully you'll read this. We'll all be together soon.
TIQ: Well, thank you for your time, Ashleigh. It's been a pleasure.
AB: Thank you. Very nice to meet you.
TIQ: Very nice to meet you, too.
Twitter: The Illustrious Q
