News Archive

Ash have been speaking to BBC Radio 1’s Newsbeat about their plans for the rest of this year and early next year. The band confirm that they remain committed to a promise not to release any more albums, despite having more than enough new songs, instead they will concentrate on single track releases because as frontman Tim Wheeler explains “the way people listen to music has changed”.

Tim adds that “It’s been very freeing being away from the album format and not thinking, ‘Oh, this track has to fit with that track’. We’re just trying all sorts of crazy stuff. We’ve got one album worth so far but we want to get a double album worth of stuff.”  Drummer Rick McMurray also spoke of this new freedom suggesting “I think we have to go for it. You don’t have to ignore some songs because they don’t fit in with overall picture.”.

The band gave the example of a new currently untitled song “We’ve also got a great disco song that Mark wrote, we’re not sure what it’s called yet but it’s really different for us.”

Tim Wheeler also explain the meaning behind the title of the new song the band have playing live all summer called ‘Ichiban’. “It’s Japanese for number one, it’s just a fun upbeat kind of song and its great to play live so we’ve been playing it at all the festivals so far”.

The new songs should start to emerge around Spring next year.

Also in the interview it is mentioned that Ash’s former label is about to re-release a deluxe edition of their debut album ‘1977′ in September, this will coincide with the two gigs the band are playing in London where they play the entire album in full. Wheeler said: “It’s a bit of nostalgia, we released it nearly 12 and a half years ago.”

Ash bassist Mark Hamilton spoke to O2 Making Waves during the bands 2007 December tour in Dublin to find out what it’s like to be back on the road, those rumours about this being their last ever album, and the bands plans for 2008. Catch Ash on O2 Making Waves at podcastingireland.ie.

If you head over to the official Ash website you’ll notice that there is a new interview with frontman Tim Wheeler, in which he reveals what Ash have been up to since the album was released in July and what’s to come over the coming months.

Interesting is the revelation that the band have been recording B-Sides for an upcoming EP due around the time of the bands UK tour in October

We’ve been recording B-sides recently, working on a bunch of tracks, maybe to go with ‘Twilight Of The Innocents’ for an EP around our tour. And then the plan is to get in the studio early next year and start bringing out singles, as of about March.

Tim also comments on the B-Sides to the upcoming single ‘End Of The World’, and explains the history of the demo recordings on the 7-inches.

One’s called ‘Seventh Circle’, which fans might know as an old song called ‘Singapore Song’. Bootlegs of that have been floating around for years. I think it’s actually one of my best songs, but it’s just never quite fitted on any of the albums. Then there’s ‘Wasted On You’, which is a rocker from the album sessions. And the other one is ‘Statis In Darkness’ which I wrote a while ago with a string quartet. It’s another great song, actually. Pretty depressing, but beautiful at the same time.

And then on the 7-inches we’ve got the first version of ‘Palace of Excess’ back when it was called ‘Suicide Girls’ and also ‘Shattered Glass’. They were the first things we did in our studio. We ended up totally re-recording them, but these versions show the direction the album could’ve taken. We were trying to do it fully live, with one guitar, bass, drums and vocals. So they sound a lot rawer.

Ash frontman Tim Wheeler was interviewed recently by Glenn Savage for ‘The West Australian’. Tim speaks openly about the bands desire for change after the ‘Meltdown’ world tour ended, moving to New York City, the writing and recording of the bands final album and the bands future plans.

‘We’ve reached the end of our contract and we’re just a bit sick of the frustrating slow process of albums. We plan to release downloadable singles on a more spontaneous basis to keep everything fresh’

Ash frontman Tim Wheeler and drummer Rick McMurray recently spoke to FaceCulture, check out their site for the video interview. The boys told FaceCulture about their break after the Meltdown tour, changes, proving yourself, Charlotte Hatherley leaving the band, Tim and Mark moving to New York, their friendship, the new album Twilight Of The Innocents, U2, the current situation in Ireland and lots more!!

Ash have posted another interview on their official website this time with bassist Mark Hamilton. In the interview Mark explains when they will start releasing songs straight through the internet.

‘I think next spring, once we’ve finished touring ‘Twilight Of The Innocents’, we’ll probably start releasing stuff straight away. We’ve already got some songs that never actually got recorded for this album. As soon as we have the time, we can just go into the studio and start recording them.’

Mark also confirms ‘End Of The World’ as the next single and explains that the long-awaited ‘Slashed’ horror film may get released.

‘We’ll probably start getting a plan together for ‘End Of The World’. We want to come up with some good creative ideas for that. And I’m going to finally edit the slash thing and put it up on YouTube. I think people should be quite interested to see a video of Chris Martin getting murdered!’

Ash frontman Tim Wheeler will be interviewed live on air on the Steve Lamacq show tomorrow afternoon, between 5:30 - 6:00pm GMT, on BBC 6 Music.

You can listen in to the show on the internet here.

Ash have revealed that Donna Legge flew over from Belfast to meet up with the band at the Revolution bar in Manchester for an interview to be aired on ATL TV. The interview is due to be screened on BBC2 (Northern Ireland) on March 15th at 10pm. The band also announced that they may also be broadcasting the video for the upcoming single ‘You Can’t Have It All’ on the show.

For those who don’t live in N. Ireland, the feature will also be posted on the ATL website immediately after transmission. We’ll have link details as soon as we have them.

Ash will drop by the Kerrang Radio studio next Tuesday (27th February) morning to appear as special guests on Ugly Phil’s breakfast show between 6-9am GMT.

You’ll be able to replay it via their site’s mediaplayer if you’re not out of bed or miss it, we’ll give you details on the link next week

Ash drummer Rick McMurray has spoken to NME about the approach the band took to recording the new album, part of the article runs as follows:

Ash have revealed their new album will be musically poppier than 2004’s ‘Meltdown’ - but lyrically much darker. The band will release their as-yet untitled fifth studio album, in July, preceded by a single, ‘You Can’t Have It All’.

And drummer Rick McMurray revealed that a bad time in frontman Tim Wheeler’s “personal life” have inspired his lyrics on the new record. “Compared to ‘Meltdown’, it’s a lot more pop. Musically, it might not be as heavy, but lyrically it is. Given the experiences Tim’s had over the last couple of years, there’s a lot of love and loss going on.”

McMurray also admitted the band were apprehensive about reverting to three-piece after the departure of guitarist Charlotte Hatherley last year.

He confessed: “It’s almost ten years since we were a three-piece, so we were all a wee bit worried how it would work out, but we wanted to go back and simplify. There were a lot of nerves, but after a few days we realised it was working so well we would keep going at it.”

And McMurray said that having their own studio on New York affected the group’s approach towards making the record.

He stated: “It feels more natural, rather than being in this massive studio where they have certain ways of doing things. It was more relaxed - when something wasn’t working we’d just scrap it and start again.”

Asked about summer festival appearances, including a rumoured Carling Weekend: Reading and Leeds festivals slot, McMurray said: “I think we’ll be doing a few…though I’m not sure if anything’s finalised yet.

“There are rumours about Reading and Leeds, it’s definitely the festival that we always look forward to. Some of our best gigs have been there, especially in the tent in 1995 and 2001.”

In other news the band have confirmed that two full scale singles will preceed the album release, with the first being ‘You Can’t Have It All’ on April 16th and a second single around June/July.