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’

You may have noticed we’ve been away for a few weeks, here’s some of the Ash snippets we’ve missed:

‘End Of The World’ Video Shoot
Ash’s manager Stephen Taverner has uploaded some photos from the video shoot of Ash’s new single ‘End Of The World’. The new video was shot in Tokyo, and features the band playing against pretty lights and skyscrapers, it also features a horse and ferris wheel.

Fuji Rock Photos
Ash’s manager Stephen Taverner has also uploaded some photos of Ash’s performance at the Fuji Rock Festival.

Melbourne Setlist
Ash played a gig in Melbourne, Australia at the Prince of Wales on August 1st. The setlist ran as follows:

I Started A Fire, You Can’t Have It All, Orpheus, Angel Interceptor, End Of The World, Walking Barefoot, Ritual, Goldfinger, A Life Less Ordinary, Polaris, Jack Names The Planets, Kung Fu, Renegade Cavalcade, Folksong, Girl From Mars, Twilight Of The Innocents.

Encore: Blacklisted, Oh Yeah, Numbskull, Burn Baby Burn

Rising From The Ashes
There’s are article with Tim Wheeler from Ash over on the Scotland on Sunday website, Tim talks about the personal nature of the songs on the new record, the departure of Charlotte Hatherley, and the future and their decision to release EP’s and singles instead of albums. Here’s some preview bits from the article:

“It’s all Chinese whispers. We hear something she says then she hears something supposedly from us and things are taken out of context. I have nothing but good things to say about her, and I am looking forward to seeing her. It reached a weird point where she had to go out and stake her independence and I guess we did too in our own way.”

“We’re a band, we’ve got our own studio, we’ve got a fan base and the internet. Why not use that to get stuff out a lot faster and more direct? And it will be a lot more interactive because we can feed off people’s reactions to stuff. We will aim to release at least three or four singles or EPs each year in the future. You won’t just be stuck with people’s perceptions being limited to one album that will form their opinion about you for the next three years.”

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 will be hanging out at Gigwise from 12pm (GMT) tomorrow afternoon (Wednesday, April 18th) to take part in a webchat. Login at www.gigwise.com/chat tomorrow and hit the band with your worst!

There’s a new interview with Ash drummer Rick McMurray up on the official Ash site in which he recalls memorable Ash performances at the Reading/Leeds festivals over the years, promo plans for new single ‘You Can’t Have It All’ and the lowdown on Ash’s upcoming European tour.

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.