Is your music finally progressing? or is Tim gonna sing about his teenage years for the rest of his life?
Mark: I think the in the new material we’ve actually progressed musically. Rick especially, his drumming has come on leaps and bounds over the last 6 months. He’s watched a lot of American drummers on tour like Pete from Saves the Day/Face to Face. The new stuff is generally more ‘rock’ and we’ve spent time working on the drum parts for this reason. As for Tim’s lyrics none of the new stuff references his teenage years (so far). When we’ve put songs together we’ve often paid most attention to the tune/melody and bashed out a relatively simple backing track and then layered extra over dubs/sound effects etc on top. On Nu-Clear Sounds we went more experimental and it didn’t quite happen ‘commercially’ so we did in away go back and make a relatively direct album (Free All Angels) picking the songs which had the more obvious up beat pop hooks instead of certain songs we left off. What we’re aiming to do now is still work out the best melodies but spend more time on what we’re playing around them and make it all generally cooler.
Why were you dropped from Dreamworks all those years ago?
Mark: Well after we’d recorded Free All Angels Dreamworks said they’d release the album but wouldn’t guarantee huge backing. After Nu-Clear Sounds was released our A&R man in the company left. (In a major label which has loads of acts, if you haven’t got an executive who is fighting for you in your corner, pushing budget spends/demanding the companies focus you will be left at the bottom of the priority pile and you’re shafted) so we were fucked. The album sold about 10,000 and died a death. Rather than let Dreamworks release an album and spend nothing on it/not push it just cause they where contracted to was a waste of time. We went and met their ‘top dogs’ who at the time said Nu-Metal was selling and Free All Angels didn’t fit with what the American market was buying (Papa Roach was exploding for them at the time). They gave us the option of getting out of contract and taking the album with us. When the Kinetic opportunity arose we where the only ‘rock’ band on their dance label and they’d give us their complete priority. They may be a small independent but they’ve helped us re-establish our name and gain a growing underground following in the states.
What’s the deal with the two CD single set for almost every single since Nu-Clear Sounds. Record company not willing to take a chance on just the one any more?!
Mark: Unfortunately with the singles chart in recent years having become such a joke (competing against all the manufactured pop/dance). The mid 90’s was a golden time for guitar music charting high. And so much relying on chart positions it’s a ‘necessary evil’ we’ve had to partake in. We were very much against doing this and it caused a lot of resentment at the time. In this day and age if you don’t chart in the top 20 the radio pulls you off the play lists, sales slow/stop and you are then judged to have failed. After Nu-Clear Sounds we had to make an album with enough commercial singles to get us on the UK playlists and re-establish ourselves, the rest of Free All Angels is a mix of the other sides of Ash. It worked the album went in at 1, went platinum and we breathe a sigh of relief. On the two CD front we’ve tried to put out quality B-sides so that the ‘hardcore’ fanbase who buy them don’t feel short changed and hopefully feel they’re getting good new material. You can’t keep everyone happy all the time but we do put a lot of effort in. Over five singles you’re looking at coming up with 20 extra tracks from somewhere whilst you’re on tour/promotion. A lot of shit you see released on B-sides these days is piss poor multiple remixes. At the end of the day we’ve had to play ‘the game’ just to stay in it, it’s all about survival. So many bands have not survived as the music industry has been in recession now for some time. We do now have a cushion to some degree that we are not nearly bankrupt (as we were just before Free All Angels) and it is not crucial that the next album is as vitally commercial. Rock is enjoying a resurgence at the moment anyway so we have the freedom to have a lot of fun with less pressure.
When is Charlotte gonna learn how to be cool?
Mark: Maybe you should give her lessons.
Any chance of doing a ‘Weezer’ on the next album and post un-mastered songs on the web-site?
Mark: Closer to the time we may well do some thing like this. It’s a great way of pre-hyping the album with the fanbase. we have no problem with the idea at all in fact we’re encouraging you to record the live shows on mini disc and pass around the new tracks in the time being. But we’ll get round to maybe releasing the demo’s on the net during the months before release.
What happened to X-wing records?
Mark: I hadn’t the time to take it any further. Maybe one day in the future I’ll do something again but I’d need more time to focus on it and give it a proper shot.
Could they introduce some math rock into their music style?
Mark: I love math rock, we where lucky enough to have supported Drive like Jehu years ago. Maybe we’ll fuck around with it at some point we always like messing around with new idea’s. New track “Clones” is the heaviest thing we’ve recorded. Anyway hope these answers shed some light on what you wanna know.