If you think you’re too young or too out of the way to make it, take heart from Ash.
We know that it’s hard for really young bands to get heard, but Ash offer some hope. They were still at school when they were offered their first national support tour. We also know that people far from London tend to feel cut off from the industry. Ash managed to do it without playing London or anywhere else outside of Northern Ireland. With a new album about to be released and a headline spot at Radio 1’s One Big Weekend coming up, we asked bassist Mark how they made the journey.
You released your own 12" as a school project?
Yeah. The teachers tried to get all the people doing Economics GCSE to do this Young Enterprise thing where you had to run a small business. Most people were making wee lampshades or picture frames or something. We thought it was a good chance to get some money together and put out a proper record so we went round Downpatrick and got all the local shops to put some money in. This was before CD so everyone was selling their stuff on cassette. We just thought we’d stand out and get taken a bit more seriously if we put ours out on proper vinyl.
Did you sell them all?
We did. They’re going on eBay for over £500 now because we only made 500 copies, although that was a lot at the time. We went round local record shops and asked if they’d take 3 or 4, and then when they’d sold them we’d go back and give them more. We also sold them at shows, well sort forced them upon people, really.
You were right on the verge of splitting up when things really took off for you, though?
We’d been playing for three years in the same few bars around Downpatrick and Belfast but other than that there weren’t many opportunities. There was a good scene around at the time - probably about eight young bands playing regularly. Everyone who was into guitar music was either in a band or a roadie for one, but the whole thing lost its momentum when people had to start thinking about leaving school and going on to find jobs. We were looking at the situation where if something didn’t happen we’d probably have to go our separate ways.
Then you picked up a sort of manager?
There was this guy Bill who was a few years older than us. He had great aspirations for himself in music but he was really pivotal because he took us on and sent out demos to every address he could find. Tav, who’s now our manager, heard one. He was a press officer at the time but he was trying to start up his own label.
It was Tav who put out your first single?
There was one song on the tape that really stood out for him so he gave us £300 to go and record it in a half decent studio. It was called “Jack Names the Planets” and it became our first proper single. He put it out on 7" and when Radio 1 started to play it, that was when the labels got interested in signing us. They came over to Downpatrick and the rest is history I suppose.
So A&R people came all the way to Northern Ireland to see you?
Yeah they came to us. If you can create enough of a fuss then they’ll eventually come and check you out because the A&R men want to make a name for themselves - especially the junior ones. They want to break a band and make a big name in the industry so they can get a massively well-paid job. If they can discover someone new then it’s all about their career as well as yours.
You’ve just finished a new album. Any tips on recording?
We’ve learnt over the years. We’ve found out on the past that you can waste so much money in studios if you’re unprepared. We write everything before we go in. You have a lot less pressure on you then. If the clock is ticking and you know that money’s draining away, it restricts your creativity. All our songs are written on tour and we do demos before we go in to record. Some songs can be two years old before we go into the studio with them. But we’ve had plenty of time to find out if they’re any good or not because we’ve seen how the crowd react to them.
So you managed to break out of a small scene - what’s the secret?
All we had was this blind belief that we’d do it. Even at the age of 12 or 13 when people were laughing at you because you’re so young, we were deadly serious. We were just totally focussed on making it. We were constantly writing new songs and rehearsing, trying to put on our own shows every weekend and getting product out in the local community. Once people know you, word will travel. But nothing happened overnight. We played around the local scene for 3 years. You just have to keep plugging away.