After three years of relative silence and now being a band member down, Ash are back on the road to promote their sixth album operating for the time being under the tentative title of ‘5.5’ (they’ve been counting ‘Trailer’ as a half album due to its relatively short length).
From early listens, this new album seems to be seeing the band head back along the road into more familiar territory as a three-piece, making the kind of rock music that put them on the map in the first place. I caught up with frontman, Tim Wheeler before the second of his two sell out dates at the Manchester Academy. I managed to get a few comments on what had been going on in the band’s time off and what he felt Ash’s plans were for the future.
I couldn’t resist but kick off the interview by asking about the state of the band now that Charlotte had left, he seemed at first a little coy about answering the question, saying simply good luck to her, and informing me that she had a new album coming out soon. But what I found to be vaguely telling was that later on in the interview when asked whether or not they intended to remain as a three-piece, Tim responded by saying that it “would be difficult to work with another personality in the band”, or that another personality could clash with the three original members. Nothing too damning, but still there was clearly something going on underneath the surface. Tim rationalised this by saying that him, Mark and Rich had been in bands together for years, especially Mark and Tim, who have apparently played together since they were eleven years old… This had obviously created something of a difficult scenario for an extra bod in the band to deal with. Despite all my nosing and half-assed journalism, nothing particularly juicy was revealed, but the main result I found was that Ash are planning to reform back to their old glory days when they were rock legends having created some of the catchiest songs of the 90’s with their album 1977 (which as you may be able to guess, was a firm favourite of my own at the time…).
This idea was definately reinforced when I asked about the choice of venues for the new “Higher Education” tour, which was to take place exclusively amongst universities. Tim stated that “It’s just the thing that band’s used to do, the university circuit… We like to move back to play smaller venues before an album is released, it’s good for the fans, and it’s good for us to play the new material… We may even pick up a few new, younger fans along the way”. It seems to me like Ash are trying to revert to their earlier, more intimate years as student-friendly rockers tinged with grungy filth, and in certain respects, the new album sounds like it may be inching its way back full circle, whilst still having picked up a few new tricks along the way.
I asked Tim in which direction he felt the new band was going in now that they were back to being a three-piece and he said that “…there were elements of 1977 in the new album, but we’re trying to push it in new directions too…we treat it really organically, like a weird hybrid of everything.” They are trying to bring the famous Ash sound up to speed by adding a few extra loops and samples into the mix. “We have no definite aim, we’re just seeing how it all goes really…” which seems fair enough, after all, it has been a while since their last album, and they seem to be waiting to see how well received this album and tour go before they start making any definite plans.
On this tour they have been playing it relatively safe so far, seemingly only dipping their toes into the new album with just a handful of new material, which includes their new song, “I Started a Fire”, (which they’re giving away as a free download on their website,) interspersed with all the old classics such as, “Girl from Mars”, “Oh Yeah” and “Life Less Ordinary”. This is not necessarily a bad thing for the fans, because as Tim said, they’re after a few new members to the Ash camp, and in order to reel them in they’re playing possibly their best line-up of tracks to date, filled with both nostalgia for the past, and some of their rockier, attention-grabbing new material.
There’s never been a better time to catch Ash live, they’re mixing the best of what they have with the best of what is yet to come.
New single, ‘You Can’t Have It All’ is out on the 16th April
