- Music
- 21 Sep 06
Downpatrick’s finest, Ash, are back in the studio, recording the follow-up to 2004’s Meltdown.
The trio, led by Tim Wheeler, are holed up in their own studio in New York where recording has just started in earnest.
Band sources expect that the recording will be wrapped up by Christmas at the latest, for an early 2007 release.
So far there are two songs in the can, 'Shattered Glass' and 'Suicide Girls', the latter of which drummer Rick McMurray describes as ”straight-ahead pop with a blazing Thin Lizzy-esque guitar solo in the middle”.
Speaking on their official website, bassist Mark Hamilton added that while they hope for 12 or 13 songs on the album, “we've already honed in on around 15 or 16 songs that we'll pursue and record properly. And then Tim's still writing as well.”
One of these new songs, ‘Polaris’, was written on Bono’s piano while Tim was holidaying in France, Mark reveals. “Tim emailed me a couple of songs that he did over the last few days and [it] is one we're thinking could be a single. The lyrics and the vocals on it are really good.”
The tracks to be recorded are:
The Girl Who Can't Be Owned
You Can't Have It All
Suicide Girls
Polaris
Roulette
Princess Six
Shadows
What Is The Meaning?
Blacklisted
Saskia
Shattered Glass
Dark And Stormy
End Of The World
In Hell
On their myspace page, they reveal that they've got the thumbs up from Snow Patrol: "Nathan (Connolly) from Snow Patrol was here last week and after hearing a few demo's he said it was already better than their record."
Ash haven't recorded as a three-piece since their breakthrough album 1977, after which guitarist Charlotte Hatherley joined. Now solo, Hatherley is also currently in the studio, recording the successor to Grey Will Fade in Italy.