Wheeler-ing the years

The three members of Ash are the same age as Hot Press. When this very magazine was in its infancy, Tim Wheeler, Mark Hamilton and Rick McMurray were mere babes in arms. Indeed, the trio famously called their debut album 1977 - not in honour of this august organ, mind you, simply to record the year of their birth.
Since that album catapulted the Downpatrick outfit into public consciousness, Ash have had their fair share of ups and downs. The highs included that album and its array of hits (‘Girl From Mars’, ‘Oh Yeah’ etc), and their third album, Free All Angels, which saw Tim picking up an Ivor Novello Award for the majestic ‘Shining Light’, as well as storming gigs at some of the biggest festivals in the world. The lows include the critical mauling received by their sophomore effort, Nu Clear Sounds. We’re sitting backstage at Slane, at the Red Bull X-Fighters, where Ash are headlining after the bikes have finished their aerial acrobatics. They’re discussing their fabulous fifth album, Twilight Of The Innocents, their most ambitious collection to date.
You could have been forgiven, though, for fearing that Ash’s trademark guitar pop has disappeared forever. It’s been a while since their last album, Meltdown, after which they decided to take a well-earned break.
“We’d been going for around 10 years at that point, and even when we were recording Meltdown, we’d already earmarked that period to take a break, once we’d finished touring that album ‘cos it had been pretty full on,” notes drummer Rick McMurray.
Rick decamped to Scotland, while Tim and Mark upped sticks to New York. The period also saw them part ways with guitarist Charlotte Hatherley, after a period of nine years. The split, however, was totally amicable.
“It was getting tired for us and it was getting tired for Charlotte,” notes Tim. “I think we needed a kick up the ass to get us back into enjoying music.”
“Going back to a three-piece gave us back a bit more focus, and Charlotte wanted to concentrate on her solo career,” Rick opines.
Batteries fully recharged and focus duly re-established, Ash set about recording Twilight Of The Innocents in New York, where they leased their own studio, where the Wu Tang Clan had recorded their Enter The... opus. They produced the album themselves and their record company were so impressed with the results that they wanted the trio to handle knob-twiddling duties for other bands, “but we wanted to get out and start touring this record,” enthuses Tim.
And why wouldn’t they? With echoes of the infectious pop that marks their best work, Twilight... also sees the band expanding their sound, taking more risks and becoming more (gulp) mature. Do they agree?
“I would agree except I hate that word, ‘mature’,” Wheeler smiles. “It sounds like we’ve gone boring. It does seem like there’s a lot more going on but I think we kept loads of youthful energy, so it feels like it’s a smarter album.”
“When a band has been around as long as us, it’s often seen as time to mellow out, but I think because we started so young, we still have that energy,” Rick agrees.
While lead single ‘You Can’t Have It All’ may have its roots in the traditional Ash sound, forthcoming seven-inch ‘Polaris’ is far more elaborate, and also features a stunning video, shot in a forest just outside London, which comes across like Lord Of The Flies meets Jarhead. The embryonic ‘Polaris’ was written in Bono and Edge’s house in the South of France and the album version actually features part of Tim’s original dictaphone recording. Explain.
“I was on holiday there and ran into them by accident,” Tim grins. “I didn’t have a place to stay for the last few nights and they invited me to stay there. They have these two beautiful mansions side-by-side and each of them has a piano in it. I was messing around on the piano in the afternoon one day and the line came to me. It took a long time for me to finish it because I didn’t get near a piano for ages after that ‘cos we were on tour.”
The most ambitious song on the new album, however, is the title-track, easily the most epic thing they’ve done so far.
“It’s far away from ‘Jack Names The Planets’,” Tim laughs. “We’ve definitely re-invented ourselves on that song. It has a whole different atmosphere: it’s dark and sombre, emotional and epic, and it’s great live.”
“It probably wouldn’t have happened, had we not had our own studio,” Rick avows. “Tim had the time to experiment with different production areas, building the song up. We wouldn’t have had the time to experiment like that if the clock was ticking in a hired studio, but it’s probably something we’re going to get into more on our next album.”
Were they worried about alienating their fanbase, who had grown up on tracks like ‘Uncle Pat’ or ‘Goldfinger’?
“We’ve already done it twice,” Tim guffaws only half-jokingly. “We think this album is coming back more towards what people like about us. It’s got pop songs. It’s very melodic. It’s got the things that people like about us, but every song has a different twist that we’ve never done before.”
“I think Meltdown was more alienating than this album,” Rick adds. “The tunes were there but they were buried behind a lot of guitar riffs. For us, this feels like coming back to a more traditional sound.”
So why is it that Ash are now releasing their fifth album, when so many bands have come and gone in the intervening period after a brief period in the spotlight?
“We’ve got that stubborn Northern Irish thing,” Wheeler proffers. “We’re really dedicated to what we do. This is not a pipe-and-slippers album. We’re still very driven: we always think we can get better and improve ourselves.”
“Whenever you have an album that doesn’t do so well, it can be very motivational,” Mark adds. “If you get slated, you tend to go ‘Fuck you, we’re not finished.’ And there’s the fact that we’ve never done anything else: we came straight out of school into this and we don’t know how to do anything else.”
“We did a UK tour when we'd just finished the album,” Rick recalls. “When we played ‘Girl From Mars’ the entire front row was singing every word and I remember thinking ‘You were fucking five-years-old when that came out,’ but it’s amazing and it shows that the songs stand the test of time.”
What drives them after 13 years in the business?
“We’ve never got as big as we thought we should’ve,” Tim muses. “And there was so much hysteria around our first album, and that’s addictive, so we just want to feel that again. It’s also a love of music. We have stayed wide-eyed about it. We keep learning stuff all the time and we’re constantly improving.”