Ash are a Northern Irish alternative rock band, formed in Downpatrick in 1992 by vocalist and guitarist Tim Wheeler, bassist Mark Hamilton and drummer Rick McMurray. Ash is heading to Australia this month for there Australian tour. We got to talk to Ash about there upcoming tour and more.
TM - What can fans expect from your australian tour?
RM - I am not really sure, last time we were down there we had a great time and a great crowd so hoping to have a repeat of that.
TM - How did you pick your set list for your Australian tour?
RM - We just had our UK tour finish a couple of nights ago, we feel pretty confident with the reaction we got from the new album so we have 7 or 8 new songs plus the classics so we put it into the set and exciting.
TM - You just said you finish go uk tour how was it?
RM - It was fun since, we have done our last album with on a lot of festivals and a lot of photo shoots i'm really getting into it.
TM - What is your favourite festival you have played?
RM - We played in Electric Picnic this year, we played it last year as a secret show and this year we played the main stage it felt really good getting back to the festival.
TM - Can you tell us a tour story?
RM - Back in 1997 in Glastonbury we ended up headlining two stages the side stage and the main stage with no other man has done. In one year we played on the Friday night as the stage was sinking into the mud and then they were a bunch of bands they could not get onto the site so we were asked to headline on the Sunday on the main stage.
TM- That is definitely one for the books, what a great story!
TM - You did it to her across the UK where you to read from A to Z of the country's what make you want to do this?
RM - Well in 2007 we said we were going to do no more albums, so what we did was released 26 singles in one year which was known as the A to Z series. Our management had the idea of doing an alphabetical tour across the UK there were 26 shows in total and we were going from one side of the country to the other just to make sure we got everything in the right alphabetical order but it was super fun there was one guy in Holland that tried to Sue us because he said he came up with the alphabetical tour first but that didn't work.
TM - What was the writing and recording process for your new album Islands?
RM - I did the drums for the album I was finished over 2 years ago for my bit there was a real flurry of activity towards the end of the Kablammo! tour. We finished off touring Japan about two and a half years ago and Tim our singer stayed in Japan and started the writing process there. A bunch of songs that jumped out and it felt like they all fit together musically and lyrically so we all got together and the drums were recorded in 4 days.
TM - How did you come up with your Album cover for Islands?
RM - It is the same guy who did the last album cover Scott Pedro from Brazil. He is a really creative guy and had a lot of different ideas we had a lot of different ideas we thought it was a really striking artwork .
TM - You produced a movie called Slashed do you think you will ever finish it?
RM - Produced is a very kind word it was shot in 2002 when we started, it has got lots of guest appearances such as some of the guys from Coldplay and Dave Grohl. We forgot to shoot a ending for it we would be open to someone writing a ending for it you can watch our videos on YouTube.
TM - If you could have any band play one of your songs which band would it be which song and in your style or theirs?
RM - The Pixies doing Burn Baby Burn in their style
TM - TIf you could collaborate with any artist who would it be and why?
RM - Smashing Pumpkins
TM - Anything else you want to Announce to your fans?
RM - We are looking forward to come to Australia and playing the shows.
TM - We look forward to having you in Australia, thank you for the interview.
ASH Tour Information Link Here - ASH TOUR Link Here
Tickets Link Here - https://metropolistouring.com/ash-2018/
