"It just got to that point where we needed a good shake-up."Ash face the final curtain, but did it their way...
Music News meets bassist Mark Hamilton.
Indie heroes Ash may never have matched the success of "Coldplay or Travis or Manics" but their longevity is a rare thing these days. And a history comprising sell-out tours, four successful albums - including two number ones - and an Ivor Novello award must surely count for something, right?
"We always feel like we’ve under-achieved and we always want to do more," admits Hamilton. "But we’ve never released anything we’re not happy with and each album kind of represents where we were at that time."
Indeed. Three years ago Ash released
'Meltdown', a title which also summed up a point the band had reached. The foursome - as they were back then - seriously reassessed everything after the record "didn't do as well as expected", despite being a top five hit. "I think we had burned out a little bit, so we kind of took a six month break where we didn’t see each other." Hamilton and frontman Tim Wheeler separately relocated to New York, while drummer Rick McMurray moved to Edinburgh from their native Downpatrick. And, significantly, guitarist Charlotte Hatherley, who was concentrating on solo material anyway, officially left the band. "We knew we were going to have to get focused and come up with a really great album, and justify our existence in the modern music scene," explains Hamilton. "We realised we needed to go back to a three-piece, which was a hard decision but the right thing for everyone involved. There’s much better communication between the three of us. I think that goes back to the fact that we’ve known each other since school."
Did she perhaps then feel it was her against the boys?"I don’t know whether it was that! There were certain things she was bringing to the table, and we were like, 'nah maybe not'. You can see how that would get frustrating!"
So Ash continued as they had started and knuckled down to work on
'Twilight of the Innocents' – another telling title signaling their obvious maturity since the early teenage days. Made in their own New York studio and self-produced, could album number five perhaps be something they are finally satisfied with?
"Everyone comes out and says their latest album is their best," says Hamilton. "I like our new one because I think it’s almost accomplished musically. It’s a million miles away from '1977' and I think we’re much better musicians. It’s the first album we’ve produced ourselves as well, so we were left to our own devices." Experimenting in the studio and honing the art of self-discipline was time-consuming, educational and stressful ("We learned lessons that we’ll not repeat, like time management - don’t turn up in the studio at 7pm!") but the result speaks for itself. And it’s important to 'end' on a high, this being Ash’s last "conventional album". Acknowledging the fact digital is killing the album format, the web-savvy - and impatient - band have uniquely decided to only release downloadable singles from now: "It takes three years every time you put out an album. It’s a long time for your fans to wait, you kind of lose momentum." Alternatively, "you can record something and almost within a month be releasing tracks, and mess around with different formats. We’re just going to follow it and see what happens".
But this definitely doesn’t spell the end of Ash. Following a highly successful 'Higher Education' tour earlier in the year, their live show proved to be "a lot better that it’s been for a few years", and re-discovering the power of three will likely extend their career even further. Hard to believe it’s been fifteen years already! Ash have seen myriad contemporaries come and go since their inception, so what is the secret all the others have clearly missed?
"I think it’s got to be the songs at the end of the day. Tim’s got a knack for writing memorable melodies that people like. We generally do a lot of tours. And we work hard," says Hamilton. "We’ve had a couple of albums which were seen as flops, I mean
'Nu Clear Sounds' was definitely seen as a flop. We’ve had knock-backs but you’re more driven to prove yourself the next time. If everything wasn’t a struggle then it’d be very easy to bash out any old nonsense."
And Hamilton promises Ash will keep going "until no one cares anymore", which, on the premise of this brilliant new album, is hardly probable any time soon.
'Twilight Of The Innocents' is out now on Warners
Ash play four sold-out nights at Koko, London (July 3-6)
Catch them on tour later this year...
