Ash have been together for fifteen years and have released four studio albums, two of which were number one hits in the UK (1977 and Free All Angels), and the other two (Nu-Clear Sounds and the new Meltdown) "merely" top-ten. In fact, they've had enough hits in the UK and Europe to warrant a two-disc collection of their singles and b-sides, 2002's International Sonic 7"s. All that and yet, if you live in America, chances are you're only passingly familiar, if at all, with the group. Their latest album, Meltdown, finds the quartet clearly looking to change all that with their hardest hitting set of trademark guitar-pop yet, produced by Nick Raskulinecz, who's worked previously with the Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, and Velvet Revolver. It's still Ash, it's still pop (in fact, it may also be their poppiest record yet), but you can definitely bang your head to it.
Ash began life as a trio: guitarist/singer Tim Wheeler, bassist Mark Hamilton, and drummer Rick "Rock" McMurray, and as a trio they recorded the band's first hits. After the big success of their debut full-length, 1977, guitarist Charlotte Hatherley was added to the mix, giving the band a sturdier spine with her guitar and an extra pop sheen with her gorgeous vocal harmonies. Their attempt at a darker sophomore album, Nu-Clear Sounds, was a relative flop by comparison to their first, and the band now describe themselves as having "lost the plot" at that point. Nearly bankrupt by the time their third album, Free All Angels, was released, the band were luckily greeted with another number one album and near-universal critical acclaim. Still, they'd had no luck with America: record label turmoil, a serious tour-bus crash, and a near-criminal lack of publicity. The band clearly had this in mind when they went to L.A. to record an album for the first time in America, for America. That album is Meltdown. At the same time, Charlotte was recording her debut solo album, Grey Will Fade, and it, Meltdown, and America were the topics of the day when I spoke with her recently:
Keith Daniels Hi Charlotte. Where in the world are you right now?
Charlotte Hatherley: Sitting on the bus. It's raining. In Vancouver. Grey and miserable.
KD: Did recording the new Ash album in L.A. have anything to do with the fact that you were recording your solo album there at the same time?
CH: Actually, it's the other way around, because I knew we were going to be in L.A. doing it. I hooked up with a producer [Eric Drew Feldman] who lives in San Francisco, and then we contrived to get it recorded in L.A. so I could do it at the same time. But we were always going to work with Nick Raskulinecz, the producer, and we knew we were going to do it in L.A..
KD: This is your third record with the band. Has any feeling of being 'the new kid' worn off?
CH: Pretty much. I think it wore off on Free All Angels for me. Having a number one album with the guys, traveling around America in a van for like... a fucking year. [Laughs] I think, after that, I felt well and truly ingrained in the band, but occasionally I get interviews where they go "Oh, you're the new kid," and I go, "Well, it's been seven years. Seven long years." I kind of feel like when I'm up there playing "Girl From Mars" and the songs from 1977... I don't ever feel like I shouldn't be playing those songs, now.
KD: You know the guys well enough that you can hear where they were coming from before.
CH: Yeah! Or I guess that I just feel very much that we're very much a four-piece rock band. When we're on stage, it doesn't feel like a threesome. I'm there, and we have a good time.
KD: You mentioned Free All Angels being a number one record, and yet it's a bit of a recurring them that you guys have had bad luck in the States.
CH: Yeah. When I first joined, we were on Dreamworks, and I remember coming over and meeting a few of those guys. We did the album, and then they dropped us, and then we signed with Kinetic, and they went bankrupt. Now we're on Record Collection. It's kind of annoying and frustrating for us, because every time we come over here and tour and make new ground, it's like we have to start all over again. We definitely feel that, with this record... like, with Free All Angels we did a year of touring, and we really should have come back and capitalized on that, but instead, the label fucked up. [Laughs]
KD: You've described this album in interviews as "made for America", or made for American radio. What does that mean?
CH: Yeah. I don't want to sound [like it was] contrived. I think it's a very natural process, because we were in America such a long time, and it was all post-9/11. Lyrically, it's very much an album that was written in America, and sonically, it just sounds like a big American rock record. Many reasons, really. I think Nick had a huge impact on the way it sounded, and we wanted to come over here and really concentrate on America.
KD: I guess the answer might be obvious, but why is America so important to you guys, when you've got so many fans all over the rest of the world?
CH: Yeah, but sometimes that's not enough. We really relish the challenge, and for us, it's like the last place where we have yet to prove ourselves. When we do an album, we spend a year or two touring everywhere, and then we come to America. It's quite nice having that completely different crowd who don't know us, or we have a kind of cult following. I think because we do so well everywhere else that we want to have the same here.
KD: Now that you have a solo record out, would you like to take more lead vocals in Ash?
CH: [Laughs] I don't think so! Tim writes the songs. He writes the lyrics, he sings the songs. He's very much the front man, and I don't really have any strong desire to be a front-person. It just worked out that way when I wrote my own songs. I definitely want to do another solo album, but being a guitarist is my first love. I'll stick to that with Ash, I think.
KD: So [the solo album] was more about having the creative outlet for the things you wanted to do yourself without having to muck around with Ash?
CH: Yeah. I wasn't really that comfortable with saying "I've got 20 songs, let's play them! Let's jam my songs." I think Tim is so prolific that he's got so many songs going around, anyway, and I just didn't feel like I had that place to play my songs with them. It's quite a different style, as well, and to Tim's credit, he would say, "Well, it's not really our kind of thing, but you should do it yourself." I followed his advice.
KD: The obvious difference between this album and Free All Angels is that, for lack of a better phrase, it rocks harder. You've got songs like "Orpheus" and "Clones", with the harmonized guitars and all that. Now, I know that the guys describe their early band [Vietnam] as "Iron Maiden wannabes". Did you listen to a lot of hard rock when you were younger?
CH: Personally, I was never really into that whole heavy metal thing at all, but I know that the guys really did uncage their [Laughs] secret teenage desires of being heavy metalers. Nick would play RATT and KISS in the studio, and I think this record, as a guitarist, is Tim's record. He played all the wild solos, and really got into it. Maybe it's because I'm a girl, but I just could never relate to those...
KD: Cock-rock.
CH: Yeah, cock-rock. [Laughs]
KD: Now, this is a bit of an obscure question, but I remember reading an interview you did around the time of Free All Angels. You said you had recorded two songs, one of which was "Grey Will Fade", and that ended up as the B-side to "There's A Star". The other one was "Where I'm Calling From", which is on your solo album.
CH: Yeah.
KD: Does an earlier version exist from the Free All Angels sessions?
CH: Oh, of "Where I'm Calling From"? It's out there, somewhere. I remember it definitely being a contender for the album, but I tried to write a chorus for it, instead of the instrumental part, and I just couldn't do it. [Laughs] I just wanted to keep it weird, so we didn't use "Where I'm Calling From". But there is a version of it out there somewhere, which would be cool to check out. It is quite different.
KD: What makes a good pop song, for you? I imagine that your answer might be a little different than Tim's.
CH: Actually, having been in the band for so long, and having seen the way he writes songs, I'm quite influenced by that. He'll sit down with an acoustic, and [to him] the melody is the most important thing. Same to me. If you get a good melody, then you can build a song. Lyrics always come last for me.
KD: What would you say were your "Top Five Favorite Pop Songs". Doesn't have to be definitive, but five that spring to mind.
CH: "Let's Dance" by David Bowie, "Picture This" by Blondie, "Kids In America" by Kim Wilde, "Toxic" by Britney Spears, and "What You Waiting For?" by Gwen Stefani. Is that five?
KD: Yeah, I think so! Okay, if this album was the album for America, why did it take so long to come out here? You recorded it in like, September, 2003.
CH: Well, that's just the age-old reason of touring. We did the album, and Kinetic had disappeared off the face of the planet, so we toured everywhere else and in the meanwhile tried to get a new label over here [in the States]. By the time we actually got over here and found Record Collection it had been like, two years, which is always the way it is. When we did Free All Angels we'd been touring it everywhere else, and then we had another year in America. So it was always like, whenever we come to America, people in Europe think, "Where have they gone? What are they doing?" [Laughs] Then when we're in Europe everyone in America thinks "Where have Ash been to?" But we're just constantly touring, and writing, and doing stuff.
KD: Does it bother you to come here and have to share the headlining bill with a brand new band like the Bravery?
CH: Not really. We've just got to face the fact that that's the way it is over here for us at the moment, and there's nothing we can do about it. [Laughs] You know? I think they're a really good band, and they've just got a lot more exposure than us at the moment. So, we can live with that, and we can come back and do our own headlining tour at some point. It's a good first tour for us, for this album, I think.
KD: The song "Clones" was used in the new game "Star Wars: Republic Commando". How did that come about?
CH: I think everyone knows that Ash are huge Star Wars fans. It's just coincidence, I guess. We had the "Clones" song, and they were doing a video game about the Clone Wars, and they got in touch and said they wanted to use it. It's pretty amazing, it's the first band they've ever used for marketing purposes.
KD: So you and John Williams.
CH: Us and John Williams, yeah. [Laughs] The guys are extremely happy, and we've been given free Xbox consoles. So it's all good.
For more information about Ash: their music, merchandise, and tour itinerary, check their official site. For more on Charlotte Hatherley, check CharlotteHatherley.com. Meltdown by Ash is in stores now in both the U.S. and Europe. Grey Will Fade by Charlotte Hatherley is available now in the UK, and in the US as an import.
Thanks to members farqueue and Wated for their question suggestions.
Ash began life as a trio: guitarist/singer Tim Wheeler, bassist Mark Hamilton, and drummer Rick "Rock" McMurray, and as a trio they recorded the band's first hits. After the big success of their debut full-length, 1977, guitarist Charlotte Hatherley was added to the mix, giving the band a sturdier spine with her guitar and an extra pop sheen with her gorgeous vocal harmonies. Their attempt at a darker sophomore album, Nu-Clear Sounds, was a relative flop by comparison to their first, and the band now describe themselves as having "lost the plot" at that point. Nearly bankrupt by the time their third album, Free All Angels, was released, the band were luckily greeted with another number one album and near-universal critical acclaim. Still, they'd had no luck with America: record label turmoil, a serious tour-bus crash, and a near-criminal lack of publicity. The band clearly had this in mind when they went to L.A. to record an album for the first time in America, for America. That album is Meltdown. At the same time, Charlotte was recording her debut solo album, Grey Will Fade, and it, Meltdown, and America were the topics of the day when I spoke with her recently:
Keith Daniels Hi Charlotte. Where in the world are you right now?
Charlotte Hatherley: Sitting on the bus. It's raining. In Vancouver. Grey and miserable.
KD: Did recording the new Ash album in L.A. have anything to do with the fact that you were recording your solo album there at the same time?
CH: Actually, it's the other way around, because I knew we were going to be in L.A. doing it. I hooked up with a producer [Eric Drew Feldman] who lives in San Francisco, and then we contrived to get it recorded in L.A. so I could do it at the same time. But we were always going to work with Nick Raskulinecz, the producer, and we knew we were going to do it in L.A..
KD: This is your third record with the band. Has any feeling of being 'the new kid' worn off?
CH: Pretty much. I think it wore off on Free All Angels for me. Having a number one album with the guys, traveling around America in a van for like... a fucking year. [Laughs] I think, after that, I felt well and truly ingrained in the band, but occasionally I get interviews where they go "Oh, you're the new kid," and I go, "Well, it's been seven years. Seven long years." I kind of feel like when I'm up there playing "Girl From Mars" and the songs from 1977... I don't ever feel like I shouldn't be playing those songs, now.
KD: You know the guys well enough that you can hear where they were coming from before.
CH: Yeah! Or I guess that I just feel very much that we're very much a four-piece rock band. When we're on stage, it doesn't feel like a threesome. I'm there, and we have a good time.
KD: You mentioned Free All Angels being a number one record, and yet it's a bit of a recurring them that you guys have had bad luck in the States.
CH: Yeah. When I first joined, we were on Dreamworks, and I remember coming over and meeting a few of those guys. We did the album, and then they dropped us, and then we signed with Kinetic, and they went bankrupt. Now we're on Record Collection. It's kind of annoying and frustrating for us, because every time we come over here and tour and make new ground, it's like we have to start all over again. We definitely feel that, with this record... like, with Free All Angels we did a year of touring, and we really should have come back and capitalized on that, but instead, the label fucked up. [Laughs]
KD: You've described this album in interviews as "made for America", or made for American radio. What does that mean?
CH: Yeah. I don't want to sound [like it was] contrived. I think it's a very natural process, because we were in America such a long time, and it was all post-9/11. Lyrically, it's very much an album that was written in America, and sonically, it just sounds like a big American rock record. Many reasons, really. I think Nick had a huge impact on the way it sounded, and we wanted to come over here and really concentrate on America.
KD: I guess the answer might be obvious, but why is America so important to you guys, when you've got so many fans all over the rest of the world?
CH: Yeah, but sometimes that's not enough. We really relish the challenge, and for us, it's like the last place where we have yet to prove ourselves. When we do an album, we spend a year or two touring everywhere, and then we come to America. It's quite nice having that completely different crowd who don't know us, or we have a kind of cult following. I think because we do so well everywhere else that we want to have the same here.
KD: Now that you have a solo record out, would you like to take more lead vocals in Ash?
CH: [Laughs] I don't think so! Tim writes the songs. He writes the lyrics, he sings the songs. He's very much the front man, and I don't really have any strong desire to be a front-person. It just worked out that way when I wrote my own songs. I definitely want to do another solo album, but being a guitarist is my first love. I'll stick to that with Ash, I think.
KD: So [the solo album] was more about having the creative outlet for the things you wanted to do yourself without having to muck around with Ash?
CH: Yeah. I wasn't really that comfortable with saying "I've got 20 songs, let's play them! Let's jam my songs." I think Tim is so prolific that he's got so many songs going around, anyway, and I just didn't feel like I had that place to play my songs with them. It's quite a different style, as well, and to Tim's credit, he would say, "Well, it's not really our kind of thing, but you should do it yourself." I followed his advice.
KD: The obvious difference between this album and Free All Angels is that, for lack of a better phrase, it rocks harder. You've got songs like "Orpheus" and "Clones", with the harmonized guitars and all that. Now, I know that the guys describe their early band [Vietnam] as "Iron Maiden wannabes". Did you listen to a lot of hard rock when you were younger?
CH: Personally, I was never really into that whole heavy metal thing at all, but I know that the guys really did uncage their [Laughs] secret teenage desires of being heavy metalers. Nick would play RATT and KISS in the studio, and I think this record, as a guitarist, is Tim's record. He played all the wild solos, and really got into it. Maybe it's because I'm a girl, but I just could never relate to those...
KD: Cock-rock.
CH: Yeah, cock-rock. [Laughs]
KD: Now, this is a bit of an obscure question, but I remember reading an interview you did around the time of Free All Angels. You said you had recorded two songs, one of which was "Grey Will Fade", and that ended up as the B-side to "There's A Star". The other one was "Where I'm Calling From", which is on your solo album.
CH: Yeah.
KD: Does an earlier version exist from the Free All Angels sessions?
CH: Oh, of "Where I'm Calling From"? It's out there, somewhere. I remember it definitely being a contender for the album, but I tried to write a chorus for it, instead of the instrumental part, and I just couldn't do it. [Laughs] I just wanted to keep it weird, so we didn't use "Where I'm Calling From". But there is a version of it out there somewhere, which would be cool to check out. It is quite different.
KD: What makes a good pop song, for you? I imagine that your answer might be a little different than Tim's.
CH: Actually, having been in the band for so long, and having seen the way he writes songs, I'm quite influenced by that. He'll sit down with an acoustic, and [to him] the melody is the most important thing. Same to me. If you get a good melody, then you can build a song. Lyrics always come last for me.
KD: What would you say were your "Top Five Favorite Pop Songs". Doesn't have to be definitive, but five that spring to mind.
CH: "Let's Dance" by David Bowie, "Picture This" by Blondie, "Kids In America" by Kim Wilde, "Toxic" by Britney Spears, and "What You Waiting For?" by Gwen Stefani. Is that five?
KD: Yeah, I think so! Okay, if this album was the album for America, why did it take so long to come out here? You recorded it in like, September, 2003.
CH: Well, that's just the age-old reason of touring. We did the album, and Kinetic had disappeared off the face of the planet, so we toured everywhere else and in the meanwhile tried to get a new label over here [in the States]. By the time we actually got over here and found Record Collection it had been like, two years, which is always the way it is. When we did Free All Angels we'd been touring it everywhere else, and then we had another year in America. So it was always like, whenever we come to America, people in Europe think, "Where have they gone? What are they doing?" [Laughs] Then when we're in Europe everyone in America thinks "Where have Ash been to?" But we're just constantly touring, and writing, and doing stuff.
KD: Does it bother you to come here and have to share the headlining bill with a brand new band like the Bravery?
CH: Not really. We've just got to face the fact that that's the way it is over here for us at the moment, and there's nothing we can do about it. [Laughs] You know? I think they're a really good band, and they've just got a lot more exposure than us at the moment. So, we can live with that, and we can come back and do our own headlining tour at some point. It's a good first tour for us, for this album, I think.
KD: The song "Clones" was used in the new game "Star Wars: Republic Commando". How did that come about?
CH: I think everyone knows that Ash are huge Star Wars fans. It's just coincidence, I guess. We had the "Clones" song, and they were doing a video game about the Clone Wars, and they got in touch and said they wanted to use it. It's pretty amazing, it's the first band they've ever used for marketing purposes.
KD: So you and John Williams.
CH: Us and John Williams, yeah. [Laughs] The guys are extremely happy, and we've been given free Xbox consoles. So it's all good.
For more information about Ash: their music, merchandise, and tour itinerary, check their official site. For more on Charlotte Hatherley, check CharlotteHatherley.com. Meltdown by Ash is in stores now in both the U.S. and Europe. Grey Will Fade by Charlotte Hatherley is available now in the UK, and in the US as an import.
Thanks to members farqueue and Wated for their question suggestions.
VIEW 15 of 15 COMMENTS
ThreeUdders said:
The show was amazing and they just about outshinned The Bravery.
.
"Just about"?