You have to hand it to them, Ash sure as hell know how to stage a comeback and soundtrack it in style. This Ash Wednesday, now called as such for two significant reasons, 'Cocoon' came racing out of
the traps, wearing its 'Burn Baby Burn', been- to-the-brink-but-we're-roaring-back colours extremely well. The fiery first blow from the Downpatrick trio's first album in eight years, it alerted everyone to the fact that their energetic, unfussy rock had returned. Although, the album's title, Kablammo!, was another strong hint. You wouldn't suspect then, that it is also a record heavily informed by a miniature instrument chiefly used in 2015 to denote (irritating) whimsy in adverts. Thankfully, songwriter Tim Wheeler decided not to drop the electricity entirely and go the Eddie Vedder route...
“I found writing songs on ukulele actually turned out great when we got the power of a band playing them,” says the still-boyish Tim. “We weren’t afraid of keeping things really simple early on.” He was rediscovering his younger writer and, after a pretty intense period flying solo, he wanted his band
to back him up. Having lost his father George to dementia, Wheeler recorded the beautiful Lost Domain to process the harrowing experience. It was a cathartic process that carried on into promoting it.
“Releasing it was a big part of it for me, so waiting a year for that was a frustrating feeling. There was something about getting it out there and completing the cycle. Then going out and talking about it... I enjoyed it, but it was definitely a very heavy time. So it's fantastic getting back to Ash. Having that support and doing things as a team.”
It was very much a case of “Ash Assemble!” as his compadres, bassist Mark Hamilton and drummer Rick McMurray, were raring to go and get creative. Kablammo! came together in short bursts in their New York studio over the course of a year and a half.
“I think we’ve reached a level of comfort as a three piece where there’s not even a second thought of needing to get another guitarist in,” says McMurray, as I put a line through my Charlotte Hatherley question. “Finally, after 22 years, we've cracked that nut.”
There seemed little doubt what form the fruits of their labour would take. They were making a proper album, having told the world that they were abandoning the concept, apparently for good, for sporadic single releases.
Rather than falling out of love with the LP, it was more a case of reacting to how clumsily the labels were handling the seismic changes in the industry.
“People weren’t buying albums and it felt like record companies were in denial about what was happening,” says Rick. “There was a crisis in the music industry, what are you going to do? Keep doing the same thing?! You need to address it creatively and from a positive angle so that’s what we wanted to do with the A - Z Series.”
The only choker was admitting the back track.
“It took us a while,” confesses Tim. “We were a bit worried how people would react to us changing our mind but it turns out everyone was actually delighted.”
Fans have every right to be. Any record that boasts a brace as good as 'Machinery' and 'Free' is worthy of attention.
“We’re interested to see how word of mouth spreads...” smiles Hamilton, fully aware it has enough merit to explode the old-fashioned way. Speaking of which, its touchstones can be found in their back catalogue. McMurray has said it has the songwriting of Free All Angels and sonic intensity of Meltdown (a clever way of saying 'imagine some of our best stuff... together!') and Wheeler says they've finally had the chance to catch their breath and reminisce.
“We were forced to look back a little bit over the last few years with all these anniversaries happening. And because we were returning to the album format we were very much aware that this has to stand up with the best albums. So we're allowing ourselves to look back for the first time.”
They're veterans at this point, despite only being in their thirties. Naturally, things have changed since they emerged as teens. The exuberant competitiveness with other bands and scenes has faded away, much like many of their rivals. And yet ambition still burns.
“We have high watermarks in the past to live up to,” says Tim. “We’re always striving to be at least at that level. We dream of number one albums and number one singles and headlining festivals. We just have to work our way back up.”
The competition these days is themselves?
“That’s a good way to put it. It definitely was strange when all our contemporaries were splitting up and disappearing...”
“And then,” Hamilton points out, “You see new scenes come and go completely!”
“So at the minute we have to compete with ourselves,” concludes Tim. “Sometimes we’ve had trouble filling new songs into the set list because we’ve got all these classics to contend with. So with this record, we really want to rejuvenate our show.”