GiggingNI.com

Local rockers, Ash have had a silent two years since they last released a studio album, so, I graciously took the opportunity to have a chat with bassist Mark Hamilton ahead of their current comeback tour to talk concept albums, weird habits, and what can be expected from their homecoming gig in Belfast's Spring and Airbrake, on 26th November.

Everything went very quiet there for a while! What have you guys been up to, and are you all glad to be back?

Yeah, we've been locked up in our studio for about a year and a half writing new music. We did a few festivals and few wee gigs earlier this year...it's almost been two years since we did an actual tour.

The whole A-Z concept is certainly very original, but who came up with the idea, and what sparked it off in the first place?

I guess we decided that we didn't want to do traditional albums anymore, with one coming out once every three years, and it was a lot of time for people to wait. People aren't really buying albums, especially when they are able to download; they just pick individual songs. I guess we thought we could release a lot more music a lot more regularly then each song would have a lot more scrutiny on it. It was an experiment, it was kind of like a new way to approach it and I guess we're just using ourselves as guinea pigs to see if it works.

'Free All Angels' is probably your most successful album to date, and is the record that most people would associate with the band. Do you think the new material, and layout, has the potential to better that success?

I think it's too early to know, it's just too early to know. I guess if one of the songs was to be on a big TV show or movie soundtrack, then you might get a lot of exposure. The good thing about the subscription based service we're offering on our website, is that people can join it at any point during the year and get all the old songs downloaded, and then they'll get the new ones as they come. It's kind of like a growth thing and we're just waiting to see what happens, it's all just kind of new.

Judging by the outstanding comments from bigger publications such as Kerrang! and NME regarding your new conceptual collection, it's safe to say you've won the professional critics over, but how do you feel your fans have received it so far?

It's like having a favourite TV show, or something that you can look forward to every two weeks. It's like waiting on a new episode...it's like looking forward to something is all part of the excitement, whereas if you're waiting on an album you get it all in one big swoop, and then you've got to wait like maybe two or three years on the next episode. We have an application where we'll email you regularly, and it'll keep the fans active and coming to the website, and then keep them talking about the new song. Every song is different, so not every song is going to be everyone's cup of tea, but we've recorded a lot of variety, and they'll come to wonder 'what are they going to do next?' kind of thing.

And do you think you will gain any new listeners with it?

Well we hope so, that's always the plan - you're always trying to reach new audiences and make new fans, because at the end of the day it's those fans that'll sustain the band.

There are a lot of obscure little places included in your mainland UK tour dates, but which are you most looking forward to, and why?

I guess it's just those places that you've never been to before. A couple of weeks ago we were at this place called East Grange, away up near Inverness in Scotland, we were basically playing on a farm, and all of the locals were there, it was a great gig. And then we're looking forward to Jersey, we've never been there. The whole idea is to go to a town or market or audiences that we've never been to before. And then we're going to do the major cities in the springtime, but first we'd do the secondary towns, the places where people don't get that many gigs so they'll be that bit more excited when we come out, we really enjoyed it so we thought we'd do it again.

As a band, you are all very supportive of unsigned acts who are desperately trying to break through. Can you recommend a few around at the moment, who you think deserve to be the next big thing?

Well Northern Ireland has got so many great young bands coming through at the minute, like we've got the Panama Kings on tour with us at the minute, and we've become really good friends with them. There are other bands like Fighting with Wire who have played with us. We always try to get bands from home to come on tour with us.

What are Tim and Ricks most annoying habits?

[laughs] Well, Tim's always late for everything, and Rick, I guess he always does freaky things like sniffing his fingernails, and just being really inappropriate.

Out of the three of you, who's the biggest diva and why?

The biggest diva? [laughs] I'm not sure actually, I don't think any of us are divas. I'm not just saying this, but I think I'm probably the least diva-like! I'll say that rather than single out the other two.

Do you think you will ever fully string your bass?

Emmm...probably not. I've never used it, not in all of the ten years.

Seeing as all of you are Northern Irish locals, what does it feel like to come home and play to a sold out venue, whether it's large or small?

It doesn't really matter. As long as you've got a room full of people, it's going to be a massive gig. Like you can play in front of three or four thousand people, or three or four hundred people - it really doesn't matter, as long as everyone is having a great time.

And finally, what can we expect from your gig in the Spring and Airbrake on 26th November, and have you all got any surprises up your sleeves?

Well the last time we played the Spring and Airbrake I think it was the longest show we ever played - it was around 2 and a half hours, and we were having so much fun we didn't want to get offstage, so its going be really hard to top that night, but we're obviously going to come out and try to!

Gigging Northern Ireland says Ash will be playing Belfast's Spring and Airbrake on the 26th November 2009.

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