We caught up with Rick (Drums) and Charlotte (guitars) from melodic rock band Ash on their current tour promoting ‘Meltdown’. The most impressive thing about sitting down to talk to Ash was the fact that despite their success- they are still modest and down to earth- which was a pleasant surprise.

How would you describe your musical career to date?

Rick: A hot and cold roller coaster ride of ten years long. We have had a lot of high and low points.

Charlotte: Well we’ve had up and downs, ‘Nuclear Sounds’ almost lead us to bankruptacy.

We did hear a rumour about you being banned from this venue (Rock City):

Rick: Yes, they are all true. We were banned after the ‘1977’ tour. A lot of things were said in anger.

Do you ever get bored of playing ‘Girl From Mars?’

Rick: No we are not bored with it.

Charlotte: The crowd reaction is great, they love it, and so we never get bored of it.

Are there any moments that you will always remember?

Rick: Yeah we did the gig in Belfast for the Good Friday referendum, which lead to the symbolic meeting of David Trimble and John Hume.

Charlotte: That was pretty amazing.

Are you playing any festivals this year?

Rick: Yes we are doing Leeds/Reading.

What about Glastonbury?

Rick: no

Do you still enjoy touring?

Rick: It never really stops, it’s really exciting at the moment as we are on top form. Ask at the end of summer and you might get a different answer. (laughing)

Charlotte:  Its kind of weird when you are at the beginning of a tour, it gets mental from this point onwards.

‘Meltdown’ is a more rock orientated sound in comparison to your other material, would you say that this is Ash`s natural sound?

Rick: The album is a lot heavier, now after ten years we are capturing what we have tried to capture in the past, this is more like what we are like as a live band. Which is what we do for eleven months of the year- it still has really sweet melodies- we are a very melodic band.

How long did it take you to record ‘Meltdown’?

Rick: It was pretty quick actually- we started recording in September and finished it by December.  Even the writing process took about two weeks.

Charlotte: Which for us is pretty fucking quick.

Out of all your albums which is your favourite album?

Rick: Without a doubt it’s ‘Meltdown’.

Charlotte: It’s the first time we’ve been in the studio and thought ‘oh what a fucking great album’.

How many albums have you got left to record on your contract?

Rick: just one more album!

And on that note we left the band members to get ready for their gig.

Many thanks to Charlotte and Rick for their time and kind hospitality.