Ash
TM - Hi, this is Amelia and Elizabeth from Twinmusix, and we are here with Ash. Thank you for having this interview with us today; we appreciate it.
AH - No problem, Thanks for having me.
TM - What can fans expect from your Australian tour?
AH - We are coming back to Australia, and I believe it will be our third time in 3 years. This time around, we have our new album and our debut album out, which is celebrating 30 years since its release. We will be giving you a bit of nostalgia and a bit of what we have been doing since we last came to Australia. The two albums are tied together. There is the album 1977, which has the songs "Girl from Mars and Angel Interceptor". There is a space Theme through that record, and our new record "Ad Astra" To The Stars is a reference to "Girl from Mars". It feels like it ties together our last 30 years in a little package.
TM - Do you have a favourite song to play live from "Ad Astra"?
AH - There is a song called "Fun People" on there, and "Graham Coxon" joined us for that one. That was a fun song, and we have had them join us for a couple of live dates, but unfortunately we will not be bringing them to Australia.
TM - What was your writing and recording process for "Ad Astra"?
AH - It has developed over the years. Tim, our singer, writes the vast majority of stuff. The silver lining to the Lockdown that was imposed on us in COVID was that we ended up with this backlog of material to work on. Over the last two records, we have had to pick and choose what songs are going to go on this record, and what songs we were going to keep. We are trying to shape an identity around each record, which is kind of cool. The next record we do will be a third part of a trilogy of everything we have released this decade. It is an evolving thing. Turn on the new record, I don't know if we have struck a nerve, except we are referencing what we had done in the early days with the Space Angel. People seem to pick up on that, and it has blown us away, so we can't wait to bring that to Australia.
TM - How did you come up with your Album cover, and who designed it?
AH - We have been working with this guy called Pete Lloyd, and he has done the last two album covers. He is amazing, he did such a good job on the album "Race the Night" that came out in 2023. We wanted a link between all the albums. We knew we wanted to work with him on the new record, and he had a few ideas for it. I think Tim said Do you know the iconic picture of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins? There is an iconic photo of them looking to the stars, and we had the album title already, "Ad astra", which means "To The Stars", which is a reference in our "song Girl from Mars". It ties in, and he had the idea of Us In Space suits looking up to the stars. He did such an amazing job, it is a cool album for the fans to see.
TM - If you could have any band play one of your songs, what band would you choose? What song would you choose and would it be in your style or their style?
AH - We were lucky enough that Annie Lennox covered a song of ours called "Shining Light" years ago, which is such an honour, because I remember being a kid and watching "Eurythmics" when I was five or six or seven years old; they really stood out to me as a kid. She is so cool, and her songs are amazing, and her covering that song is such an honour. One band that we get compared to a lot is "Buzzcock". They are an amazing punk rock band, and there are a lot of similarities between us. It would feel weird for them to cover one of our songs; I'm not sure if that is right or not.
TM - You can have any answer you want.
TM - If you could go back in a time machine and see any band live, who would you see?
AH - I would probably go and see Black Sabbath in 1971 or 1972 that would be phenomenal. My favourite album, ever, if someone held a gun to my head they say would be "Paranoid". To see them when they were absolutely on fire would have been amazing.
TM - Is there anything else you want to say to your fans?
AH - We are looking forward to coming to Australia. You are going to get us right at the beginning of our anniversary tour, and it is always exciting to get down there. I can't wait to give you a bit of nostalgia of what we have been doing at is going to be amazing.
TM - Thank you for having this interview with us today; we appreciate it.
AH - No Problem. It was a pleasure talking to you.