Interview - Rick McMurray, Ash

For me, this was one of the biggies. I grew up listening to Ash and reading about their tours etc in Smash Hits. It was my day off when their PR called and said if I still wanted to interview in Southampton, I was welcome to. I had three hours' notice to drive into town, do some research, create some question cards and drive to Southampton. (I usually do about 2/3 hours of research alone, forget travelling. With a band as established as Ash, there's no way you can do the 'How did you meet? What was your first gig like?). I was unprepared and also terrified I was going to have to face the lot of them. Instead I was just given the one, Rick, a lovely patient man. Thank goodness for that.

Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in Mar 07
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd

RICK MCMURRAY - ASH

Tim Wheeler - vocals, guitar
Mark Hamilton - bass
Rick McMurray - drums

Native had a quick chat with Rick McMurray, drummer with Ash, shortly before their gig in Southampton. Shame he’s not allowed to talk about everything…

A couple of girls overtake me as I’m walking to Southampton University Student Union. “I saw them ten years ago, they were amazing…” one of them was saying. I smile to myself. They’re obviously talking about Ash, playing a sold out gig here tonight. If they knew Tim Wheeler, Rick McMurray and Mark Whatsit (Hamilton; sorry, had to look that one up) were sat literally a minute away, they would probably turn a bit giggly.

I bought ‘Goldfinger’ when it came out - on cassette - from a long-closed branch of Our Price. But I don’t really know much about Ash from the mid-90s onwards. They did a song for Ewan McGregor flick ‘A Life Less Ordinary’ (guess what it was called), guitarist Charlotte Hatherley came and went, and I was into classic rock at the time and missed everything. At the time of writing, the band were playing a Higher Education tour of universities. They’re obviously popular today; Tim and Mark are in different interviews in different corners of the room. I barely recognise any of them and have a sudden fear that the person I say ‘Would you be so kind as to take my coat, young man?’ to may turn out to be a disgruntled pop star, so I keep my mouth shut.

Rick McMurray walks towards me, dressed solemnly in black and sporting a wide-brimmed hat. He also has neatly trimmed facial hair and greets me very cordially.

Have Ash got any festivals lined up for this year? “Yes we have, unfortunately we can’t talk about very many of them. But I can talk about the one closest to here, which I think we’re all quite excited about, the Isle of Wight Festival.”

Rick is softly spoken and it seems nothing can faze him. “I think we played the first time it sort of reinvented itself, about five years ago I think it was. We played it then. It was really cool, kind of small, but I think in the intervening years it’s really grown as big as any of the other festivals. It’s already sold out, which is amazing.” And the Rolling Stones are playing, you might get to catch them. “That would be great because I’ve never seen them before, so… could be my last chance!” You can perch on the side of the stage and watch them, I say, my Saarthern vowels sounding harsh and mangled in front of his Northern Irish lilt. Not as in the soft drink; the other lilt.

“The rumour is they’re playing on the Sunday and I think we’re on the Friday, so…” Can you get a weekend ticket as a band? You should go for that. “Yeah. It’ll be the first time we’ve stayed at a festival for the whole weekend, the whole time, but that will be cool.”

Have you got any festivals abroad, or can you not really talk about them yet? “We’ve got a few, we can’t really talk about them yet. I think we’re looking at Fuji in Japan, but yeah we’ll be doing some in the UK, just ones we can’t say yet. But they’ll be towards the end of the summer,” he adds, dropping a large hint. And indeed Ash have now been confirmed for Reading and Leeds, one of the rockier festivals.

Rick likes it rocky. “I’ve been listening to a lot of Cure, a lot of Depeche Mode, The Knife, Nine Inch Nails… that’s what I’ve listened to today. Led Zeppelin, some reggae, but I’ve been listening to some darker electro stuff today.” To get you in the mood for tonight? “Yeah,” Rick smiles. Is it going to be dark and electro? “Not really,” he says and lets out a small giggle. Hope he doesn’t think I was being serious. “You don’t want to rehearse with the same stuff you’re doing on stage, you want a bit of a change. I just kind of use my iPod, I just plug it in and warm up with a pair of sticks. I listen to a lot of music these days.”

Southampton is in the ‘last little bit’ of their tour. “We had a day off in Southampton yesterday, then we’ve got Exeter tomorrow and one or two more shows. And that’s it done. So yeah, it’s gone really well. I mean we were totally shocked, ‘cause we’d been away so long we’re kind of reinventing ourselves. It was kind of like ‘how’s this going to go, back to a three piece, a lot of change’. We thought we’ll see how ticket figures are in the first week and actually we found out we’d sold out in one day pretty much, which was amazing. We did start off thinking about doing a small venues tour once we finished the album, but this time it was kind of the bigger venues, like tonight’s 800 and normally we’d play like 4-500.

“I think we were relieved actually that they went so well, we were totally shocked because we thought we were going to be starting again from scratch and building up. It’s been great, we’ve had some amazing audiences so far, like Sheffield and Glasgow have been the highlights.”

Who’s your support and have they been with you all tour? “We’ve got V Formation?” he says as a question, asking if I’ve heard of them (I have, but their name’s all I know) “…supporting us. I think they’re like Pixies influence but with Nick Cave thrown in there as well. So yeah, they’re pretty cool.”

It’s a busy year ahead for the band. As well as all the festival appearances they’re not allowed to mention, single ‘You Can’t Have It All’ has an April release date with their album following in the summer. They’re a little impatient on that front – it’s been ready since January and they’re keen to get it out there. He mentions some possible shows in the autumn and adds with a laugh: “Notice that I didn’t say ‘the fall’ as I don’t live in America.” Well done, Rick. “So yeah I think it’s going to be a great year. I think we’re playing really well, we’re back as a three-piece which is very different.”

The three-piece is the classic Ash line up. “It was great having Charlotte in the band for the time she was there. But communication-wise, I think the three of us were always kind of headed in the same direction. Charlotte always had her other stuff to do. We feel a bit more focused. We were kind of worried about how other fans would react ‘cause there were a lot of fans initially when Charlotte joined the band, kind of sceptical…” Sort of ‘There’s a girl! What’s that?’ I say, remembering the sort of comments flying round my school at the time. The guy up at the computer laughs quietly. I squint a bit. Is that Mark? I can’t be too sure as he's not facing me.

“We don’t seem to have suffered from any of that really,” says Rick. “A lot of people on the message board were saying it’s good getting back to a three-piece. That’s a relief because we were kind of worried about it when we did our first show, back in September last year. It was in New York in this tiny little place, a secret show, and there were a few people around saying are you sure you’re going to be able to do this as a three-piece and we were like ‘I don’t know, but we’re going to try.’ And it ended up sounding great and it was a huge weight off.”

I’m very wary about asking questions on Ash’s early years, due to the fact they must have been answered several hundred million times over the last ten years or so, so I ask Rick about Downpatrick in Northern Ireland, his old stomping ground as a lad.

"That’s where I went to school. Where we’re from is a very small town, I haven’t been back in a very long time.” I take it you’re not missing the area that much? “No, not that much. Mark's got a few friends who live around that area, he goes back there a lot but I don’t. Strange little town.”

He wakes up slightly. “It was kinda weird when we were first starting out because there were so many bands. Right around the grunge explosion there were about 14, 15 of us. There were like 20 bands at one point in a single area, you know?” he says with a smile.

“That was pretty cool. But unfortunately I don’t think any of them really went on, because it’s kind of a hard place to get out of. A lot of luck was involved with us getting signed. There was a lot of talent there but I think Northern Ireland’s always a bit… (he pauses) because it’s separated by the sea…” People sort of forget about it. “Yeah. A lot of bands won’t bother going or they stop at Belfast. Well Belfast is only about 20 miles or so away from us. I think certainly when we were growing up there were very few bands who would come over. It’s difficult for bands to cross the water and tour the UK.”

Tell me about Britpop. “Ehhh!” he shudders and laughs quietly. “Nothing to do with me!” Fair enough. “It’s kind of weird because Britpop came along and we were having our success at the same time. I guess it was good in the sense that there were a lot of people who listening more to guitar-oriented music.” Anything with a guitar in that period and Britpop was tagged onto it, I think. “Yeah. We were far removed, all our influences were really American, like Nirvana, the Pixies, the Stooges and stuff like that. We never really felt like we fitted in and we didn’t want to fit in.

"We were kind of upset when people lumped us in with it. So few of those bands have survived from that time, you know? I guess we always felt like we had our own path to follow but we consider ourselves lucky that we managed to steer clear of Britpop just enough I think.” Well you were playing in your own style rather than just following the crowds, so I think that saw you in good stead. “And we’re not British either,” he reminds me with a chuckle. “We’re Irish!”

Let’s hear some more about ‘You Can’t Have It All’, not to be confused with Kaiser Chiefs’ one with a similar name and very different tune. It’s an immense song with dirty riffs, sexy basslines and singalong ‘Oh’s. “We can go back and talk about that,” says Rick graciously with a smile. Er, thanks. “It’s quite a different song,” he continues. “Are you at the gig tonight?” I couldn’t get tickets, I say in a small voice. “We’re going to play it tonight. It’s weird, it’s almost got a disco feel to the verse of it, but it’s just so kind of recognisable Ash, I think Tim had written it back when we were doing the last album but it didn’t really fit with it because it had a different feel but then chorus-wise, it originally had this kind of acoustic-y chorus to it, just Tim strumming the guitar, but then we rocked it up. It’s something the fans are really into, we get a really good reaction live.” So it’s still very new to play, you’re not fed up of it yet. “No, no, it’s good. Well all the old stuff is feeling fresh as well on the tour. It all feels like new after having such a long break from it.”

The single was first played on Jo Whiley’s show “at 10.55am.” That’s very specific. “She had the exclusive, so she plays it first and then after that anyone can play it." The date of transmission was for the following day, and Rick said they’d be listening “if we get out of bed in time.” That is quite early. “It is for me these days,” he sighs.

Is there much of a divide between your old fans and your new ones? “I don’t think so… well obviously new fans are much younger and a lot more excitable so they’re the ones down the front. It was kind of weird the first gig we played in Preston, it was like the first time we really noticed the audience was a lot younger than us.” Rick’s hardly old, but as anyone who’s been to a gig and been pushed out the way by yapping 15 year olds will know there seems to be a huge difference in just a few years. “That was kind of like ‘woah, that’s weird.’ ‘Cause through our career the audience has been kind of the same age, and this was the first time we realised we’re getting older! There doesn’t seem to be any rivalry, I haven’t noted any. They all get along very well. Seemingly…”

So: ‘TOTI’. “Oh, we can’t talk about that,” says Rick with another chuckle. Oh, you tease. Mention the new Ash album, and ‘TOTI’ is it. Possibly, though they can’t say much. It’s a mysterious abbreviation. “Mark takes care of our MySpace and he decided to play a game a bit of a Hangman game, so the fans get a certain bunch of letters to pick from every week and they vote for the letters and then whether they get them right or wrong.” That sounds cool, and it could probably keep you going until 2009. “I don’t know. They seem to be getting quite close, so we’re getting a bit nervous, we don’t want to release it too soon. I’m sure they’ll work it out pretty soon. It’s a long wait until it comes out, but I guess it’ll fly.”

Time to go. The tour manager collars Rick and they carry some equipment out the room. “Here, let me get that,” I say and hold the door open. Rick thanks me and heads off on his merry way. I hold back so it doesn’t look like I’m stalking him through the corridor, then walk slowly down the stairs. Two guys and a girl in their early 20s turn shining faces on me, then look mildly disappointed and keep looking around.

“It was him, he was right there in his hat!” says one of the guys. “I can’t believe he just walked straight past us. I’m going to have to go and have a drink now.” Was tempted to say “Tim will be down in a minute,” and scarper, but I don’t. Get halfway across the street and realise I’ve left my hat on the back of the chair, so I sheepishly go back for it. Fans on the band's forum described the gig as ‘awesome’ and it was a shame I missed it. Past it they are not - welcome back, Ash.

Ash
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