(Photo courtesy of http://www.ash-official.com)
When Charlotte Hatherly, guitarist for the UK band Ash, answered the
phone in her Chicago hotel room, she wasn’t exactly at her best. In fact, she was sick in bed, and, quite frankly, Ninevolt
had woken her.
Oops.
Thankfully, Hatherly was a trouper, immediately saying, “That’s all
right, though.” She managed to go
from zero to clear-headed in no time flat and was ready...or as ready as she
could be, given that she was a bit under the weather...to answer a few questions
for Ninevolt.
So, you joined the band in
1997. Had you been in any other
bands prior to Ash?
“I was in a band called Nightmares for a couple of years.
We didn’t really do much, aside from the usual London club scene; we
recorded some stuff, but nothing was really released.
When the boys moved to London from Ireland, we were rehearsing at the
same studio in North London. I met
Tim, and I’d heard that he was looking for a guitarist, so someone said,
‘Charlotte can play guitar!’ He
had my number, so he gave me a ring, and, since they were were in the studio, I
went in, played a few songs, and...that was it, really.
It all happened very quickly.”
Ash had
already more than started to make a name for themselves in Britain by the time
you joined the band. Did you feel
at all intimidated when you joined?
“Yeah, I knew who they were, but I hadn’t bought their album.
I wasn’t a big fan, so I didn’t realize they were as big as they
were; I certainly didn’t realize that 1977 was the number one album (in the UK)!
I just sort of jumped into it blindly, and, suddenly, one of my first
gigs with them was a headlining show at a festival before 20,000 people.
I was, like, omigod!”
Were you as
much of a fan of the crunchy punk-pop of, say, the Buzzcocks that the rest of
the band was? Or did you add any
particularly unique influences?
“I hadn’t really heard that kind of stuff.
I was into things like David Bowie, the Pixies...the Sonic Youth kind of
style. And they were as well, but
the way they sounded...well, my other band was quite different music, not at all
the same place they were coming from.”
Nu-Clear
Sounds didn’t
exactly provide the best reviews of the band’s career.
Did anyone try to shift the blame to “the new guy,” so to speak?
“No,
not really. Through Tim being the
sole songwriter of the band, really, the album was him struggling with his own
songwriting, having writer’s block, and such.
There was a lot of pressure to follow up 1977,
and he was just fed up with the whole music scene by the time the album came
out. I felt slightly out of it on
that album. I was new, and the band
seemed not to be having a very fun time.”
Was the
material for Nu-Clear Sounds already written by the time you joined?
“No,
actually, NOTHING had been written when I joined; that’s why it was such a
struggle to get things done. I
wrote some stuff with Mark (Hamilton, Ash’s bassist); he had more writing
credits on the album than usual, compared to the other albums.
Tim was suffering a bit, I think.”
It took over
a year for Free All Angels to see US
release. Were you beginning to
wonder if it was ever going to make it out over here, or were you really even
bothered about it?
“We
just had SO many record company problems. Dreamworks
just weren’t that interested when we presented (Free
All Angels) to them, so we parted company, and it took a while to get a new
record company. Dreamworks was the
second record company we’d been with, and they had been disastrous, so we
wanted something that we’d be happy with, and we found that with Kinetic.
They’re really cool. This
is the first time we’ve been given a go over here, and it seems to be going
pretty well so far.”
Yeah, once
the album finally DID see release, it seemed like Kinetic was more than willing
to push it for all it was worth: a low “introductory” price, a bonus DVD,
and the most unlikely, actual video airplay for “Burn Baby Burn.”
Were you surprised that they gave it their all as much as they did?
“I
think it’s cool, because they’re an independent label, rather similar to the
one we’re on at home. Dreamworks,
they were so huge that we just got lost; we were low on their list of
priorities. But with Kinetic, they’re actually a dance label; we’re
their only guitar band, so we’re a challenge for them, and they’re excited
about it. They’re an independent
label, but they have the money to put into us, and they’re really going for
it.
Do
you think “Burn Baby Burn” was chosen as the first single in the US rather
than “Shining Light” because it’s more radio-friendly to US listeners and
their notoriously short attention spans?
“I
think it was the more instant track; we got Mark Trambina to remix it into a
more American radio sounding song. I
think ‘Shining Light’ will be next, but ‘Burn Baby Burn’ was the more
upbeat, instant pop song.
How did you end up on a tour
with Dashboard Confessional?
“We
did a few radio shows with them; it was one of the first things we did when we
got to the States. We met them
there, and, then, we played the Reading Festival, and they played there as well.
So they just sort of asked us if we wanted to go on tour with them.
We’ve met a lot of American artists...Dashboard Confessional, Jimmy Eat
World, Saves The Day. In fact,
we’re also going to be touring with Saves The Day.”
It’s funny that you mention
Jimmy Eat World, since, the first time I heard “Burn Baby Burn,” I thought
it WAS Jimmy Eat World.
(LAUGHS)
“It’s a good climate for us right now.
When the last album came out, it was either NuMetal or Coldplay and
Travis, and we just didn’t fit in. It’s
a much better climate for this album; there’s a big guitar band explosion
right now, with the Strokes, Jimmy Eat World, and so on.”
So are you looking forward to
this US tour, now that you’re getting more exposure?
“We’re just finishing up the Coldplay
tour...tonight, as a matter of fact. We’ve
been out with them, and they’re another UK band and we’re good friends, but
this (Dashboard Confessional tour) will be quite a challenge.
We’re not sure how responsive the crowd will be...but, thankfully,
people are beginning to know who we are now.”