Tim Wheeler on the return of Ash
Tim Wheeler on music– and football
The whole of the island is in the grip of Euro ’16 fever and the diaspora have been tuning in all over the globe to watch the matches at ridiculous times of the day and night. One son of Downpatrick who has been following the exploits of both Martin and Michael’s teams is Tim Wheeler of indie rock gods Ash. He and bass player Mark Hamilton relocated to New York almost a decade ago and his thoughts of home will be roused again when Northern Ireland take on World Cup holders Germany on Tuesday afternoon.
‘I’ve been cheering on both Irelands,’ he says. ‘At this stage I am used to getting up to watch matches; often they are shown here at 10 in the morning but the timings for this tournament haven’t been too bad.’
Tim wrote hits such as Shining Light, Girl From Mars and the classic Oh Yeah. His 10 years in the Big Apple haven’t tainted his Down accent and he is looking forward to getting back home this week to headline the Sea Sessions in Bundoran on Saturday night, replacing Primal Scream. Ash will return in July to top the bill at the Indiependence Festival in Mitchelstown.
‘We normally get to go back to Ireland about four or five times a year. When I get home I remember how beautiful it is,’ he says wistfully.
‘I miss the people but in New York there is such a great mix of Irish and Northern Irish that we still get to indulge in our particular style of banter. New York is a real melting pot; there are so many interesting musicians over here. It is also a city that is quite relaxed about age. It doesn’t matter how old you are as a musician. If it was on the other side of the pond, people would think your musical career should be over when you’ve hit 23. Whereas if you are a big hairy guitarist in a band like TV On The Radio, Americans will still consider you the hippest guy on the planet; maybe that appeals to me as I get older.’
Tim is now 39. As well as shifting nearly 10 million albums, Ash, along with U2, played the historic Belfast gig to ramp up support in advance of the referendum on the Good Friday agreement in 1998.
‘It was such a momentous occasion and we felt we were on the point of changing things for the better,’ he recalls.
‘All my family still live there [in Northern Ireland] but I left, first for London [at 18], before I moved to America. I don’t keep such close tabs on the political situation that I could make a comment on how things are now. But from where I’m standing, Northern Ireland and Belfast in particular has changed so much and for the better. There is a new generation coming through with fresher ideas although we know things rear up at certain times of the year.’
Always one of Ireland’s most forward-thinking bands, they formed their own Atomic Heart label in 2009. Rather than immediately release a conventional album they instead issued a single a fortnight on vinyl and digitally by subscription through their website for a year. Each single represented a letter of the alphabet and became known as Ash’ A-Z. It was, by any measure, a huge undertaking.
‘We didn’t find it difficult creatively but because we did it on our own label it was a big challenge,’ he says.
‘I was chatting to someone from Spotify recently and he said it was an idea that was probably a year ahead of its time. Nowadays bands just chuck out loads of single tracks before their album is released and it has become the best way to promote a new album.
‘We did it as a subscription service and if we’d had about 1,000 more subscribing we would’ve been in the top 40 every two weeks.’
Tim released his first solo album, Lost Domain, in 2014. It dealt with his father’s battle with Alzheimer’s disease and Tim’s own battle coming to terms with it. Ash reconvened last year with the well-received Kablammo. He hopes to ramp up activities with his landmark 40th birthday approaching.
‘I only did about five or six shows playing the Lost Domain album. The last of them was in Belfast before all my family so that was very emotional,’ he says.
‘Playing the songs was cathartic but when I tried to talk about the songs, especially in Belfast, I found myself choking up a bit. It’s a bit easier to sing the songs rather than talk about them, I found that much too heavy.
‘I also liked the musical possibilities working solo opened up. It would be nice to do another solo album but perhaps with not such emotionally heavy subject matter. But we want to get cracking on another Ash album as soon as possible. Ash will always be my number one priority though.’
Sea Sessions, Bundoran, June 25; Indiependence, Mitchelstown, July 31
‘Ifyou are a big hairy (old) guy in a band, Americans will still consider you hip’