Interview with Tim Wheeler talking about the latest recording news... Taken from www.ash-official.com

So you're back in NYC. Are you still working on the 27 songs? Yeah, I think it might even be pushing 29 now. Two new ones on the horizon! Yeah. Either that or I've miscalculated. There's shit loads anyway. So how's it progressing? Well, during the session Rick told you about last time, we finished a couple of songs and did the backing tracks for another couple. It was a pretty slow session because we were setting up the studio at the same time. But it's going to accelerate from now on.

Did you achieve much during your time off? Yeah. Because I'd been working on the studio for so long, I just needed to get out of the technical world and get into the creative world, if you see what I mean. It was a really good break though. What were the highlights? I drove all around Ireland and spent a bit of time in London. Just really got away from everything. I made a little pilgrimage and visited Philomena Lynott - the mum of Phil Lynott - in Dublin. She's a brilliant character and I've been meaning to call into her for years. She's got like a whole room dedicated to all his discs, his record collection and loads of cool things. I got to play his bass guitar. It was a really nice day. She gave me this cool little ashtray that used to be in his house that says 'Ash' on it!

That could be the cover picture for the next album!

Well, maybe. It's not the most beautiful ashtray in the world, but it's cool to know that it came from his house.

So do you feel creatively relaxed now?

Yeah, it's nice to get a break and come back. Now things are really up and running technically, I can just get on with recording. Rick's coming back in September and then we're going to get stuck into making most of the record.

So what happens between now and September? I'm finishing writing and just working on demos. It's nice to have rough versions to start with. Earlier in the year we set up six mics in a room and recorded the three of us playing the new songs. So I'm just going to put vocals on those and a few extra guitars. Are the lyrics written? Well, I've got about half of them done, but again, I like to approach them in drafts - do a first version then re-examine them before I record them properly. There's always stuff that I'll be unhappy with that I'll end up changing. I get the basic idea the first time, but I can always see room for improvement.

So is Mark in the studio with you?

Yeah, we both go and hang out there during the day, working on stuff. It's cool. It's like our own little playground, we can just mess around and do whatever we like.

And what's happening about a producer?

We're just going to do it ourselves and get one of the top mixers in the world to mix it. We're not sure who yet, but the record company are chasing that down.

Have the record company been in touch much? They just leave us to it really. I'm sort of thinking once we've got all our demos properly finished to get our management and label over here to listen through it with us and help us decide which songs to pick. Would they give suggestions on how they want things to sound, or do you present songs to them as finished items? Yeah, we've always pretty much delivered the complete album. We've never really had an A&R person get that involved. There was an A&R a bit more involved in 'Meltdown', but there won't be so much on this one. Oh shit!! What?! I'm burning toast! Oh no. Sorry, I think I'm going to have to go. Oh shit. I think it's on fire! Have we done enough? Yup, that's plenty. Oh, cool. Thanks.