Returning with a banging new album “Ad Astra”, the ever excellent Ash are on a creative roll thanks, in part, to the critical response to previous album “Race the night”.   Recent single “Give me back my world” shines a light on a band filled with confidence.  Damian Robinson caught up with drummer Rick McMurray in anticipation for the album and upcoming date at Newcastle Boiler Shop in November.

I saw you at the Mayfair back in 1996, and you must almost have the full bingo set in terms of North East venues?

Wow yeah, there were a lot of other bands and friends saying we needed to play The Mayfair as it had a special type of atmosphere and I’m glad we did because I know it wasn’t around for too long after 96 which feels like a real shame.  We played the City Hall with the Darkness earlier this year, so yeah, we’ve played lots of the venues in the North East and it’s always a great night.

Congratulations on Ad Astra, it’s excellent. Are you excited for it to be released?

We really are, yes.  Our last album was received really well so it’s great to carry on the momentum.  In a way this feels like part two of a trilogy which feels exciting and creatively interesting.

There was a clear visual and sonic boundary to “Race the night”, including the live show backdrops, and with “Ad Astra” there feels like another complete ‘theme’ around both the songs and the visuals.  Is this part of the trilogy you’re talking about?

In a way yes, we’re working with the same artist which helps, and Ad Astra is very space theme’d, so there’s a certain call back to the last album as well as to songs like ‘Girl from Mars’ which are quiet space-ish and inter-planetary.  Tim wrote a bunch of songs over lock down and he’s never really stopped, so we’re trying to group the songs by feel and by instruments.  We’re in a really good place in terms of songs we’ve released and songs still to be recorded.

That’s great, and really impressive given you’ve never really stopped for 30 years.

Thank you, what can help is other artists and bouncing ideas through with them.  For example we worked with Graham Coxon on a couple of songs on this album.  We got to know him in the 90s and he’s always been very kind to us.  “Fun people”, in particular, is a really great song with some great input from Graham.  It’s those types of collaborations which can give us energy and keep us wanting to get better and better.

In terms of the upcoming tour, do you have a sense of what the set-list will be?

We’ve not fully got around to nailing the set-list, it can be harder the more songs and albums you have to choose from.  What worked well with “Race the night” was a nice blend between new and older songs.  It’s unlikely we’d ever not play songs like “Girl from” but sometimes there’s an awareness that with a new album if you never play some of the newer songs now you might never play them live.  We’ll choose well I’m sure.  

Ad Astra is released in October 2025.  Ash play The Boiler Shop in November.