Before opening up for Glamour Of The Kill, Manchester metal band Ashes were kind enough to invite us onto their tour bus to have a little chat regarding the After Hours Tour and their debut EP ‘We Are The Darkness That Turns Into Light’. We had a great time, Jonny, Benj, Ben and Sam are great guys. Although it did kind of smell like onion bahji…
HTF: So you played you played you’re first couple of shows in Scotland over the past few two days on this tour, how did they go?
Benj: Yeah we played Aberdeen. It was good! We’ve had two good nights. both really well receipted especially as the opening band, we really enjoyed them.
HTF: What’s it like living in these tour buses?
Jonny: It’s awesome! I mean it’s alright if the guy above you doesn’t fall asleep on an onion baji… and you wake up the next day only being able to smell onion and nothing else.
HTF: So what happened there then?
Ben: On the first night I got ridiculously pissed, and to try and sober me up Benj got some onion bahji and he was going: “eat that it’ll make you better!” I fell asleep with it in my hand and sort of rolled all over it and then woke up in the middle of the night and just pushed it down the gap into Jonny’s bunk so now he fucking stinks!
HTF: How many of these crazy rule sheets are there on the bus?
Jonny: They’re dotted around everywhere, like this one this is my favourite “hey you, yes you! Me? Yes you! Don’t use the coffee machine or the kettle or even the coffee machine…” wait why does it say coffee machine twice?
Benj: Cause that’s the joke you dick! Laughs Yeah theirs plenty of rules on the tour bus, most of them set out by the guys in glamour!
HTF: Have you got a least favourite rule already, one that always catches you out?
All: Oh buffalo!
Sam: On the first night, we all got inducted into this game and ben got me six times when I’d literally just opened a can, so I had it in my right hand and he just went “buffalo” so I had to down it.
HTF: So you’re all seriously about this band and the music you make, it must be pretty special when you see kids going mental to your music?
Benj: Yeah it’s absolutely amazing!
Jonny: Yeah it’s funny you should say that, last night there was this guy who’d been on YouTube and listened to us before the show and it was pretty surreal because when we played all the singles we’d released, he was singing back every single word it was brilliant!
Ben: It was crazy I mean it was only the second date of the tour and there was people screaming the choruses back at us!
Long hair: We had people coming up for pictures and everything it was like WOW, incredible!
HTF: What is it about the metal genre that made you think, we have to start a band like this?
Benj: Well, it’s fucking bad-ass isn’t it!
Sam: What else are you gonna do?
HTF: Was there any bands in particular that influenced you?
Sam: Erm.. Bon Jovi *laughs* Bryan Adams.
Ben: There’s definitely a hint of Katy Perry in there somewhere
Benj: Nah we’re all into pretty current bands as well as old school bands. I think a big influence for all of us are bands like Of Mice & Men, Bring Me The Horizon, Underoath, Deftones, Architects those guys are all brilliant
HTF: So what’s it like touring with Glamour, has their been plenty of laughs?
Benj: Yeah, we’re all pretty good friends with them anyway we’ve done a show with them before so its just like a massive group of friends being on holiday
HTF: Lads on tour then basically?
Benj: absolutely, yeah those guys are amazing they really look out for us and we look out for them as well
HTF: So when one of you gets too drunk you rub each others backs?
Benj: Yeah yeah!
Ben: We put each other to bed!
Jonny: Yeah last night Ben had to put Sam in bed, I was just sat in my bunk listening to the whole situation it was fricken hilarious, they were both as pissed as each other!
Ben: Sam was a fucking mess, I woke him up on the couch and I was like “ mate you need to go to bed” and he was like “I don’t want to go to school today!” He was off his fucking face, it was amazing!
HTF: If you had to pick one band that you could go on tour with who would it be?
All: Underoath!
Ben: I would say a close second, Architects and an even closer third, Deftones and Letive in fourth!
Benj: Let’s say this as a tour! Deftones then Underoath in direct support to them. Then ARCHIE-TECTS and then us opening!
Sam: Why do we have to open? We should be headlining that shit!
Ben: Because their bigger than us you dick head.
HTF: Looking at this little packet on the table here, is this the new EP?
Benj: Yes, that is the fabled EP. There are two bonus tracks that are only available on the physical copy so if you don’t want to miss out buy it.
Jonny: We’ve got two tracks, one featuring Davey from Glamour and we’ve got one with Sid Glover from Heavens Basement doing a shredding solo that is awesome.
HTF: So have you got any addition material banked up that’s not on here? Maybe something that can be put towards the debut album?
Benj: We do indeed.
HTF: Can you tell us anything about it?
Benj: It’s fucking great! Full stop. I mean we’ve put loads into all the songs we’ve wrote and we always will do. I mean we’ve all been in positions before where we’ve been not quite happy with the music you’re playing. Whereas this ep, we’ve sat on that for so long and spent so much time on it. We’ve scrapped loads of crap and ended up with the right songs for the job.
Jonny: we’ve literally being recording for like a year, we had a massive catalogue of songs that we’d go through, just to say “yeah that ones alright, but this ones way better”.
HTF: Have you got any thing planned as a band for after this tour is over?
Benj: Yeah we’ve got Hit The Deck Festival coming up and we have another tour that we are just waiting to confirm and announce just of the back of this one.
HTF: You mentioned that you’ve been through a lot of scrapping of tracks that didn’t quite make the cut, does that make the recording process more enjoyable or a little frustrating, maybe a bit of both?
Benj: No it’s always enjoyable. We don’t pressure ourselves, and if a tracks not flowing or not working, we just don’t work on it any longer, we’ll just put it on the back burner and maybe come back to it at a later date.
Jonny: And what I love about this band as well is that we do take everything we do seriously, but at the end of the day we are just four lads, best mates and we generally enjoy making and performing our music!
HTF: So what is it that you want your fans to get out of your music? Do you want to relate to them through your music?
Benj: A fucking supermassive orgasm!
All: *Laughs*.
Benj: Whatever man! I want them to feel how we feel making the songs.
Jonny: Exactly. Some of the lyrics that I’ve written on this EP and everything. For example ‘Alive’ is a song about something that was going on with my family, so I just want people to be able to connect and relate with the lyrics on a certain level. Like Benj said, we want them to feel what we were feeling when we wrote these tracks.
HTF: That’s good. It’s great when bands write meaningful lyrics, unlike a lot of stuff that’s out there. Have you heard that awful Kanye West, Rhianna and Paul McCartney song, ‘FourFiveSeconds’?
Benj: Yes its fucking terrible.
Jonny: Some of the lyrics are actually “if I go to jail tonight promise you will pay my bail”.
Ben: PAUL MCCARTNEY AND KANYE WEST DID A SONG TOGETHER?
Jonny: Haven’t you heard it?
HTF: Literally some lyrics are “hold me back I’m bout to spaz”.
Ben: I don’t ever want to! I don’t want to live in a world where Kanye West and whoever the fuck it is, are spazzing with Paul McCartney.
Jonny: The worst thing was twitter blew up with people saying oh my god, Kanye is going to make this Paul McCartney guy famous.
Benj: Paul McCartney and his jowls can fuck off. Quote me on that! Also he’s fucking scouse.
HTF: It’s early days yet with this year just kicking off, but is there anything set in stone for next year?
Ben: What like 2016 next year? It’s a while off.
Jonny: I’m not even sure if we’ll still be alive!
Sam: I’m pretty sure we’ll be the supreme emperors of metal music by next year, touring America.
Benj: Nah with this thing you’ve got to take each day as it comes, I mean we’ve got the next few months sorted. We’ve got plans, for another EP or an album to be out early next year, and this one is literally just coming out as we speak. There’s longevity in this, but there’s also gonna be fresh stuff cropping up throughout the year.
Jonny: we’re definitely not going to quite down, we’ve all been through a lot of shit bands.
Sam: Pffft, speak for yourself *laughs*.
Jonny: Yeah, loads of crap bands and we’ve all had a load of shit times in other groups and its just really awesome that we can all see ourselves doing this for a really long time.
Sam: It’s all a massive step up from anything we’ve done before, we’ve all stepped up our game, and this all just all we want to do so we’re just going to keep giving it 100%.
HTF: It’s time for some quick fire questions are you game?
Benj: Go for it man.
HTF: Pokemon or Digimon?
Benj: I don’t give a flying foreskin!
Johnny: Cause you’re too old for this shit man, it’s gotta be Pokemon!
Benj: Next!
HTF: Jim Beam or Jack Daniels?
All: Jack Daniels!
HTF: Circle Pit or Wall of Death?
Benj, Ben & Jonny: Wall of Death.
Sam: Circle Pit.
Ben: Wall of Death because I want people to fucking kill each other!
Jonny: I can’t remember who it was but I saw someone do a wall of hugs, I think it was The Blackout.
Benj: That is the worst thing I’ve heard in my life!
Jonny: It was actually hilarious because you had people charging at each other then jumping in the air and just embraced each other to the floor.
Ben: did they start fucking afterwards? Because if they didn’t I’m not interested!
HTF: Converse, Nikes or Vans?
Benj: ADIDAS!
Ben: VANS.
Jonny: NIKES.
Sam: CONVERSE.
Benj: Adidas every time, I don’t have a pair of trainers that isn’t Adidas.
Sam: ARSEHOLE OR VAGINA?!
Jonny: Gotta be the butthole.
Ben: Butthole every time.
Benj: I have to disagree!
HTF: Lord Of The Rings or Harry Potter?
All: Lord Of The Rings.
Ben: It’s also a really good porno!
Benj: Yeah, Lord Of The Ring pieces.
