Platform caught up with Stockport four piece No Hot Ashes, we spoke to the band about their upcoming UK tour, EP’s and how far they’ve come since their debut track ‘Goose’ in October 2014.
No Hot Ashes, can you introduce yourself to our Platform readers?
I’m Isaac and I sing and play guitar.
I’m Luigi and I play guitar.
I’m Matt and I play the drums.
I’m Jack and I play bass.
So tonight at the Chameleon is the first night of your spring tour, how are you feeling about it?
Isaac: Feeling good I think yeah, we’re hoping tonight’s gonna to be good and it’s a cool little venue.
Luigi: We’re looking forward to it and it’s supposed to be sold out I think.
Your EP ‘Skint Kids Disco’ was released last month, can you tell us what the recording process was like and who wrote the songs?
L: we record with our long-term producer Gavin, he’s an amazing producer and he’s got a studio in Wolverhampton. The writing has stayed the same forever really, Issac usually comes up with the ideas.
I: What usually kinda happens I’ll come up with something, either a full song or an idea or a little bit or whatever and generally these lot will just add the parts and I’ll write lyrics on top and all that sort of stuff.
Your song ‘Bad Crowd’ was Radio X’s track of the week last week, can you tell us the meaning behind this song?
I: It’s all just about being poor and feeling like rubbish, and sort of slipping into that crowd that your mum and dad didn’t want you to fall into. Yeah there’s not much to it, but the lyrics are a little bit political and stuff.
So, how has your music evolved since you first began playing music together?
I: When we first started, it was terrible like we were trying to be a punk band, I don’t really know what we were going for all sorts of stuff. We got to a stage where we were like we know how to write a good song now we’re alright kinda thing. But it took a good year and a half, two years before we sorted it out.
What are your ambitions as a band?
L: Just to travel as much as we can really, we all like travelling to new cities and hopefully new countries like Dublin that’s technically another country.
I: I think the biggest thing for us, the dream kinda thing is to live off it a little bit y’know what I mean? Enough to just get by, we’re not after anything but just enough to live and be happy and play the music.
Can you describe No Hot Ashes in three words?
Matt: No Hot Ashes
So you have numerous festival spots lined up this year, if you could play any festival in the world what would it be?
L: Benicassim, because it’s hot.
I: South by South West in America
L: I’d like to go to Japan, Tokyo, China.
I: Everywhere, we just want to play everywhere.
Who would you say are your greatest inspirations both personally and as a band?
I: We’ve always taken a lot of inspiration from the musicianship and showmanship of James Brown. A lot of the old 70’s funk. We take a bit of everything from everywhere, it’s hard to finger point one specific artist.
J;: We don’t set out to sound like anything, we didn’t set out to make a genre and we didn’t set out to say we’re going to make this genre of music – we play together and it became whatever you want to call it yourself really.
L: We listen to far too much different music.
I: As individuals, Jack loves drum and bass, we all love hip hop, we’re all just everywhere so it’s hard to narrow it down into one.
What advice would you give to other bands trying to make it in the industry?
L; Don’t upset anyone, there’s been plenty of times where we’ve had to bite our lips a bit but you’ve just got to be honest and true to yourself.
J; Be honest, be happy, and be on time.
L; You’re having fun, but treat it as a job. It’s hard not to get caught up in it, like normal 9-5 jobs you go during the day and then you go out at night, whereas our job is essentially being people’s nights out. So it’s hard to not get caught up in it.
M; Don’t get pissed before a show.
What has been the highlight of your career so far?
I; We played Academy 2 last week, that was like 950 people in Manchester, sold out and I couldn’t really believe it. Just every time we get to go back into the studio and release something, we just love it y’know, and hearing stuff we’ve done in a proper physical solid format. There’s something proper gratifying about it.
You can catch No Hot Ashes at Nottingham’s Dot to Dot Festival on 27 May 2018.
You can also keep up-to-date with the band by following them on Twitter, Facebook and Soundcloud.
By Tayla Davie