Ash is back after eight years with sixth album KABLAMMO! (Edel/earMusic). The Northern Ireland trio—vocalist/guitarist Tim Wheeler, bassist Mark Hamilton and drummer Rick McMurray—will be on tour supporting the LP in the U.K. starting later this month. Ash will also be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week.
McMurray: I have a bit of an addiction. It used to be alcohol. But it’s been replaced by drums. I was touring in America in 2002 when I first came across this guitar shop with Finn, and they just had this old liquid-kit stand in there. So I went back and spoke to the manager and he said he’d cut me a deal if I paid cash. I went back and talked to our tour manager and he gave me $400 and got the kit for next-to-nothing. That kit is worth probably $1,500 now. That was where I started with that. And then a few years later when I moved to Edinburgh, a friend of mine from Belfast and I were talking about starting our own bar (thankfully that never happened), and he was a big drum fan as well. We were going to buy these kits and rent them out, so I ended up buying like five vintage drum kits. But then nothing ever happened, so I ended up with this attic full of drums. And then I bought a few more. But then I had kids and it was sort of a few years of having my addiction to drums cured. My friend David Jeans, the Arab Strap guy, has got me back into it, so I have a few more. It’s good to be out on tour because I actually use one of them now, so I’m not just amassing a load of them. It would kill to have a drum endorsement, but it’s really cool to be able to have all these drums and change what you’re playing when you want to. I’m currently using a Gretsch kit; maybe next year I’ll use a Ludwig.
Video after the jump.
