This week the Ivor Novello Award winning Ash frontman Tim Wheeler joins Jarlath to discuss his incredible journey. From trying to sell his recordings to a market trader aged 13 to going to number 1 in the UK charts with his debut album, it's a hell of a ride and that's only the beginning. Tim talks about his first Top Of The Pops appearance just a few years after being branded the worst band in Downpatrick! We hear how the thought of a mapped out middle class life terrified him, the impact seeing Nirvana play in Belfast had upon him, the six figure sum the band blew on a documentary they were afraid to air and his struggles with coming to terms with fame as a teenager.
We get a rare insight into the ultra disciplined writing process that lead to him turning down a request to play I Fought The Law with Joe Strummer. Tim explains how routine and isolation feed his creativity, how releasing 26 singles in one year nearly killed the band and how he figured out a way to blast through writers' block thanks to The Vaccines. With unflinching honesty he tells Jarlath the heartbreaking story of losing his father to dementia and how writing his incredibly beautiful Lost Domain album during that period helped him to find peace. There's even a discussion of how the Kaiser Chiefs got him to work on the Shaun the Sheep Movie.
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