Scattered Ashes are currently supporting Meryl Streek on some of his UK tour dates. Their debut single in 2020 ‘Love Is Not An Option‘ immediately grabbed attention and gained airplay by Steve Lamacq on BBC Radio 6. In addition, debut EP Parallel Lines in 2021 sold out in Rough Trade stores across the UK within a week. Sitting down with the Dublin-bred band before their set in Stereo, Glasgow I began by asking how the support slot came about.
Rob: We both work with Daniel Doherty as producer in Darklands Studio, so we’ve always been in each others orbit. We supported him earlier in the year as a warm up show before we did Beyond the Pale festival and that went really great. And he reached out to us for the tour and here we are!
Your debut EP came out three years ago. Have you new music on the horizon?
Rob: We have a new EP coming out at some point later in the year, and the first single from it will be out in April. It’s going to be called ‘Kingdom‘. We’re road testing a lot of material from the EP at the moment on this tour.
Could you introduce yourselves and share your roles in the band?
Gerry: I’m Gerry I play bass and I’m the newest member, it’ll be a year in April. It’s been great playing with these guys, and the drummer is my brother!
Ben: Gerry brings a whole new backing vocal which just enhances the whole baritone of Rob. He’s brought a whole new flavour to the band. I’m Ben the guitar player, and me and Rob have been playing for about 4 years now. I’ve been with him since the very early days, in fact since the start in January 2020. We just started jamming together.
January 2020! On my goodness.
Rob: Yeah, right before Covid! It was a good time to write music.
At this point Cillian the drummer arrives and after some brief introductions Rob continues by sharing he is the lead singer and guitarist.
How do you create your music?
Rob: In terms of writing we’re very organic. We write together as a band. One of us might introduce an idea. It might be Ben or me with a certain guitar riff. Everyone writes their own parts which is great. The band is the sum of all its parts. It’s a creative process together, a group thing. It doesn’t get written and brought to anyone. Once we get in the room is when it all comes together.
Cillian: There is total creative freedom in the whole thing, which keeps it interesting for everybody as well.
What’s your main inspiration behind your song-writing?
Rob: In terms of the song-writing itself we all have our own influences and elements. In terms of lyrics (Rob is the main lyricist in Scattered Ashes), inspiration is from anywhere: life, sex, death, anything that makes you feel emotion I suppose. You can hear in the music there’s a lot of throwback to certain post punk bands of the 80’s. I’ll really bit into hip-hop and I really appreciate lyricism, and I think we’re all pushing forward musically as well so not just an indie rock post-punk band but we’re always trying to bring other influences into the music. At the same time we are very aware of our sound and what draws people in. With this new collection of songs I think people will be surprised in one way but it hasn’t lost the essence of what brought people to the band in the first place. There’s a lot of synths and use of samples and that’s the direction we’re pushing forward with at the minute as a band.
So there is a real evolution in your sound.
Rob: Yes, constantly. For the last six months we’re really locked ourselves away to record a lot of material which will be on the new EP. We are really pushing ourselves I feel as a unit and to just expand the sound.
With the EP coming out are you going to be doing your own gigs? These support dates with Meryl Streek are obviously great exposure for you.
Rob: It’s brilliant. This is good exposure for us but also for road-testing new material which has been great. Ahead of the first single in April we’ll be doing a St. Patrick’s Day show in London, at Windmill, Brixton. It’s an all-dayer with a few acts involved which are all to be confirmed. Then we’ll have our own headline show on the back of the new single ‘Kingdom‘ coming out, in London on April 13. And we’ll be playing a few festivals as well.
Cillian: We’re based in London now, we all moved over in January so its a big step for us.
And what was the reason for making the move?
Rob: It was twofold. Things are bad everywhere at the moment but in Dublin in particular its quite hard for anyone to find a flat and live anywhere and we all got to the stage where we’re all sick of living at home. But also of course there are more opportunities over here and cities to play in. I mean this tour is evidence of that. Plus we are still close enough to home that we can go back to Ireland and see family. It’s a really good scene in London and its a good time to be here.
For more information on Scattered Ashes please check out their facebook and instagram.
