It’s time to start getting excited, Dear Reader. We’re less than a month away from the unofficial start of our 2019 festival season. That May Day Bank Holiday weekend means one thing – Live At Leeds. Packed with (literally) hundreds of the best new bands on the planet, it sees one of the country’s most vibrant creative cities turned into a mecca of buzz, hype and awesome live music.
To celebrate, we’re holding a special Live At Leeds takeover. Over the course of the day (11th April 2019, in case you’re coming to this late – Ed), we’ll be bringing you all kinds of stuff from and about the acts playing this year’s event. If you’re going, it’ll help you plan out those all-important spreadsheets. If you’ve not yet picked up your tickets – well, what are you waiting for? You can grab ’em here, right now.
No Hot Ashes are one of Stockport’s most promising up-and-coming groups; they’ve come a long way from their early days recording live sets in drummer Matt’s garage, and are well on their way to perfecting the art of catchy guitar-bops. With new dates and new music on the horizon, you can catch them on Dork’s stage at Live At Leeds.
Hey No Hot Ashes, when did you realise you wanted to make music?
We’ve all been surrounded by music since we were young, but it wasn’t until we formed NHA that we had any outlet for all our ideas, made us realise we could do it. As a four piece we just gelled, and we’ve become each other’s best friends.
How did you guys get together?
We met on a school bus and practised in Matt’s garage for years until things started to take off. We used to do little parties in that garage for our mates – there’s some awful YouTube footage somewhere. Good luck finding it.
What’s the music scene like in Stockport at the mo?
There’s only a couple of venues but lots of bands. Stockport really has been put on the map since the rise of Blossoms. There have always been bands from Stockport, but nobody has ever been proud to say they actually come from here until now. Artists like 10cc, Horsebeach, Mr Scruff and Muse all have links to Stocky.
Are you creative in non-musical ways too?
Deffo. We all have other creative outlets whether it be art, photography, poetry or pints. As a band, we always try and keep our minds active elsewhere in our lives apart from the band. It always brings something new to the NHA project whether it be through music or marketing or artwork.
What do you do for fun?
Pints, Netflix, dog-walks, travelling. Anything to keep us occupied. We’re all quite easily pleased to be honest. We’re all very social beings so anything that involves being out and about.
Tell us about your latest EP, ‘Skint Kids Disco’ – what’s it about?
It feels like ages since we released ‘Skint Kids Disco EP’ now. It was a step up for us. The first actual body of songs we released after so many singles it summed up that era of our band perfectly and soundtracked a lot of our fans 2018. It also gave us a good idea as to where we wanted to move, sonically. We knew after releasing that EP what we did/didn’t want to achieve with our music and that led us into the last 12 months of writing for something “special”. The music we’ve been creating in recent times is just far superior. We’ve grown as musicians and people. We met our new producer in the form of Chris Taylor at Parr Street Studios, Liverpool and he opened up our eyes to a lot of new ideas and really inspired us to be better and write better songs.
What’s been the highlight of your time as a musician so far?
The big Manchester headline shows are always special and mean a lot to us, we’ve also spent A LOT of time recording in a very nice studio recently which was a highlight. We haven’t played Glasto or won any awards yet though. Get back to us in 12 months.
What are you working on right now?
New music, new dates, new everything. We’ve been writing more music than ever over the last 12 months and hand on heart we feel it’s the best material we’ve written to date. We’re very excited to release this new music and especially can’t wait to get back on tour very soon *hint hint*. Everyone should be excited. Trust.
Are you guys ready for this summer’s festivals?
Yes! We’re all geared up. Lots of new tracks to play. Confetti canons at the ready. We’re especially excited to be playing the Dork Stage at Live at Leeds 2019. We’ve never played LAL. Festival season is always a great time for us, and we really look forward to it.
What do you think is the key to a great festival?
Free drinks are always nice. Good organisation and good weather. Obviously, the line-up is the most important part – finding a balance of well-established artists and up and coming artists is key for us. We’re seeing too many festivals are opting for a nostalgic headliner(s) and it’s boring, it attracts boring people.
No Hot Ashes play Live At Leeds (4th May) and more.
