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X-clusive: Charlotte Hatherley’s Summer Break

added 12 August 2004 at 17.17

With her solo debut single ‘Summer’ released this week, Xfm Online caught up with Charlotte Hatherley to discuss everything from her new album ‘Grey Will Fade’ and the possibility of a solo tour to her fansite’s frightening take on the classic children’s pastime, Mallet’s mallet.

Following her addition to the Ash line-up in 1997, Charlotte Hatherley followed the band's recent renaissance after their less than rapturously received second album. She told Xfm exactly why now was the right time to break free from the evil machinations of Messers Wheeler, Murray and Hamilton.

“When I joined Ash I stopped writing songs and ended up being a pisshead in a rock band for a few years and just having a good time,” she explains. “But I got over that and got my ambition back and I really have wanted to do this for a very long time. I went to the rest of the guys and said ‘Do you mind if I do this?’

“I never really wanted it to be a big solo star statement, it’s just something I had to get out of my system,” she adds, “But I definitely want to do more.”

As much as Hatherley protests, it’s clear that this isn’t quite the ‘one-off getting out of the system’ she claims it is. Which leads to the next possible ep of the promotional treadmill: A solo tour?

“I’d love to do a solo tour,” she reveals. “We had thought about Charlotte Hatherley as support act for Ash which would have been interesting, but I just didn’t have any time to rehearse. There’d be a weird combination of people into me, and Ash hecklers saying ‘Get off’.”

This week sees the release of Hatherley’s debut single proper, ‘Summer’ and, like many of the tracks on her album, draw vividly from personal experience.

“Its inspired by the Beach Boys song ‘In My Room’, and its about a bedroom being a place of solace and recovery after a break-up before coming out feeling much better in the summertime."

With Hatherley-mania in full flow, Charlotte’s website is a haven for those who want to discuss her musical talents or just the pros and cons of different crisps. Which can be a little concerning…

“It was quite frightening,” she concludes. “There was a Charlotte Hatherley Mallet’s mallet thread on my website  that had f**king 2000 posts. I looked at the first five and got scared. It’s got a life of its own.”

Charlotte Hatherley releases ‘Summertime’ this week (August 9) while the album ‘Grey Will Fade’ hits shelves next week (August 16).

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