UNSIGNED rockers Out Of Ashes’ band name says it all.

The Huddersfield four piece have been assembled from the remnants of metal band Stricken and are now returning to the flames of the highly competitive rock business with new found optimism.

The positivity comes after they shed their metal tag and opted for what comes more naturally, good old fashioned rock.

Singer Mya explained: “Stricken was going for a while and musical tensions came up.

“It got a little bit experimental, we lost one guitarist and it just reached a head.

“We said forget Stricken, we’ve done that, we’ve done our learning curve, we know what we want to do and we know what we like musically.

“I got my head sorted around what kind of music I wanted to do and I think it suits us more.

“It’s about accepting who you are, I was listening to that kind of music anyway.

“It’s garage rock and it comes naturally.”

Drummer Matt added: “I think it’s more natural, we were trying to be something that we’re not.

“When we did start, the plan was we’ll be playing metal and add a female vocalist to be different.

“I wouldn’t say it didn’t work but it didn’t feel natural. It was perhaps a little forced before and now we’re naturally doing what comes to us.”

Having decided to change their sound the band recruited new guitarist Toby and have spent the last few years working on a self-recorded debut album.

Matt said: “We started the album shortly after Toby joined so all of the material we now have on the album, bar one song, has all been written with him.

“So that was the clean break.”

Mya said: “It’s an evolution, we’ve moved on.

“People that have followed us from Stricken have said it’s a lot better.”

Matt added: “We’ve been playing a few local gigs, trying out the album.

“We played an all female fronted festival at Bradford Rio’s that was aptly named Chebfest. That went well.

“For the future we’ve got plans for a single and then there’s the also the merchandise and the radio play and all the stuff we’re trying to build up around it.

“We’re planning a tour around the album.

“At the moment what we want to do is get as many gigs as we can wherever we can.”

Matt said the band were looking to go wherever they could to get their music out there but said it was increasingly tough for bands to get exposure on the West Yorkshire scene.

He said: “I think there needs to be more onus on promotion.

“Too much focus is put on the band itself to promote the gigs, which you can do in your home town.

“But that is the problem with going further afield.

“You have to sell an X number of tickets before you even get paid for making the journey over.

“So the venue thinks we’re getting a band for free if they don’t bring the people, or if they do bring the people we just pay them a proportion of what they bring in themselves.

“So there’s no real reason for them to push it which seems silly to me.

“Promoters of old used to go round and flyer all the time and fly post and go to the appropriate venues where people were interested in the music and advertise.

“The emphasis is now on the bands to do the promoting themselves.”

Out of Ashes play The Nightingale in Lindley on July 1 and The Parish on July 15.

www.myspace.com/outofashesuk