Despite the fact that Ammonia have been relatively quiet since their debut album Mint 400 & the tour that followed, Ammonia have lost neither their touch for a good tune nor the knack for performing that great music. The Perth based band have already released a couple of singles from their forthcoming new album & the album release is almost upon us.

I recently caught up with Alan Balmont, drummer for the band. When we last spoke, Ammonia had just released the first single from the album Your Not The Only One Who Feels This Way & I asked how long the album had taken to record after that single.

"Actually, we've had the album in the can since last June! I don't really understand why it's taken so long, but I guess with mastering & releasing the singles & other stuff like that, there's been a lot to do & we've been waiting for a while to actually get it out."

The band recorded the album in the U.S. & the sound is a little different to what you may expect if you caught the music from Mint 400, with lots of keyboards & a much deeper sound to the whole album. So what influences the band you ask.

"Usually, we take some CDs with us to the studio, you know our favourite music & we might like the sound of some instrument or other, so we say to the producer, like we want the guitars to sound like this & the vocals to sound like that & maybe the drums to sound like something altogether different. This time though, we recorded overseas & we didn't take any CDs with us, so we were working on what we wanted the sound to be rather than having some sound to try & get to."

I asked Alan to describe what fans can expect on Eleventh Avenue.

"We all think this album has a lot more depth than Mint 400 & our songwriting & playing is so much better too. I guess what people can really expect is a bunch of songs that are different than the first album & mostly I guess just a progression from what we've done in the past. I hope people like it as much as we do."

While the first single from the album made a pretty big impact as far as airtime is concerned, the latest single Monochrome has hung in the air so to speak. Alan's opinion on this is rather philosophical.

"There's so much that can affect how a band's music does, so many different factors & I guess one of the reasons for that is that you can be up against music that's far more popular than yours. With our new album coming up in the middle of May, we're gonna be up against some pretty stiff opposition, because the new Jeff Buckley album is just about out & he's on the same label as we are, so I guess there's going to be a bit more promotion for that than us, plus I suppose other labels have good stuff coming out. In the end, I guess it's really the music itself that determines what the fans buy."

Ammonia have recently finished a couple of tours, including Homebake & the support slot for Foo Fighters. The band haven't let fame go to their heads though.

"Homebake was excellent. Really, it's becoming the major travelling festival, although it's a little behind Livid for world fame. Hopefully Homebake will go national next year & we'd love to get on the bill with all those great Australian acts. Foo Fighters were a great bunch of fellas. They asked us to give them a call when we're in the U.S. next time, so hopefully something will work out there for us."

Lastly, after some discussion regarding the merits (or not) of various mainstream acts, the benefits (or not) of MTV & commercial radio, the subject of the band's live set came up.

"Something of a problem for us is our song Drugs. Although it's actually one of our worst songs, there's still a certain number of fans that really love to hear it. It isn't particularly difficult to play, but if we don't play it then we get jeered at by the part of the audience that want to hear it & if we do, then the other part of the audience that feel the way we do get annoyed. Still, with all the new songs on the album we'll have a bigger set list & hopefully Drugs will just drop off naturally."

Catch up with Ammonia as they tour the country in support of their new album Eleventh Avenue, out soon on Murmur.