Whilst their debut album Mint 400 had already earmarked the band for a lot of press & radio attention, Perth trio Ammonia were gaining a lot of fans prior to that album thanks largely to their first e.p. In A Box, then Sleepwalking.

The follow-up single from that album, Drugs, saw their career take something of a turn for an even better time, that song getting release alongside the album in the U.S. The band have just appeared with a new single in "You're Not The Only One Who Feels This Way", which is not only the first release from the band in a while, it's got a new sound & it'll be interesting to see how this is accepted by the fans.

I recently caught up with Ammonia drummer Allan Balmont, a nice guy who spoke about the new album & a lot of other things during our short conversation.

Firstly, I wanted to hear about the new album.

"Unfortunately, it's not going to be released until probably early in 1998, so I can't tell you a lot about it yet, but we've been fortunate to spend a lot more time on this one & we're much happier & think we've got a better bunch of songs than on the last album."

Surprised to hear how much better the band thought this was than the last, I asked how Mint 400 came about so well.

"We all loved that album, but there was a lot of pressure to get it done in a short time & it came together really well, but I think that the extra time we've spent on the new songs, not only in terms of production, but the actual songwriting as well has helped us a lot, the sound is much better too."

The new single has not only a great sound, but it's a little different than the last album.

"Yes, we didn't want to do the same album over again, I don't think anyone wants to do they? But I think our fans will think this new album is even better."

With the band sounding very satisfied over their new project, I asked how being signed had helped them as they were the first Murmur signing, even before silverchair.

"It certainly helped us in a big way, with some money behind us I feel we saved a lot of very hard work."

Did silverchair's success affect the band much?

"It was amazing really, I don't think it's affected us in a very direct way, but Murmur were just getting a bit of momentum with us & then silverchair happened & I think it not only helped them grow, it gave them some.... bargaining power I guess, but the exposure of being on the same label as silverchair has helped us I'm sure."

Talking over the subject of technology in music got Allan onto the subject of Internet promotion & I asked him whether he thought band's could promote themselves without a label.

"Undoubtedly I think it's possible, but it's very helpful to have a label behind you. They have this huge network of affiliated people all over the world who know their own country. Labels don't only sell records & promote them, they do a lot of the groundwork as well. Say you were trying to organise a tour - if you were trying to do it yourself, you have to know where to start looking for gigs, travel arrangements, press stuff & so on. The label already has people who know all about that sort of thing, so it takes a lot of the work off your shoulders."

Our last topic of conversation was the everpresent subject of airplay.

"Triple J & community radio are always helpful. Although some of the commercial stations pick up our music sometimes they have more of an audience than Triple J, but the people who listen to commercial radio & Triple J are listening for the music, not for the latest non-stop block of rock & quite honestly that's the people we're really interested in reaching anyway - the people who care."

Check out Ammonia's latest single out now through Murmur & look for the band touring with Something For Kate around Australia.