Summer Bash 2025: Exclusive Interview: 10 years of “The Way Of Ashes” with Mercury’s Well (Part #1)!

As this years seventh incarnation of the annual Hawaiian themed Beach Party that is Summer Bash is less than two weeks away and this year happens to coincide with the 10th Anniversary of “The Way Of Ashes” by Mercury’s Well, it’s time we combined the celebration of the two like a spirit and mixer. But before we get to that, its time for a casual reminder. Summer Bash will take place at The Facebar in Reading on Saturday 26th July with eleven bands taking to the stage to perform their finest cryptic writings for your pleasure. The bar will be serving the finest of beverages so why not bring a friend, family member or complete stranger you met en route and enjoy some fun and frolics?

Here’s the line up in full:

Hidden Mothers
Masquerader
Black Skull Ritual
Buds.
Tape It Shut
Turning Point
Skin Reaper
Mercury’s Well
Gutlocker
Remnant
Killswitch Enchambers (Killswitch Engage Tribute featuring former members of Kill Chambers)

It’s time for the main event. The first half of an exclusive interview with Simon Davies who shares his memories on “The Way Of Ashes” a decade on!

Before we get into the record itself, what inspired vocalist and guitarist Simon Davies, bassist James Tiffin and drummer Liam Fog decide to form a band in the first place?

“I have wanted to be in a band probably since I was about six years old. I started playing classical guitar in primary school and… you know… it was probably only a matter of time. Liam I’d known since secondary school and when we were in college he was in a band called Kill Chambers. Yeah. I don’t know. We’ve always been surrounded by music, heavily influenced by it and inspired by it and always interest in doing it I guess. I asked Liam to drum for my solo project cos I knew he was busy with Kill Chambers, so if he could maybe find some time for me and we could get a bassist in and sort of session it out and get some records down. I was going stir crazy writing material and it not going anywhere, doing nothing with it basically. I didn’t – and still don’t – have any idea how to write drums. We initially brought Kyle Townsend in on bass, who is now doing great things with Public Execution and Trading Hands and various Grindcore projects. Tiffin joined us in 2013 after Kyle left us to focus on other projects. He was really good fit. That was the short version of that story!”

By the time you came around to commit your cryptic writings to tape in the studio, how well versed in them were you? Did you have many shows under your collective belts?

“To my recollection we had done maybe 3 or 4 shows with Kyle… and then Tiffin joined the band and you know we kind of finished writing the material. Just because I didn’t know the bass parts that Kyle was doing for some of our older tracks and I didn’t want to focus on that older material anyway. So when Tiffin joined we kind of went full force into writing the EP and playing and performing that material mostly. I think we were pretty well versed in it. The only exception I’d say probably was “Skeletal Remains” but I’ll get into the reasons why on a later question I think”

What are your memories of working with Dean Nelson at Platform Studios?

“I’ve very, very fond memories of the recording process overall. It was a lot of fun, we learned a lot, we tried a few different things. We had some issues with… we weren’t that experienced, it was the first time we’d done any proper recording but we knew we wanted to do it properly at a studio and have someone help us do it. That felt like the proper thing to do. Platform Studios is located in a really beautiful place just outside of Reading looking over a lake so it was really scenic and felt quite peaceful out there, secluded, so you felt like you could really focus on making the best record we could at the time. I think it really reflects… I don’t look back too fondly on the record itself but I look back fondly on the memories we had making it and I think it reflects where we were at at the time. My best memories from that are series of memes that we created that were referred to as the boat trilogy which is still referenced to this day in friendly circles. Also the mis-read lyric clam of darkness which lead to our infamous Pokémon t-shirt design”

Stay tuned for part #2!

We’re proud confirm that Metal Noise dot Net is returning for a third consecutive year as the Media Partner for Summer Bash! Mercury’s Well will be hosting the seventh incarnation of their annual Hawaiian beach party themed event on 26th July 2025 at The Facebar in Reading.

Get your tickets -> here