Wilderspool Interview | From Astrud and Frog to ‘As All The Stars Begin To Fade…’
Wilderspool’s debut album, ‘As All The Stars Begin To Fade…’, grew out of an attempt to reunite Astrud, the Warrington band in which brothers Paul “Trip” Ryan and Dez Ryan played through the late ’80s and ’90s.
Stuart “Wiff” Smith knew them from the same local music scene, where he played keyboards with Frog. Astrud and Frog regularly appeared on the same bills around Warrington and the North West, at a time when Manchester, just down the road, was drawing the attention of the music press. Astrud played for years but never made an album. That was one reason for getting the old band back together at the end of 2025. The idea was to finally record the songs properly, but the reunion didn’t last. Trip and Dez decided to carry on, Wiff became increasingly involved, and Wilderspool began to take shape. The result is ‘As All The Stars Begin To Fade…’, released by Think Like A Key Music. Several of its songs go back to Astrud, although they have since been rewritten and rearranged, while ‘Space To Breathe’ was written specifically for Wilderspool. Wiff also took on the mixing and production, alongside his keyboards, with Dez on drums and percussion and Trip on vocals, guitars and bass.
We spoke with Trip, Dez and Wiff about the Warrington scene they came from, Astrud and Frog, the reunion that didn’t last, and how it eventually led to Wilderspool.
“Wilderspool feels like a bit of a musical homecoming of sorts, as if I’m going right back to my early musical roots in order to move forward.”
Before we get to Wilderspool, could each of you give us a little of your musical background? Just the bands, records and so on…
Trip: I’ve had a fairly musical existence in my life to date. For the last decade I’ve been operating as a one-man-band of sorts under the moniker of SUPER 8. The interesting thing about Wilderspool is that drummer Dez was in one of the first bands I was in starting out, namely Astrud, and keyboard wizard Wiff was in another local band at the time, Frog. So Wilderspool feels like a bit of a musical homecoming of sorts, as if I’m going right back to my early musical roots in order to move forward.
Dez: As mentioned, I was in Astrud with brother Paul, aka Trip, back in the ’80s and ’90s, and we split in 1996 after 10+ years of gigging the North West of England, often playing the same venues as Wiff’s band Frog. We actually gigged at the Parr Hall in Warrington on the same night back in the ’90s and took a song from each other to play our own rendition of at this gig. Good days!
I then went off and travelled Australia and Europe for a few years and had no musical involvement for about 25 years, when family bought me a cajón, which I used in the Warrington open mic scene for years, and still do occasionally.
I was asked by a ska/dub/punk band called Gary Busy Conspiracy to play drums for them, which I did for a year or so. I then joined a punk/new wave band, Ticnotoc, and gigged the North West of England with these guys for 18 months.
Last Christmas the original members of Astrud met up for a beer, which brought on a couple of practice sessions with a view to recording all of our tunes. We had already asked Wiff if he’d add some of his magic fingers, but unfortunately Astrud’s reunion began to fall apart and, after four months or so, we parted ways.
Our Paul is right when he says I approached him after this, saying I thought we were onto something and I wanted to finish these songs. So we asked Wiff and Wilderspool was born.
Wiff: I played in a band called Frog in the 1990s and started making positive waves on the psychedelic prog scene. Hailing from Warrington, we were getting good support slots around the UK and in London. We had several self-funded demo releases, then an EP release on ORG Records called ‘B and B’.
We supported Cardiacs, Ozric Tentacles, Hawkwind, Levitation and Dodgy.
After we imploded I was involved in several projects until finally reuniting with Ian, who was the guitarist in Frog, and we formed the other band I currently play in, Fältsånger.
When asked to have an involvement in the Wilderspool project with Paul and Dez, I jumped at the chance, knowing them from back in the day and knowing that we were starting from a great place as the songs were very strong. I like to think I have just added a bit of seasoning to enhance what’s already a quality dish.
How did Wilderspool actually come together? Take us back to the first time the three of you started working together.
Trip: It’s a bit of a weird one as to how Wilderspool actually came about. The original tentative idea had been to perhaps try to revive the band that Dez and I were in back in the ’90s, Astrud. We did have a couple of rehearsals at the turn of the year back there, but it soon became evident that the Astrudian planets weren’t for aligning.
Upon realising this, I think it was Dez who suggested we give things a go as a new outfit. Wiff came on board initially to provide some keyboards but ended up staying and becoming an integral part of our burgeoning new sound.
Dez: I think I rambled on in question one and have answered this one! 😆
Why Wilderspool? There must be a story behind it…
Trip: Yes, we were struggling to come up with a name, to be honest. We knew we couldn’t stick with the Astrud moniker because we already knew, after attempting the first three songs, that Wilderspool was a whole new feel, line-up and different bag.
After a few failed suggestions, ‘Wilderspool’ was the first name we all agreed on. Our name derives from a district in Warrington, a town in the North West of England where we all grew up. It holds special meaning as it was the site of the original Warrington Wolves rugby stadium back in the day, as is now shown in the photo used for the front cover of our debut album. Plus, it was in the function room of said stadium where we witnessed so many touring bands play when we were growing up.
Dez: I think Trip has explained this one. Legends was the nightclub/live music venue Trip mentioned at The Wires, Wilderspool Stadium, where we watched many well-known bands from the ’80s and ’90s, and also gigged there ourselves.
Trip and Dez, what do you remember about Astrud and the Warrington scene in the early ’90s?
Trip: Yeah, as I say, Dez and I were in the band Astrud back in the day. Wiff played keyboards in the band Frog, who were Warrington’s finest purveyors of prog rock at the time. We were all part of the grassroots Warrington music scene of the early ’90s and would regularly be on the same bill together.
From there we went on to play numerous music venues in and around the North West of England. The “Madchester” thing had already exploded just down the road in Manchester and it was a great time to be involved in music.
Dez: Yeah, we never practised, we just gigged everywhere most weeks for a decade or so, playing some great venues. I’m sure we played The Cavern three times, and supported The Stairs at Heebie Jeebies in Liverpool, The Charlatans at Widnes Queens Hall, and were also on the bill at The Stone Roses’ Spike Island weekender.
When we listened to the very poor 8-track recordings we had of Astrud when we reunited earlier this year, we realised they weren’t too shabby, and adding Wiff’s keys just gave them what they seemed to always be missing.
Astrud and Frog were part of a fairly active Warrington scene, but very little of it seems to have been documented. How do you remember that period now?
Trip: I think the bottom line in a nutshell here is that the bands Astrud and Frog were kings of a grassroots musical scene in Warrington that we very much helped to build back in the late ’80s/early ’90s.
Happy days while it all lasted but, even though we did get to play some pretty well-known venues on the North West of England live circuit at the time, unlike other bands all around us at that time, e.g. The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, The Charlatans, The Inspiral Carpets, we didn’t get their lucky breaks and, over time, the wheels began to come off our respective musical bandwagons.
The thing is, although we’ve all gone on to do different things, because these bands were a musical rite of passage for us they seem to hold an extra special place in our musical hearts.
After talking about it for the longest time, back at the beginning of this year we finally found ourselves back in a rehearsal room 30+ years down the line with the thought of trying to recreate that “magic” of yore. Sadly, for various reasons, that didn’t work out and it dawned on us that this now seemingly pie-in-the-sky thought of getting the old band back together just wasn’t happening. That dream was over.
It was Dez who suggested we try something different that would honour the two bands we were once in, keeping that same spirit, as it were, but taking the music to a new place.
When the three of us, i.e. myself, Dez and Wiff, came around to the idea that a new start was a viable proposition and that it just might work, we started recording with a vengeance to see if this new idea had legs.
The first three songs came together really quickly and we approached the label, who effectively said that if we could come up with an album’s worth of songs as strong as the first three that we’d submitted, then they would consider putting it out.
After that news we felt we now had something to really work towards. We agreed on a name, we’re named after a district in Warrington where we grew up, and we shifted up a gear.
In doing so we began to find our new sound which, listening back to the album as a whole now, if pushed I would describe as: “sort of Indie Psych Pop Rock for the 21st Century!”
We started this recording project in February 2026 and the whole thing came together really quickly. The album was “in the bag” from start to finish in about three months.
We’re pretty proud of it and happy with how it turned out. There’s no denying, though I do say so myself, it’s a pretty strong collection of songs which fits together and stands up as a proper album.
We hope that folk get to hear it now, so a big thanks here to your mag for giving us this platform and opportunity to promote it. Cheers!
Was part of the reason for trying to reform Astrud simply to get those songs properly recorded? You came from a time when very little of what local bands were doing was documented.
Trip: “Aarrgh!” Me again, sorry! One important thing I forgot to mention but meant to say…
Initially the whole reason for looking to reform Astrud 30+ years down the line here was because we were pre-internet, pre-mobile phones even, and there was, and still isn’t, any digital footprint of our existence.
We were a live, performing band and never got around to recording an album. The point of our reunion was to rectify that but it never happened and here we are… a new musical phoenix rising from the ashes, as it were. LOL!
As I mentioned, the whole original point of this project was to finally attempt to realise the Astrud debut album that never was. Astrud were never a studio band. We existed purely on the North West of England live music circuit back in the early-to-mid 1990s.
Back then it was much harder for a working-class band to cut an album. You needed representation and funding and/or to score a record deal. Any money we did make just went towards getting us to the next gig, and beer. LOL!
As such, there are no definitive studio versions of the songs as performed by Astrud, just a handful of badly recorded live recordings. We existed in a time before mobile phones and the internet so, besides a few old newspaper cuttings, without us securing a record deal at the time, as many of our musical peers did back then, there really is very little evidence out there to prove Astrud even existed.
This has personally irked me to the present day. I would have loved to have made an Astrud album featuring all four original members. I did try, and failed, to pull the group back into shape in 2022, but the planets didn’t align and my rough sketches for that project just ended up as a non-promoted and very low-key DIY SUPER 8 album affair entitled: ‘LEGENDS – A Tribute To Astrud’.
Cut to the present and the Astrud dream very nearly became a reality at the turn of this year, December 2025 into January 2026, but sadly, just as we were getting going, the wheels once again came off the bandwagon and it finally dawned on me that Astrud, as a band in its original state, had run its course.
“You can take a horse to water but you can’t make it drink,” as the saying goes. That dream was over!
As I’ve gone on to explain, something good has come from the experience. We have a new outfit now in Wilderspool and a new direction moving forward.
As exciting as this is, I’m still disappointed that the original Astrud never got to record their debut album and that no one, myself included, will ever get to hear what that might have sounded like but, hey ho, as the song goes: “You can’t always get what you want but if you try sometimes, well, you just might find you get what you need!”
Astrud is dead, long live Wilderspool!
Trip, you’ve described yourself as a control freak and said collaboration could sometimes feel like compromise because you often heard the finished production in your head before playing a note. What was different about working with Dez and Wiff?
Trip: Ha! Ha! Yeah, I suppose I was for a bit there but… I’ve mellowed with age!
It’s great to be back working in a band context again and with such accomplished fellow musos. Wiff brings a whole new dimension to the songs and his production work is second to none.
As for Dez? Well, he’s “Dr Rock – The Human Metro Gnome!”
I’m very honoured to get to play with these musical cats!
All nine songs are credited to the whole band. How did that work in practice? Did Trip bring in fairly complete songs, or did they change considerably once the three of you started working on them?
Trip: Yeah, much of the groundwork had already been done for the songs chosen for our debut. Many hark back to song ideas from the Astrud days but now with a different twist for the 21st century to them.
Sure, I had a musical blueprint in mind but nothing was fixed in stone and both Dez and Wiff brought their “A game” to proceedings and very much helped make the songs their own.
As the definitive song versions began to take shape, it was then that I decided to share the credits. The album had become a united, concerted effort for all involved.
Dez: I think adding Wiff’s keys changed the fate of most of the songs for me, in a really positive way. It was great recording this record since we’d all send our parts, and then if somebody thought a riff, or a beat, or the keys would sound better another way, we’d try it out.
We all played freely and had an equal input into the final version of each track on the record.
Wiff actually brought an idea for a song to us which Trip and I loved. I think Trip recorded the lyrics and guitar within an hour or so, and this tune then went on to make the album as track four, ‘Space To Breathe’.
How did you actually record the album? Was most of it done remotely?
Trip: It became a very interesting recording project. Most of the songs featured were recorded remotely.
For each song, I would put down a backing track arrangement of guitars, bass and scratch vocals, then I would send my demo down the line to Wiff. He would record his keyboard contributions, then send them back to me.
Dez then jumped on a train up to my gaff to get the majority of his beats and percussion parts down over the course of a long weekend, then with other parts self-recorded at home towards the end of the album’s gestation.
With all Wiff and Dez’s parts in place for any given song, I would then set about adding any extra bells ‘n’ whistles that I felt were needed, along with recording my definitive lead and backing vocals.
When done, I would then send everything back to Wiff, where he set to work mixing, producing and formatting everything.
That’s how our debut came together and just how it seemed to work for us with this collection of tunes. From there we would drip-feed Roger at the label the songs as and when they were completed.
Dez: Again, I think Trip has explained how this was recorded, but I want to say that I think Wiff’s production of this record was awesome and far exceeded Trip’s and my expectations of what these tunes could actually sound like.
Wiff, before Wilderspool, what were the musical experiences that most shaped the way you listen? On this record you handled keyboards, mixing and production.
Wiff: I initially approached the project very much as a session player, without expecting to have a great deal of creative input. But as I became more involved, I started to have a lot of fun with the songs, and that naturally evolved into a much more collaborative and open approach to shaping the sound of the album.
I’ve always been drawn to progressive and ambient music, particularly through my work as half of the contemporary band Fältsånger, and I was able to bring some of those influences into the record alongside more traditional elements that felt right for the songs.
As the project developed, I ultimately took on the final production and mixing duties, while working closely with the Ryan brothers throughout. It was very much a shared process, with ideas and feedback going back and forth until we arrived at something that everyone was genuinely happy with.
Trip has described an album as a “sonic jigsaw”. How much thought went into the running order? The second half becomes noticeably darker and the two longest songs come at the end. And where did the title ‘As All The Stars Begin To Fade…’ come from?
Trip: Yeah, we definitely knew our debut album had a shape to it. As the songs began to come together, that shape became more realised.
I think we’re all pretty pleased with how it’s turned out. It all seems to fit together as intended.
The album title derived from a lyric for the song ‘Natural High’.
Dez: We kind of had an idea where we were going with the album, but it was finalised when me and Trip sank a few beers after a drum recording session at his and worked out the final track list for the album. It still sounded good when sober the following morning, so it stuck.
‘White Wednesday’ looks like the mirror image of Astrud’s ‘Black Friday’ before it even begins. Was that deliberate? And where did Lazarus, Joan of Arc and Socrates come from?
Trip: ‘White Wednesday’ was always going to open the album. It’s the fully realised Wilderspool take on the above, with random, stream-of-consciousness lyrics to complement the music. Definitely one of our more powerful tracks to date.
As for making sense… it’s not really supposed to! It’s been left open-ended intentionally. Listeners can make their own minds up here.
Dez: I’m happy with Trip’s answer to this one.
‘Mersey Mersey’ seems to have developed from ‘Mercy Mercy’. How did the River Mersey enter the song? There also seems to be a recurring pull towards open spaces and the coast in ‘Natural High’ and ‘Space To Breathe’. Was that something you were conscious of?
Trip: Yeah, ‘Mersey, Mersey’ is probably my personal fave from the album, although that is subject to change!
Again, quite adapted from where it started off. Once Wiff and Dez had brought their parts to the table, their parts suggested a lyric that was more suited to our roots growing up.
The River Mersey is a big part of the geographical fabric of the North West. It even runs a course at the end of the street where Dez presently resides.
And yes, good spot, this watery theme seems to flow into other songs too. The lyrics of ‘Natural High’ suggest a pleasure beach and ‘Space To Breathe’ is definitely about escaping the city in search of the coast.
Dez: Again, I’m happy with Trip’s answer.
Several of these songs go back to Astrud. You later mentioned that there was also a practical reason why some of the lyrics had to change.
Trip: Just wanted to give you a more behind-the-scenes explanation about the songs, just to clear up any confusion.
Like I say, in the time that has passed since the Astrud band split in the mid-’90s, I have revisited a song, or ten, along the way in my solo career as SUPER 8. Most notably my ‘LEGENDS – A Tribute To Astrud’ album back in… whenever that was!
Legends being the music venue where many a touring band passed through Warrington town and a venue Astrud played too back in the day.
A double coincidence? The Legends club was on Priory Street in Warrington which… wait for it!… is just off the Wilderspool Causeway, so a bit of unexpected serendipity at play here! What goes around, comes around!
Anyway, I digress! I wrote the music for Astrud songs and about 25% of the lyrics. Here’s where slight problems arose when we wanted to take the songs in a new direction purely as Wilderspool.
Why? Because our ex-lead singer had claim to around 75% of the lyrics to the songs.
This is why a song like ‘White Wednesday’ is, as you keenly spotted, a mirror image of ‘Black Friday’. Likewise, ‘Golden Mile’ has again lyrically become ‘Natural High’.
Moving forward, the song ‘Space To Breathe’ is out-of-the-box brand new and very much a way forward for Wilderspool.
I hope that clears things up a bit! We just didn’t wish to get into any potential copyright infringement situation further down the line with our ex-lead singer, so discussed it and thought it best to just rewrite.
That was a “fun” weekend changing lyrics, I can tell you. NOT!
‘Wild Apple Girl’ is one of the older songs here. The 2018 SUPER 8 version used Sunnie Larsen’s strings, while the Wilderspool recording is shorter. What did you want to do differently with it this time? Dez, does it feel different to you now than it did in the Astrud days?
Trip: Yeah, if my memory serves me well, this is actually one of the first songs I ever wrote. I’m still trying to crack it but this Wilderspool version is probably as close to how it plays in my head.
Dez: I hear all the songs differently from the Astrud days. I really enjoyed those days of never-ending gigging and loved playing these tunes, but I just feel they now sound complete, and so much better with what Wiff has brought to them.
‘Strange Voodoo’ and ‘All That Glitters Ain’t Gold’ take the album into darker territory, while ‘I’ll Get My Coat’ becomes the longest track on the record. Was that darker second half planned from the beginning? And what is behind the title ‘I’ll Get My Coat’?
Trip: Agreed, lyrically things do begin to take a bit of a darker turn for the songs mentioned.
That’s intentional and is all part of the shape of this album, i.e. how it’s presented and how it all fits together as a sonic jigsaw.
I feel for a collection of songs to stand up as “an album”, there has to be that sense of light and shade, both musically and lyrically, in order for it to work as a whole.
Dez: Again, happy with Trip’s answer.
‘Rollercoaster’ dates back to Astrud and also appeared on the 2023 ‘LEGENDS’ album. Why did you want to return to it again for Wilderspool, and why did it feel right as the closing track?
Trip: ‘Rollercoaster’ was always going to be the album closer here. It’s a song we used to close our sets with live and it always went down well.
Of all the songs on the album, this is the one we spent the most time getting “right”, I think.
It’s got a good vibe to it and I think it would make for a cool single. At six minutes plus we might have to shorten it a bit for radio, mind!
Dez: ‘Rollercoaster’ was always going to be the last track on the album. This is how we closed our gigs and it could go on for ten, twelve, fourteen minutes depending on the crowd reaction, so getting it down to six minutes was a challenge. It will be tough to make it a three- or four-minute track for radio! 😆
What’s next for you?
Trip: We’ll just have to see what folks make of this debut. We shall let it test the water for us.
That said, I’ve already started to come up with Wilderspool-sounding ideas I feel would work well for a follow-up so… it’s a case of “watch this space!” I guess.
Dez: Well, we have a catalogue of tunes sitting waiting to be recorded, so hopefully we’ll get the opportunity to do this.
I initially wanted to do this to have all of our tunes recorded to play the grandkids when I become an old man. This was all I wanted, so having Think Like A Key sign us and promote our album is just mind-blowing and totally unexpected.
I just hope people enjoy the music as much as we have enjoyed making it. ✌️
Klemen Breznikar
Wilderspool Facebook / Bandcamp
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