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Timothy James Arthur Wheeler (born 4 January 1977) is a Northern Irish singer, songwriter and musician. He is the lead vocalist and guitarist of the alternative rock band Ash. He has written nearly all of Ash's notable works, such as "Oh Yeah", "Shining Light", "Girl from Mars", "Kung Fu", and "Goldfinger". In November 2014, he released his debut solo album Lost Domain.
As part of Channel 4's program The JD Set, Wheeler worked with Emmy The Great, The Crookes, And So I Watch You From Afar, and Ma Mentor, joining each band in covering songs by Pixies, and then performing at London's XOYO on 24 March 2011.
Wheeler has also been involved with film and TV soundtrack work, most notably Ashes (2012), (2014) and the Shaun the Sheep Movie (2015).
In November 2011 the pair released a Christmas album, entitled This Is Christmas (Infectious, 2011).
Lost Domain is an album in which Wheeler battles to come to terms with his loss, charting his father's rapid decline into illness, his death and the tumultuous effect that it had on his life over the course of 11 songs. As Wheeler explains: “After losing my father to dementia, I felt the need to personally do something to fight Alzheimer’s. My friend Neil Hannon from The Divine Comedy's father also has Alzheimer's so we put on a concert in Belfast in November 2011 with The Divine Comedy, The Undertones and Ash to raise funds and awareness for the Alzheimer's Society. Since then I've had close links with The Alzheimer's Society and this year was involved with the Dementia Friends campaign. I'm proud to continue to support them and raise more awareness with the album Lost Domain."
Recorded in Ash's New York studio, Wheeler played almost everything himself, roping in musician friends when he needed a hand: Andy Burrows of Razorlight and Fred Aspelin (Alberta Cross) each played some drums; Ilan Eshkeri and Oliver Kraus helped with the string and brass arrangements performed by the London Metropolitan Orchestra; Leanne Macomber from Ejecta and Neon Indian sang; and Moon Hooch's Wenzl McGowen played saxophone. There is even a sample of Wheeler's father's piano playing on the album's epic centerpiece "Medicine".
The album track "The First Sign of Spring" is available to listen to on YouTube now.
Wheeler announced his first solo dates to support the release of the album on 4–7 November. He played Bush Hall – London, Night & Day- Manchester, ABC2 – Glasgow and Oh Yeah Centre – Belfast. In addition, he supported Andy Burrows in Amsterdam and Brussels.
Wheeler predominately uses a Mesa Boogie Road King Series II amplifier, and also sometimes uses a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier amplifier. He uses numerous effects pedals which are housed in a rack and controlled via MIDI. His effects pedals include; an Electro-Harmonix Micro Synthesizer, a Dunlop Crybaby 95Q Wah pedal, a Death By Audio Fuzz War, a Carl Martin HeadRoom Reverb, an Electro-Harmonix Poly Chorus, a Morpheus Droptune, a Catalinbread Karma Suture Fuzz, a Mesa Boogie Tone Burst, a Coloursound Tonebender, a Moog Music Moogerfooger Phaser, an ADA Flanger pedal, and a Nocto Loco octave pedal which replaced a Korg synthesiser in his effects rack. Wheeler controls his pedals in his effects rack using a Voodoo Lab Ground Control Pro MIDI foot controller.
The Flying V guitar that Wheeler set on fire on the Ash Meltdown tour is now on display at the Oh Yeah centre in Belfast. The Oh Yeah centre is dedicated to the music of Northern Ireland and was named after the song "Oh Yeah" by Ash.
In 2005, Paul McCartney presented Wheeler a companionship from LIPA (Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts). In 2016 the Open University awarded Wheeler an Honorary degree Doctor of the university, citing his "exceptional contribution to education and culture".
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