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Our Friends Electric Not even a crippling flu can keep The Electric Soft Parade from being one of the most hotly tipped young bands in Britain. With a new single, mammoth tour and high-prestige dates with Elbow lined up, the only thing left for the ESP was an interview with the Brain Farm. To that end, we met them before their sell out appearance at London's Dingwalls, three nights into their twenty five date headlining jaunt around the UK. "The beginning of this tour has just been awesome," reveals drummer and sometime singer/guitarist Tom White, 17. "Coventry, Middlesborough, Glasgow, all great." His brother Alex adds, "If it goes as well as it has been going then we'll be cruising." This is their first headline tour, having earlier in the summer completed two residencies, one in their hometown of Brighton, and the other at London's Monarch. How did the two towns' reactions vary? "Brighton was shit," says Al, conclusively. "Nobody cares, they're all a bunch of non-believers," agrees Tom. Alex: "Unless we're playing the Brighton Centre, to a bunch of people we don't know, we don't plan on heading back in a rush. Unless we're at that stage, when we can fill a 5000 venue, no one gives a toss. At the 140 capacity level, nobody cares. Our mates were at the front, but you feel like a tit, it was like a family get together. Even if it's all rammed and everyone's clapping. We'd rather play in front of a room of strangers, who've paid to see us because they actually like the music. Like in Coventry, we knew three people - our tour manager, our sound guy and our keyboardist's girlfriend. And that was excellent, cos everyone's there for the tunes. We don't know them, they just came because we've connected with them. That is what we set out to achieve in the first place - you don't need a record deal to have your mates come and see you. It's an amazing feeling to go to a town 300 miles from where you live and have so many people come." At Reading and Leeds this year, the band were in a similar situation, but under different circumstances. Tom, however, is not convinced. "It was good to have about 8,000 people come and check us out, but at the same time, it wasn't exactly our gig. It was a build up and then a bit of a let down. There were so many bands on after us, who got more of an audience..." Ask the ESP whether they saw many bands at the Carling Weekend, and they recite a list that'd make any indie kid proud: Elbow, The Folk Implosion, Guided by Voices, Voy, Supergrass, Teenage Fanclub, Mogwai, Feeder, Trail Of Dead. "I saw the Manics and they were brilliant!" reveals Al, before describing the elaborate blag he pulled off to see them at Leeds. They had to cut their set short at both legs of the festival because of the Zephyrs over-running. Twice. Tom admits to quite liking them - "They're like Mogwai with lyrics" - but Alex is not impressed. "At Leeds we had to cut down the live version of 'Silent to the Dark' because of them. The fuckin' bullshit Zephyrs over-ran again." They've toured with fellow next big things, The Music, and enjoyed that a lot too : "They're great guys, we got on well. The Cosmics were great, too. And Kid Galahad, who were with us on the Cosmics tour, were great, so we asked them to join us on this one. Great guys, great band, we just got on really well. It's been good to tour with people we like. If we get people who are really arsey with staring the stage, it doesn't help. All the bands we've toured with have been great." Alex's flu soon becomes apparent. "Basically, I've been touring four months without any vocal training or exercise, so my voice is completely fucked. And that stuff is my last chance of salvation." Tom asks to down some of this white, pungent liquid that doubles up as a remedy, and what develops is a barney the Gallaghers would be proud of. "Fuck off! You can't drink it! Don't drink it! You'll die if you drink it! It tastes like absolute shit! I seriously want to throw up." maintains Alex, whilst Tom says "It tastes like lemon. I don't mind it." Eventually, we are subjected to a whiff of the stuff, and normal service can be resumed. Talk soon turns, as it usually does, to the New Musical Express, who that week had proclaimed the boys as one of the top ten bands in Guitar Britain. You see, they replaced the word "Great" with "Guitar". Both words begin with G. Anyway. "It's just so pointless slagging the NME off," says Alex, "Both us have been reading it for years and still do. Swear by it. It's just annoying when they slam you one week and love you the next. For 'Silent To The Dark', the review was awesome, and then for 'Empty at the End' they just said 'indie toss fuck off' but you've gotta accept it." "Conferences, you have to play them." Tom is refuting our suggestion that playing an HMV Conference makes the band corporate whores. "Foot in the door. BMG are our label, so we couldn't really argue. We got asked to play by the head of HMV." Alex agrees - "I know people who slag off HMV or Virgin or whatever, and they fucking work there at the sales counter. It's just like, 'fuck you, then'. I shop in HMV, and so I don't have any qualms about playing their conference. We didn't get any money for it. All it means is that more people know about our band." At this point, Tom makes his excuses and leaves, to soundcheck. Quite why Al doesn't need to soundcheck as well is beyond me, but anyway, and then there was one. Returning to the media, Al finds it disappointing that every review of the band involves the journo saying "They're young! And they're brothers! What an angle!" He says "I sit and read the NME and you think they're imaginative, they're interesting, and they turn up and say 'they're brothers - the Gallaghers!' and you just think, 'that's the most obvious, tabloid reference point you could have used.' I expected better." The band's debut album is called 'Holes in the Wall'. It will be released on db Records on February 4th, 2002. Why the title? "It's just one of the songs on the album, we needed a title. Seemed to fit. It was going to be called 'Aerial Roots', after what was going to be the first song on the album, but it's not the first song any more cos the label didn't like it. We're not playing it any more. It was a very emotional track, we've had quite intense talks with the label about it, and so to play it now would be weird. I want it to be the first song on the second album. It's an amazing song, we're not just gonna let it go. It's a great build up song. Vibe setter, attitude..." The album in a sentence: "If you're not into the singles, don't be put off the album." We talk about the song which features Tom on guitar and vocals, and Alex on the drums, 'Red Balloon For Me'. "It's the last track on the album." We tell Alex that the song is a dead ringer for 'The Hexx' by Pavement, and he cracks the biggest smile of the week. "Mate! Fucking excellent, I see what you mean, the guitar solo. Compliment and a half. Fucking amazing band, a lot of tears shed over Pavement. I love his solo record as well. Such a down to earth bunch of guys." Alex doesn't keep a record at the front of his collection to show off his cool. Damn. However, in terms of current tourbus favourites, he offers Ed Harcourt and Elbow's 'Asleep in the Back'. We talk at length, gushingly, about Elbow's set at Reading. "I'm not mad keen, but I bought the record to see what it's like" - the band are playing a gig 24 hours later with Starsailor, although Alex is yet to be convinced. "I like to love records, and I only like a couple of songs on there." Our shower curtain question gets Alex confused. "What the fuck does that mean? I don't get it." After an explanation he says "Oh, fair enough. I just didn't know how sick you wanted me to be. Point established. Um... I don't know. Some bullshit celebrity I suppose, Britney Spears, some loser like that. I'm not really big on fancying people, I'm so wanky. I hate people who aren't good, you know? Everyone goes on about the bass player in JJ72, but she's a shite bassist. To me, she's as attractive as a vole's arse. Because she can't play, and that's a fact. No talent. Whereas Britney... a talented, credible artist. I dunno. Who do I fancy? I fancy Cat Deeley - I think she knows what she's doing, she isn't that stupid. Maybe I'm wrong. Ant and Dec too - they're pretty with-it." And, on that bombshell, we head off. At the moment, 'There's A Silence' by the Electric Soft Parade sits at number 52 on the hit parade. That's three places higher than The Cure. So something must be going right. There are a whole stack of tour dates left, be sure to check them out. The album's out in February, and even without 'Aerial Roots', it promises to be storming. There's a song on there called 'Why Do You Try So Hard To Hate Me?' and you get the impression it's a message that the band won't be harbouring for long. By Samir Mathur |