Lamacq's favourite debut album of
the year so far, 'Holes in the Wall' is the work of Tom and Alex, from ESP. They
came into the studio to talk about their brainchild.
How gutted were you that had to put
Electric in front of Soft Parade?
Alex:
Not very. I think it does sound more like a prog band, which is surely a good
thing in this day and age.
Let's go back - how old were you when you
started buying records?
Alex:
Post-Britpop. Well after Britpop. The only Britpop record I can recollect
knowing was 'The Great Escape' and after that it was 'Different Class' a couple
of years after it came out.
I was trying to work out
where you would have entered music as fans. There's something kind of Boo
Radleys-esque about your album.
Tom:
Oh, you are speaking my language now, oh man…
Alex:
For us that's like a landmark record, same
as Radiator for the Super Furry Animals, and Peloton by the Delgados. They were
among the first records that we bought the day they came out.
I've been told that you are voracious fans.
Alex: The
fact that we are massive, massive music fans and we kind of like Indie has been
blown out of proportion. We are not that interested in traditional, nasty, Indie
guitar music.
If you open up the album
sleeve there is a collage of photos that make up a room...
Alex:
It's Tom's bedroom, that's his bed on the left.
Tom:
It was taken in 97/98 and I was doing some recording and there was a four-track
on the floor and guitars lying around.
Some of the stuff which made the album was recorded on four-track.
Alex:
A lot of the demos were done on a four-track, before we got in the studio and
with loads of money. They formed the basis of the tracks and we just put other
stuff on the top. If there was a vocal that was shoddy we'd just put a new vocal
on it.
Tom:
The way we built the tracks and arranged
them was quite a complex way, and we could have done it a lot simpler. The way
that each instrument works with the others and the way every instrument sounds
different from the last makes the overall album seem quite varied. There's quite
a lot of stuff that people may not hear first time.
Alex:
When I listen to it I'm like 'what's that? What's that synth? It's just turned
up!'
What other plans do you have?
Alex: We
are touring with Ian Brown and another idea I've had is to tour with a couple of
other Brighton bands, when we do the album tour in May or June.
14 Feb
2001
