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Tuesday, May 01, 2007 

Electric Soft Parade

Mon 23 April, Oran Mor

Opening with a thunderous instrumental number, Electric Soft Parade announced their arrival at Glasgow's Oran Mor in truly ear bleeding fashion. Driven by brothers Tom and Alex Whites’ harmonies and at times three guitar assault, ESP’s power pop is given a heavy dose of grit and bite live. More so than on record, the band reveal their heavier influences, and their performance at Oran Mor left the punters satisfied, balancing thrashy rock numbers against piano-led ballads. Deciding a couple of songs into their set to play their new album in its entirety was a brave move, but with catchy, bouncy tunes and buckets of good vibes and banter, the band didn’t lose the crowd at all during their ninety minute set. Although they didn’t manage to play every song from the new record, they got close, with standouts being No Need To Be Downhearted Pt 1 and If That’s The Case, Then I Don’t Know.

Refreshingly for an indie band, ESP were all smiles throughout the night, and even had to stop at one point to wait on their drummer as he collapsed into a fit of giggles. With a feeling of joy that shamelessly infectious, and the band behaving as enthusiastically as the crowd, the name of their new album - No Need To Be Downhearted - seems decidedly fitting.

Released the same day as their Glasgow gig, Lick Magazine made the most of the occasion by catching up with Alex and Tom for a quick chinwag before they took to the stage.


Hi guys, how the hell are you?

Tom: We played a Fopp Instore today to minus four people. It was okay though.

Alex: Yeah, you’ve got to just play through. It’s not our fault if people don’t come. We just write our songs and if people come, they come. What are you supposed to do?

Find them and hurt them?

A: [laughs] Yeah, seek them out.

So how is the tour going so far?

T: It’s going well. We played a place called Dunning last night. It’s in the middle of nowhere, up in Kinross. But it’s been good. We spent a few days in a studio up there. It’s been great. We had a couple of gigs in Dundee and Aberdeen, which were good as well.

So what’s Glasgow like to tour? And be brutal….

T: Oh mate, it’s good man.

A: Tom’s girlfriend Kirsty lives here, and my ex fucking girlfriend who just broke up with me today lives in Edinburgh. Sorry about that. Anyway, we love coming here and through the years have always had good shows here. It feels like a homecoming gig without having the pressure of knowing your mates are in the crowd and stuff. There’s always that triumphant vibe. I don’t think we have ever had a really bad show here.

T: We had a really nice show up here last year in Brel. An acoustic thing.

A: We played the Barfly before that. Our drummer Priesty wasn’t around, so we played like we used to; with me on drums, Tom singing, and our bassist; as a three piece. Me and Tom used to swap around and stuff.

What’s the response been like to the new tunes?

A: Brilliant so far.

T: It was good in America when we went over to do South By Southwest.

Speaking of which, how was SXSW?

T: It was alright, but we went to do some shows after that on the west coast, in LA and San Diego. San Diego was very good, probably one of the best shows we played this year.

A: It’s funny because we listen to lots of American music and then you get out there and people who live there are like, “You’re great!” It’s like, fucking hell… that’s amazing.

T: And we were basically a new band out there because we never got to go over for our first two records. Our first label never got us out there. The Human Body EP was the first thing we put out in America properly and then this new record. We’re going to put out a compilation of the first two albums too.

You self produced your new album. Was that difficult? Was it kind of like being in class without the teacher there?

T: [laughs] It was kind of like that. We have been in enough studios with enough producers and engineers running the desk and operating Pro Tools. Recording on reel to reel is just more and more expensive. We basically just figured out how to use Pro Tools in the first couple of weeks and it was just a process of elimination really. We have always recorded at home and stuff. We were using Truck, our label's own studio, so it was ultra cheap. It meant we could actually spend time working out what sounds good and dicking about with the mics and stuff.

That must have allowed you a lot more freedom, not having to answer to anyone but yourselves.

T: Yeah. The way the label works, it’s not your usual A&R setup in the way that a label like BMG works. It’s very fucking relaxed, you know. Robin, from the band Goldrush, he basically runs Truck and it was unusual because we had never been in the position where a label had signed us because they had genuinely liked what we did, and didn’t want to fuck with it and just wanted to release it… which was amazing. We expected to deliver the record to them and for them to “umm” and “ahh” about it for six months. That’s what has always happened in the past. But it was similar to how we worked with Brakes and Rough Trade. It’s a similar setup.

Electric Soft Parade’s new album No Need to be Downhearted is out now.

http://www.electricsoftparade.com/
www.myspace.com/electricsoftparade

> Ally McGurn