The Electric Soft Parade’s Tom White admits to feeling nervous during tonight’s gig. “I’m trying to play guitar and sing but at the same time I’m thinking about that fucking projector running at the back of the room and hoping it’s all in time.” A brand-new visual effects backdrop accompanied tonight’s set at Glasgow King Tut’s. For Tom, it was the culmination of a four year labour of love.
“Tonight was a big night for me” he says while enjoying a celebratory whisky in the cramped confines of the band’s tour van. “Some of the footage for those visuals was filmed back in 2002 when we first started touring. I was picking up raw footage for about four years and the last year has been a process of chopping things-up and trying things out.”
It’s one o’clock in the morning and the Electric Soft Parade are tired, happy and somewhat ‘refreshed’. Tonight was the first time they’ve played latest album ‘No Need To Be Downhearted’ in its entirety.
“I don’t think enough people do that live” says Tom, who together with his brother Alex forms the band’s song-writing partnership. “Sometimes I’ll get really into an album, but most of the time when you see a band they have their basic setlist with certain songs in certain places.
“Obviously you don’t want every band to always play the whole record but if you chose the right time and the right album then it really works as a set. You don’t have to stick the hits in to keep people occupied.”
It’s clear the Electric Soft Parade want to stand out from the crowd. “We wanted to create an evening that had its own special personality” says Alex. His brother agrees, adding “All I want when I go to a gig is just to walk in and have flowers everywhere or some mad personal touch.”
The band released ‘No Need to Be Downhearted’ on Oxford-based indie label Truck Records in April but the process of producing the album was a steep learning-curve. Tom and Alex taught themselves how to use music production software and built-up the record from scratch.
Producing the record themselves was challenging, but Alex points out that their lack of experience didn’t limit their ambition. “The record is DIY but its trying to sound expansive and cinematic. It’s like punk- people associate that with three-chord guitar bands like the Ramones but it’s an attitude as well.”
Alex admits the band feel rejected by the music scene. This wasn’t always the case- the band’s first album Holes in the Wall was released on BMG in 2002 and nominated for the Mercury Prize. However they were dropped following disappointing sales of second album The American Adventure in 2003.
“Big labels expect everything to happen in the first week and if it hasn’t happened by then its over” reflects Tom. “It was an experience. We probably wouldn’t be here if we hadn’t had that first record and the thing now is that although we don’t have any money, we have complete artistic control.”
It seems Tom and Alex have become philosophical about the cut-throat world of the music industry. “I grew up reading the NME so if they slag off my band it’s upsetting” says Alex. “But at the end of the day we’ll do our thing and they’ll do their thing. Glasgow’s cool as hell because it has its own great music scene. Everyone’s just into music, they’re not hanging onto London to see what’s the next cool thing.”
After their major-label baptism of fire, it’s obvious the Electric Soft Parade greatly appreciate the freedom indie labels offer. “It’s brilliant” says Alex. “With Truck it was literally a handshake deal They’re our mates, we played their festival, and then three years later we said we’ll do a record and see what happens.”
Tom states that, eight months after the record’s release, the band are exactly where they want to be. “We toured a lot in Europe recently but this is the first UK date we’ve done since the record came out here in April. Tonight was the first UK show where people have actually been singing the tracks off the record.”