Errors: Constantly Evolving, To A Point
We've chat to the band about their new album, live shows 'n stuff.
Posted 16th February 2010, 9:39pm in Interviews, by Gareth O’Malley
Errors are great. The band that is, we're not fans of making mistakes (not that you'd know - Comedy Ed). Their new record 'Come Down With Me' is out this week, and we gave it a lovely 8 out of 10.In the way you do, we've had a chat to the band about everything. Not literally everything - we didn't want to take the piss. You get the idea.
What's the mood like in Camp Errors ahead of the album release? Excited? Nervous?
I'd say a healthy mixture of both. It's going to be interesting to see how people are react to the new songs. The initial reviews have been encouraging enough to suggest that we haven't written a terrible record. It's always difficult how it's going to sound to people that haven't been listening to it for the last 8 months like we have during the process of making it. I found myself going through many different emotions regarding how i felt about the finished album - I think that is quite natural though.
The tour begins on Feb 25th. Looking forward to playing the new songs live?
The recent rehearsals we've had have been sounding really good. I think the new album is quite live sounding anyway so I think the songs will translate into a live situation very well. It's exciting to know that most of the people at the shows won't have heard most of the new stuff. I find that exciting when I go to see bands I like- the idea of hearing new material for the first time.
Would you say that Errors are different band live than on record?
I'd say the main thing is the drums. Where there are electronic drums on record they are mostly replaced by live drums at our shows. Before we had a drummer we found that the drum machine didn't really have the impact that a live human being does. I think a lot of arsing about going on stage - some people might call it experimentation. I say it's more arsing about. Effectively. The more and more shows we do the more the songs evolve. I think that’s a good thing when you go and see a live band. I don't want to see the same performance the last time I saw them.
What impact has the addition of James [Hamilton] had on the band?
Apart from the live aspect (mentioned above) I think the song writing process has been affected by the addition of James. James is really good at listening to a demo we've done then putting a drum track down that we couldn't have ever imagined for it - then helps to go back and re-write parts of the demo. This means that everything is constantly evolving, which is something I really like. The guy who mixed our record (Steven Ward) and I were talking about making an album where the person purchasing the music downloads the album and every so often the band update the songs in the studio and this update is sent onto the listener via an update on Itunes. Basically there would never be a finishing point to any song. That's kind of how we make our music. Except there is a finishing point to the music and no-one else hears each update apart from the band.
Could you describe the Errors creative process? Is there one?
Usually starts with either Simon or myself (Steev) making up a little loop on the computer either guitar or synth. Then when we get to a point with it where we don't know where to go next we hand it over to the rest of the guys. Every tune is different though. With a tune like Supertribe from the new album the starting point and end result are so different from each other that we could use the original demo again and create an entirely unrecognisable tune out of it. That's why our records take so long to be released. We constantly write and re-write and delete and save then realise its all shite and start again. There are so many different ways our recent album could have turned out. The result we are left with is the best conclusion that we came to with all the material we had and whatever was going on in our heads at the time and the limitations of our equipment and lots of other factors such as what part of the house we happened to be sitting in when we wrote a particular part.
A single, 'A Rumour In Africa', is out on Feb 23rd. You can watch the video here
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