With their second record, the young White brothers show that the trap of mediocrity can still be avoided. It seems English pop music will always reincarnate. This is an interview with a band we want to love for a long long time. Last October (2003) in Paris, Tom White is quietly smoking and explaining his love for France: “When we were younger we often used to go spend week-ends in Dieppe. This city is not only quite cool, there are also lots of incredible pubs over there. Still today we are somehow fascinated by France. The country of Gainsbourg and Air... It makes us humble” Sprawled on a sofa in the interview room of his French record company, Alex White is, as for him, amazed by the presents he bought in Paris for his girlfriend. “This is so Amélie from Montmartre!” he says. The two thinking heads of The Electric Soft Parade are barely 20 years old, come from Brighton and look so learned and mature that they will obviously not fall in rock’n’roll traps. Moreover one just has to listen to their debut record (“Holes in the Wall was too long” now says Alex) and to the new and excellent The American Adventure to understand that ESP is one of those bands that is able to last. Any reader would think that it is a difficult challenge in the country of the NME. Yet, as Tom White tells us, their second record obtained a 9/10 in the British weekly which usually goes like this: I will say that your debut record is great but I will say that your second is shit, just for fun. This kind of achievement gives ideas... Holes in the Wall was released a bit more than a year ago. This is a natural rhythm says Tom White. “There is a silly rule in the music industry. A band should wait at least two years before releasing a new record. We thought it would be better to work in some kind of emergency for The American Adventure because the songs won’t wait for us. Moreover it is pointless to hide the truth: if you’re away for too long, people and media will forget and replace you” The American Adventure was partly recorded in Abbey Road studios, without a producer. This record shows in a more direct way the art of baroque pop according to ESP. Great melodies, a tension inherited from noisy pop, an architecture of sound and some tuneful choruses: flawless. There is a Pixies flavour in the verses of the single Lose Yr Frown but you can find the shadow of Liverpool pop in the choruses of the same song. The American Adventure also has more potential hit singles and is a warmer record than Holes in the Wall. Tom, who listens to Jay Z as much as Radiohead and Broadcast, agrees. “We now understand that it was too complicated a record. We’ll never spit on it but there were too many effects, the sound was too polished” Alex goes on: “We will never be a pro-tool rock band like the Vines. We understood that while on tour. Extreme swoting for your songs is like lying to your audience. That’s why we have a lot of respect for bands like The Libertines. Their record sounds as dirty and messy as their live performances” Relaxed, learned and mature, the White brothers perfectly embody a new British generation of rock’n’roll. If we are still living in the same era, let’s notice that the ones we had faith in in 2002 prove today that we were right. The old Radiohead and Oasis (oh my god, those guys are... in their thirties!!) can start worrying. We can now choose between the punk romantic debauchery of The Libertines, the nasty psychedelism of The Coral, the clumsy lyricism of The Music, the californian dreams of The Thrills and the elaborate pop of ESP. Like a king, Alex is in no hurry: “This year we were nominated for the Mercury prize but in the end Dizzee Rascal won. Fair enough because we’re far from having found our own rhythm!” Less theoretician, Tom seems to see further than The American Adventure: “Our first record was not bad but a bit disorganized. It was as if we wanted to build the foundation of our vision of pop music but we got a bit lost on our way. I think The American Adventure is much better. The songs are less complicated. But for a band, the third record is the make or break one. We know music history and we want to release someday something as good as OK Computer. You can write that I said that. We’d rather fail miserably than be happy with something just average” Jean-Vic Chapus, translation Theghostchild Rock’n’Folk, January 2004