START UP Janvier 2002 Talent doesn’t necessarily need time to grow Stuck in a flood which is quite reminiscent of the one that occurred with The Strokes, Tom and Alex White – two British citizens aged 17 and 20 – are fortunately level-headed, and don’t want to just be some “one hit wonders”. They arrive with Holes In The Wall, a first Rock attempt of beautiful workmanship, powerful but very varied, and wickedly under control… Alex: We started playing music together in our bedroom five or six years ago. Then we formed our first bands, until it became The Electric Soft Parade two years ago. Tom: We made a demo that ended up in a record company. We were offered a contract, and here we are! (he laughs) It’s quite incredible… Start Up: It all looks accidental… Tom: Well, it is in a way, actually. It all happened very quickly, before we could think of anything. Start Up: The songs on Holes In The Wall are probably not all recent, are they? Alex: No, some songs date back to two or three years ago. That’s the case for “There’s a Silence” or “Silent to the Dark”, which we reworked in the studio. Start Up: Isn’t there a risk of losing oneself when you leave your bedroom to enter a “real” studio? Tom: Oh yes, there is! When we were first sent to a studio by our record company, we didn’t have a record deal yet, and they wanted us to write a hit. We were put in the hands of a producer who told us to do this and that… We thus recorded two tracks but we just didn’t like the result at all. We wanted to produce everything ourselves, as we were used to, which arose some tensions with the producer of the label… (laughs) Fortunately, things worked out and we were then able to work together. Alex: Holes in the Wall is our first record and we really wanted all the songs to be different. Very often, most of the young bands repeat the same formula on their first record. We definitely want to avoid that. Start Up: How long did it take to record the album? Tom: About a year in all. Two weeks here and there, broken with gigs or promotion. Start Up: It must have been weird to be sought by the press while your were recording your first LP… Alex: It was indeed! (laughs) Now the record is over, I can understand; but at the time we sometimes had to leave the studio to go to London and do interviews, while we had so much work still waiting and so much pressure because of it. I’m not taken in, I think the British press like “the Best Band in the World” and like to criticise the others. And it changes every month… Start Up: Last year, Tom said: “I could play music for five years, I would then be 21 and my future would be ahead of me”. Have you decided that music would be your life? Tom: I think everybody dreams of playing in a band. As soon as we started listening to underground music, around 1997, with all those indie bands which are far more subtle and interesting, we realised it was a bit stupid to aim at filling Wembley. We’re not eager to be U2. No really, everything happened so quickly that we haven’t decided anything yet, even if we can’t wait to write our second album (laughs) Start Up: Actually, what are your influences? Alex: We’ve always loved The Beatles, and Elvis too. When you begin to listen to music, you always start with commercial stuff. And then you make the effort to search and develop your own tastes, you discover amazing bands in the background, which took us some time. The Super Furry Animals is the first band I was a fan of. Then, Teenage Fanclub… I couldn’t live without their records. There are a lot of American bands as well: Television, Pavement, Sparklehorse, Dinosaur Jr… We love The Silver Jews, Sebadoh, The Folk Implosion, The Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev… I think you have to keep yourself up to date on everything that’s released, be curious, always try and find good records. Start Up: What do you dream of? Tom: Having one of our records produced by Dave Fridmann! (The Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev, Sparklehorse, Mogwai) To be able to work with him or Brian Eno would be fantastic…