The Comedy of Errors

• 15th Oct 2008

With the release of their second album 'It's Not Something But It Is Like Whatever' and new single 'Pump' the Errors return home to Glasgow. I caught up with drummer James Hamilton to see what was going on in the world of one the Uk's freshest bands.

Glasgow seems to be full of quaint, twee Belle & Sebastian inspired bands and you guys obviously don't fit into that category. Are there any bands in Scotland just now that you feel are bringing a fresh approach to the music scene?

I wouldn't say by any stretch of the imagination that Glasgow is 'full' of twee bands. Certainly there are a few, but Glasgow is a pretty big place and there's a broad spectrum of bands and artists, I'd reckon if anything there's more a tendency at the moment to veer towards a Shellac/Big Black influence in bands at the moment… In terms of people bringing a fresh approach to music, Remember Remember in particular strikes me as quite unique, I don't personally know of anyone else making loop-based music which balances on the fine line between contemporary tunefulness and avant garde composition so well. And I'm not just saying that because we're labelmates and Graeme is my pal and I play drums on his record…

So So Modern have cited you as an influence on their sound what do you think of them?

I really like So So Modern. They're an amazing live band, they just exude energy and fun, and they've got the tunes to back it up. If you read interviews with them they've got a really healthy and refreshing attitude to being a band which possibly even more than musical influence is something I think more bands could do with taking note of. I was gutted I missed them last time they played in Glasgow 'cos I was working, but Greg went along to see them and blagged me a couple of CD's from them, which was nice. We've played with them a couple of times, I think we compliment each other quite well on a bill.

You have a very distinctive style and it all seems to tie in and fit really well without looking contrived or manufactured. Who's responsible for your artwork?

Simon and Steev do all of our artwork design and layout. There's been a general template for our logo and artwork since before Hans Herman was even released, the only record that's really veered from it was the 'Salut! France' artwork. Our logo though has been pretty much consistently the same since 2004.

How did you come about the album title 'It's Not Something But It Is Like Whatever'?

It's just something someone said once. Even though we're an instrumental band we enjoy words and language, in particular when things are said in an interesting or grammatically incorrect way, and we tend to make note of these things when we hear them and remember them for song/record titles/ The last track on the album, “Alot of the things you don't isn't” is something Simon said by mistake during a conversation once. Just stupid stuff like that really sparks our brains. We're currently working on a new song called “I'll never do this before”.

Obviously being signed to Rock Action Records and working with John Cummings has been a perfect partnership. Are there any other labels or producers that you'd particularly like to work with?

To be honest there aren't any producers who spring to mind. We do most of it ourselves, along with Simons brother Steven. John's an amazing engineer and producer but obviously being in Mogwai full time he's really busy and won't always be available when we want to record stuff. We've just got our own studio though, and the plan is to keep self-recording and producing in the way we've always done. Label-wise Rock Action have always been great. I don't know how we'd work as a band if we were on a major label or a label which was always pressuring us with deadlines and insane tour schedules… At a push I'd say maybe XL or Mute. Or Sub Pop in the early 90's if that was possible.

A friend and I were watching the video for 'Pump' and I was saying “I wonder how they pitched to the band the idea of a dance routine!” whose idea was it and who directed it?

We always wanted some kind of dance routine involved in the video for Pump, although we didn't assume it would be us doing the dancing because we're probably the worst four dancers in Glasgow. But we'd mentioned to Danny and Rick at Squarelips, who've done our last few videos, that we wanted there to be some kind of dancing involved in the video and they came back with this kind of vague but interesting idea. When we shot it none of us really knew what was happening, the whole thing was done in one take which took an hour of slow-motion dancing on our part, following a choreogreaphed routine that Danny and Rick had come up with. We couldn't believe it when we saw the final video though, it was amazing. Those guys are really good at what they do.

How did your popularity in Finland come about can you say cunt any other languages than Finnish?

I don't know if we're particularly super-popular in Finland. I made a joke that we were “Big in Finland” in an interview and that wound up being the headline. Basically last year we played at the Q-Stock/Happitelta festival in Oulu in north Finland, we were second last on in the tent to Apparat, so it was a pretty amazing few days, and Finland, particularly the North, is a jaw-droppingly beautiful country. The fact we were there in the summer which meant it was practically 24 hour daylight didn't hurt either. Anyway we had a great time and the audience were really responsive and we made a lot of new friends. Jouni, who worked at the festival and had booked us, organised us a tour for May this year, four dates around the country which coincided with our album being released, and the gigs were fantastic, the album got good reviews… It was rad good times. The only reason I know how to say cunt in Finnish (“Vittu” if anyone's interested…) is that we were having a language swear-exchange with some of our friends there when we were all a bit drunk. Hearing a beautiful Finnish girl saying “Bolt ya fucking rocket” is quite something. Oh yeah, and when we were leaving a party in Finland this guy said “See you later ya Weedgie bastards”. We were like “whoooaah”, turns out the guy had studied at St Andrews University.

Of all the festivals and gigs you played this summer which one was the most stand out and why?

Probably Latitude. It was just everything a festival can and should be. We were treated absolutely amazingly by all the organisers, there was a great atmosphere, it was very well organised, the audience were awesome, the sound was great, the lights were great, we were headlining the BBC Introducing stage on the Friday night which was a really big deal for us… So yeah, basically Latitude. Amazing. Yourself?

What are you listening to just now that may perhaps be an influence on your next album, any plans for the next album?

That's always a tough question to answer, we have such a wide spectrum of differing music tastes in the band that kind of cross-over on the middle in a kind of Errors middle ground… but nothing which screams “I listen to this so our next album will sound like….”. We were actually talking about this in Dundee the other night, someone said that they really heard the influence of Phil Collins era Genesis in the drumming in Hans Herman, which I found really funny because I do like Phil Collins but I never really thought of of it as overtly influencing my playing. So I guess we're subconciously influenced by differing things, but we never sit and think “let's make this sound like so and so…”. As for the next album, we're writing new material at the moment, I think we're looking towards releasing another EP before a second album. Having our own studio should mean we get a lot more done as a band.

Are we getting a Christmas single?

I should never have mentioned that! I'd like to, yeah. A free download ideally; depends on whether Greg can play the guitar solo from “In Dolci Ubilo” …